1752: The United Kingdom adopts the Gregorian Calendar, nearly two centuries later than most of Western Europe. The Gregorian Calendar was invented by Pope Greg (or something like that) and Britain resisted it furiously for being a Papist plot.
1789: The United States Department of the Treasury is founded.
1792: During what became known as the September Massacres of the French Revolution, rampaging mobs slaughter three Roman Catholic Church bishops, more than two hundred priests, and prisoners believed to be royalist sympathizers.
1807: The Royal Navy bombards Copenhagen with fire bombs and phosphorus rockets to prevent Denmark from surrendering its fleet to Napoleon.
1838: Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii is born.
1863: President Abraham Lincoln reluctantly restores Union General George B. McClellan to full command after General John Pope's disastrous defeat at the Battle of Second Bull Run.1885: In Rock Springs, Wyoming, 150 white miners, who were struggling to unionize so they could strike for better wages and work conditions, attack their Chinese fellow workers, killing 28, wounding 15, and forcing several hundred more out of town.
1901: Vice President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt utters the famous phrase, "Speak softly and carry a big stick" at the Minnesota State Fair.
1925: The zeppelin the USS Shenandoah crashes, killing 14.
1939: Following the invasion of Poland, Freie Stadt Danzig Danzig (now Gdan'sk, Poland) is annexed to Nazi Germany.1944: Navy pilot George H.W. Bush is shot down by Japanese forces as he completes a bombing run over the Bonin Islands.
1945: Combat in World War II ends in the Pacific Theater: The final official surrender of Japan is accepted aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
1963: CBS Evening News becomes U.S. network television's first half-hour weeknight news broadcast, when the show is lengthened from 15 to 30 minutes.1963: Alabama Governor George C. Wallace prevents the integration of Tuskegee High School by encircling the building with state troopers
1964: Keanu Reeves is born.
1966: Selma Hayek is born.
1967: The Principality of Sealand is established, ruled by Prince Paddy Roy Bates. This is one of the most famous (and bizarre) micronations on Earth.
1969: The first automatic teller machine in the United States is installed in Rockville Center, New York.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.
