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Events

1777 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Bennington - British forces are defeated by American troops.

1780 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden - The British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina.

1812 - War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army.

1819 - Eleven people die and 400 are injured by cavalry charges at the Peterloo Massacre at a public meeting at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England.

1841 - U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history.

1858 - U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal will force a shutdown of the service in a few weeks.

1868 - Arica, Peru (now Chile) is devastated by a tsunami which followed a magnitude 8.5 earthquake in the Peru-Chile Trench off the coast. The earthquake and tsunami killed an estimated 25,000 people in Arica and perhaps 70,000 people in all.

1869 - Battle of Acosta ÿu, a massacre of a Paraguay batallion made up of children by the Brazilian Army during the War of the Triple Alliance

1896 - Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.

1913 - T?hoku Imperial University (modern day T?hoku University) admits its first female students.

1915 - World War I: Should victory be achieved over the Central Powers, the Triple Entente promises the Kingdom of Serbia: the Austro-Hungarian territories of Baranja, Srem, Slavonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina; and the eastern 2/3 of Dalmatia (from the river of Krka to the city of Bar).

1920 - Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit in the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, and dies early the next day. To date, Chapman is the only player to die from injuries sustained in a Major League Baseball game.

1928 - Murderer Carl Panzram is arrested in Washington, DC after killing 20 people.

 
 

1930 - The first color sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, is made by Ub Iwerks

1942 - World War II: - The two-person crew of the U.S. naval blimp L-8 disappear without a trace on a routine anti-submarine patrol over the Pacific Ocean. The blimp drifts without her crew and crashlands in Daly City, California.

1946 - The Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, is established, and Ichir? Ishikawa is appointed its representative.

1960 - Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

1960 - Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,330 m), setting three records that still stand today: high-altitude jump, free-fall, and fastest speed by a human without an aircraft.

1964 - Vietnam War: A coup d'état replaces Duong Van Minh with General Nguyen Khanh as President of South Vietnam. A new constitution is established with aid from the U.S. Embassy.

1966 - Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong. The committee intends to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 people are arrested.

1969 - Police raid on Spahn Ranch, Charles Manson arrested.

1972 - The Royal Moroccan Air Force mistakenly fires upon, but fails to bring down, Hassan II of Morocco's plane while he is traveling back to Rabat.

1975 - Serial Killer Ted Bundy originally arrested for suspicion of burglary, only to later escape twice.

1984 - Carmaker John De Lorean is acquitted of all eight counts of possessing and distributing cocaine.

1987 - A McDonnell Douglas MD-82 carrying Northwest Airlines flight 255 crashes on takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport killing 155 people onboard, with the sole survivor four-year old Cecelia Cichan).

2003 - U.S. Representative from South Dakota Bill Janklow hits and kills a motorcyclist with his car at a rural intersection near Trent, South Dakota; he will eventually be convicted of manslaughter and will resign from Congress.

 
 

2005 - West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 crashes near Machiques, Venezuela, killing the 160 aboard.

 

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