1774: The First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.1793: During the French Revolution, the French National Convention initiates the Reign of Terror.
1800: Malta is conquered by Great Britain.
1836: Sam Houston is elected as the second president of the Republic of Texas.
1839: The First Opium War begins in China.1877: Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse is bayoneted by a United States soldier after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson in Nebraska. If I had the money, I would have that big statue of him finished.
1882: The first United States Labor Day parade is held in New York City.1902: Darryl F. Zanuck is born. He is one of the co-founders of 20th Century Fox.
1905: In New Hampshire the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by US President Theodore Roosevelt, ends the Russo-Japanese War.
1906: The first legal forward pass in American football is thrown by Bradbury Robinson of St. Louis University to teammate Jack Schneider in a 22-0 victory over Carroll College (Wisconsin).
1912: Frank Thomas is born. He was one of Disney's "Nine Old Men" of animation. Chuck Jones called him "the Laurence Olivier of animation."
1914: During World War I, the First Battle of the Marne begins. Northeast of Paris, the French attack and defeat German forces who are advancing on the capital.
1929: Bob Newhart is born.
1939: The United States declares its neutrality in World War II.
1940: Racquel Welch is born.
1942: Japanese high command orders withdrawal at Milne Bay, the first Japanese defeat in the Pacific War.1945: Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a Japanese-American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist Tokyo Rose, is arrested in Yokohama.
1946: Freddie Mercury is born.
1946: Loudon Wainwright III is born.
1950: Cathy Guisewite, creator of the Cathy comic strip is born. Ack!
1951: Michael Keaton is born.
1969: U.S. Army Lt. William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai Massacre.1972: A Palestinian terrorist group called "Black September" murders 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games.
1973: Rose McGowan is born.
1975: A follower of incarcerated cult leader Charles Manson, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme attempts to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford in Sacramento, CA.1980: The St. Gotthard Tunnel opens in Switzerland as the world's longest highway tunnel at 10.14 miles stretching from Goschenen to Airolo.
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.
