On This Day
Things Happen:
- 1538 – Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.
- 1777 – Revolutionary War: Battle of Oriskany.
- 1890 – At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed by electric chair.
- 1909 – Alice Ramsey and three friends become the first women to complete a transcontinental auto trip.
- 1923 – Henry Sullivan swims the English Channel.
- 1926 – Gertrude Ederle becomes first woman to swim across the English Channel.
- 1945 – World War II: Hiroshima is devastated when an atomic bomb, “Little Boy”, is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 90,000 people were killed instantly.
- 1960 – Cuban Revolution: In response to a United States embargo, Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
- 1965 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into United States law.
- 1991 – Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web.
- 2001 – White House briefing entitled Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S. delivered to George W. Bush. This document foreshadowed the September 11, 2001 attacks.
People Are Born:
- 1809 – Alfred Lord Tennyson, English poet (d. 1892)
- 1861 – Edith Roosevelt, American First Lady of the United States (d. 1948)
- 1881 – Leo Carrillo, American actor (d. 1961)
- 1881 – Alexander Fleming, Scottish scientist, Nobel laureate (d. 1955)
- 1881 – Louella Parsons, American gossip columnist (d. 1972)
- 1891 – William Slim, British general (d. 1970)
- 1892 – Hoot Gibson, American actor (d. 1962)
- 1902 – Dutch Schultz, American bootlegger (d. 1935)
- 1908 – Will Lee, American actor (d. 1982)
- 1911 – Lucille Ball, American actress (d. 1989)
- 1917 – Robert Mitchum, American actor (d. 1997)
- 1928 – Andy Warhol, American artist (d. 1987)
- 1934 – Piers Anthony, English writer
- 1943 – Jon Postel, American computer scientist (d. 1998)
In Later Years Others Are Born:
