1683: Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is founded by 13 immigrant families.1789: The United States Department of State is established (formerly known as Department of Foreign Affairs).
1789: James Fenimore Cooper is born.
1812: The French army under Napoleon reaches the Kremlin in Moscow.1821: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica jointly declare independence from Spain.
1831: The HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the Galápagos Islands.
1862: Confederate forces capture Harpers Ferry, Virginia.1881: Ettmor Bugatti, Italian sports car designer is born.
1903: Roy Acuff is born.1907: Fay Wray is born.
1916: During WWI, Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme.
1890: Agatha Christie is born.
1918: Nipsey Russell is born. Here he is on the short-lived 70's game show Rhyme and Reason.1935: Nuremberg Laws deprive German Jews of citizenship.
1935: Nazi Germany adopts a new national flag with the swastika.
1940: The Battle of Britain comes to a climax as the RAF shoots down large numbers of German bombers.
1942: The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Wasp is torpedoed at Guadalcanal.
1946: Tommy Lee Jones is born.1946: Oliver Stone is born.
1947: The U.S. Air Force is separated from the US Army to become a separate branch.1948: The F-86 Sabre sets the world aircraft speed record at 671 mph.
1950: During the Korean War, United States forces land at Incheon, Korea.1958: Wendie Jo Sperber is born.
1959: Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet leader to visit the United States.1962: The Soviet ship Poltava heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis.
1963: Four black girls are killed when a bomb goes off during Sunday services at a Baptist church in Birmingham, AL.
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.
