1644: During the English Civil War, the Battle of Marston Moor takes place with the Royalists being defeated by the Parliamentarians.1698: Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine.
1679: Europeans visit Minnesota and see the headwaters of the Mississippi River.
1776: The Continental Congress adopts a resolution severing ties with Great Britain - the formal wording of the Declaration of Independence wouldn't be approved for another two days.
1777: Vermont becomes the first American territory to abolish slavery.
1839: Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves take over the slave ship Amistad.
1850: Benjamin Lane patents the self-contained gas mask.1853: The Russian Army invades Turkey, kicking off the Crimean War.
1863: The second day of the Battle of Gettysburg.
1890: The US Congress passes the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
1900: The first zeppelin flight takes place in Germany.
1926: The US Army Air Corps is created.1927: Brock Peters is born. He played Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird and Fleet Admiral Cartwright in the Star Trek movies.
1932: Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's, is born.
1937: Polly Holliday is born. She played the sassy waitress Flo on Alice. As a kid, I not only didn't know what grits were, I didn't know what Flo really meant when she exhorted someone to kiss them.1937: Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight. As evidenced by an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, they were spirited away to the other side of the galaxy by aliens.
1939: Paul Williams, of The Temptations, is born.1941: In Lutsk, Ukraine, 2000 Jews are summoned to work by the occupying Nazis and then systematically murdered.
1946: Ron Silver is born. He played the wicked time-hopping Senator in Timecop, but I won't hold that against him.
1947: Larry David, producer of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm is born. He was allegedly the inspiration for George Costanza.
1947: An object speculated to be a UFO crashes near Roswell, New Mexico. The Air Force asserts that it was a weather balloon or perhaps a dry cleaning bag full of marsh gas.1948: One of my favorite character actors, Saul Rubinek is born. He played the grasping collector Kivas Fajo who wants to add Data to his collection in the Star Trek: TNG episode "The Most Toys" and the insane, cocaine-addicted movie producer Lee Donowitz in True Romance. For a character actor whose main character is "scumbag" he is apparently a very nice guy. Just don't get in the way of that Varon-T Disruptor - they sting!
1949: Roy Bittan, keyboardist for the E Street Band is born.
1956: Jerry Hall, actor, model and Mick Jagger arm candy is born.
1961: Ernest Hemingway commits suicide in Ketchum, ID.
1962: The first Wal-Mart store opens in Rogers, Arkansas.1964: President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law.
1976: North and South Vietnam unite to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
1976: The Supreme Court rules that the death penalty is neither cruel nor unusual,
1979: The Susan B. Anthony dollar is introduced.
1986: Lindsay Lohan is born.1994: Ten days after accidentally scoring a goal against his own team in the World Cup, Columbian soccer player Andres Escobar is gunned down.
Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.
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