1752: The Liberty Bell arrives in Philadelphia.
1804: Juno, one of the largest main belt asteroids, was discovered by German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding.1807: Former US Vice President Aaron Burr is acquitted of treason.
1836: Narcissa Whitman, one of the first white women to settle west of the Rocky Mountains, arrives at Walla Walla, Washington. She would wind up getting killed by natives in the Whitman Massacre of 1847.1859: A solar superstorm disrupts electrical telegraph service.
1864: Confederate General John Bell Hood evacuates Atlanta, Georgia after a four-month siege by General Sherman.
1875: A murder conviction effectively forces the violent Irish anti-owner coal miners, the "Molly Maguires", to disband.1875: Edgar Rice Burroughs is born.
1894: The Great Hinckley Fire in Hinckley, Minnesota kills more than 400 people.1897: The Boston subway opens, becoming the first underground rapid transit system in North America.
1902: A Trip to the Moon, considered one of the first science fiction films, is released in France.
1914: The last passenger pigeon, a female named Martha, dies in captivity in the Cincinnati Zoo.
1922: Yvonne De Carlo is born. She played Lily Munster on The Munsters.
1923: Rocky Marciano is born.
1929: Anne Ramsey is born. She played Momma in Throw Momma From the Train.1931: Boxcar Willie is born - allegedly! Saavy conspiracy theorists know that he's really a shape-shifting lizard bent on world domination.
1933: Conway Twitty is born. As far as anyone knows, he's 100% human.
1937: Ron O'Neal is born. He played the main character Youngblood Priest in Superfly.
1939: Lily Tomlin is born.1939: Nazi Germany attacks Poland, beginning World War II.
1939: George C. Marshall becomes Chief of Staff of the United States Army.
1942: C.J. Cherryh, science fiction author is born.
1969: A revolution in Libya brings Col. Muammar al-Gaddafi to power.
1972: In Reykjavík, Iceland, American Bobby Fischer beats Russian Boris Spassky and becomes the world chess champion.
1974: The SR-71 Blackbird sets (and holds) the record for flying from New York to London: 1 hour 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds.
1979: Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit Saturn when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000 km.1983: Korean Air Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet Union jet fighter when the commercial aircraft enters Soviet airspace. All 269 on board are killed, including US Congressmen Lawrence McDonald.
1985: A joint American-French expedition locates the wreck of the RMS Titanic.
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.
