1565 – Oldest city in the US, St Augustine Fla, established
1609 – Henry Hudson, discovers & explores Delaware Bay
1749 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Frankfurt, social philosopher (Faust), (d. 1832)Born
1774 – Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, 1st American Catholic saint (1975), (d. 1821)Born
1767 – Johann Schobert, composer, dies
1798 – James Wilson, Scot/US judge/signer (Decl of Ind), dies at 55
1833 – The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 receives Royal Assent, abolishing slavery through most the British Empire.
1859 – A geomagnetic storm causes the Aurora Borealis to shine so brightly that it is seen clearly over parts of USA, Europe, and even as far away as Japan.
1861 – American Civil War: Union forces attack Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in the Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries which lasts for two days.
1862 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Bull Run, also known as the Battle of Second Manassas.
1867 – The United States takes possession of the (at this point unoccupied) Midway Atoll.
1898 – Caleb Bradham invents the carbonated soft drink that will later be called “Pepsi-Cola”.
1916 – World War I: Germany declares war on Romania.
1916 – World War I: Italy declares war on Germany.
1917 – Ten Suffragettes are arrested while picketing the White House.
1917 – Jack Kirby, cartoonist (X-Men, Spiderman, Hulk, Capt America)Was born
1942 – Sterling Morrison, American singer and guitarist (The Velvet Underground) (d. 1995) was born.
1943 – World War II: in Denmark, a general strike against the Nazi occupation starts.
1943 – David Soul, [Solberg] Chicago, actor (Starsky & Hutch)Born
1943 – (sweet)Lou Pinella, Yankee manager (1969 AL rookie of the year) born
1944 – Melvin Dummar, American claimant to the Howard Hughes estate Born
1951 – Dave Hlubek, rock guitarist (Molly Hatchet)Born
1955 – Black teenager Emmett Till is brutally murdered in Mississippi, galvanizing the nascent American Civil Rights Movement.
1957 – U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond begins a filibuster to prevent the Senate from voting on Civil Rights Act of 1957; he stopped speaking 24 hours and 18 minutes later, the longest filibuster ever conducted by a single Senator.
1960 – Kurt Bloch – best known as songwriter and lead guitarist of Fastbacks. He has also been a member of The Young Fresh Fellows and has recorded tracks and produced albums for The Presidents of the United States of America, Tokyo Dragons, Robyn Hitchcock, Les Thugs, Flop, Sicko (band), The Minus 5, The Venus 3, and more recently the Tall Birds. His current band as of 2010 is called Thee Sgt. Major III with ex-Posies drummer Mike Musburger, Young Fresh Fellows bassist Jim Sangster, and Cantona singer and guitarist Leslie Beattie. Ex-Visqueen Bill Coury previously shared lead vocal duties, but has since left the band. Bloch is also a current member of the Seattle-based prog-rock band The Beltholes.
Nashville Pussy’s song “Fried Chicken and Coffee”, produced by Bloch, was nominated for the 1999 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.
1963 – March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his I Have a Dream speech
1963 – Emily Hoffert and Janice Wylie are murdered in their Manhattan apartment, prompting the events that would lead to the passing of the Miranda Rights.
1963 – The Evergreen Point Bridge, the longest floating bridge in the world, opens between Seattle and Medina, Washington, US.
1964 – The Philadelphia race riot begins.
1965 – Bob Dylan booed for playing electric guitar at a concert in New York’s Forest Hills
1965 – James Jagger, son of Mick Jagger & Jerry Hall – Born
1968 – Police & anti-war demonstrators clash at Chicago’s Democratic National Convention
1969 – Jack Black, American actor, singer, guitarist, and producer (Tenacious D) was born.
1981 – John Hinckley Jr pleads innocent in attempt to kill President Reagan
1981 – National Centers for Disease Control announces high incidence of Pneumocystis & Kaposi’s sarcoma in gay men
1985 – Ruth Gordon, actress (Big Bus), dies of a stroke in her sleep at 88
1987 – John Huston, US/Irish actor/director (Maltese Falcon), dies at 81
1988 – 70 killed in crash of three Italian air force fighters at air show at Ramstein, Germany
1990 – Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province.
1991 – Collapse of the Soviet Union – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.
1996 – Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales divorce.
2003 – An electricity blackout cuts off power to around 500,000 people living in south east England and brings 60% of London’s underground rail network to a halt.
2005 – Hurricane Katrina hammers the south eastern United States, especially New Orleans, Louisiana, and coastal Mississippi
2007 – Hilly Kristal, American Founder of CBGB/Punk rock legend (b. 1932)
2013 – China and Russia walk out of a UN Security Council meeting after the US pushes for immediate action against Syria’s (ALLEGED) use of chemical weapons