Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1807

Robert Fulton's ''North River Steam Boat'' (popularly known as the ''Clermont'') began heading up New York's Hudson River on its successful round trip to Albany.

1863

Federal batteries and ships bombarded Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C., harbor during the Civil War.

1896

A prospecting party discovered gold in Alaska, a finding that touched off the Klondike gold rush.

1943

The Allied conquest of Sicily was completed as U.S. and British forces entered Messina.

1945

Indonesian nationalists declared independence from the Netherlands.

1948

Former State Department official Alger Hiss faced his chief accuser, Whittaker Chambers, during a closed-door meeting in New York of the House Un-American Activities Committee, and repeated his denial that he'd ever been a Communist agent.

1962

East German border guards shot and mortally wounded 18-year-old Peter Fechter, who had attempted to cross over the Berlin Wall into the western sector.

1969

Hurricane Camille slammed into the Gulf Coast, killing 248 people.

1969

The Woodstock Music and Art Fair concluded near Bethel, N.Y.

1978

The first successful trans-Atlantic balloon flight ended as Maxie Anderson, Ben Abruzzo and Larry Newman landed their Double Eagle II outside Paris.

1992

Actor-director Woody Allen admitted being romantically involved with Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of Allen's longtime companion, actress Mia Farrow.

1998

President Clinton underwent grand jury questioning in the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

1998

Russia devalued the ruble.

2000

Al Gore accepted the Democratic nomination for president at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. Shortly before Gore spoke, his running mate, Joseph Lieberman, was nominated by acclamation.

2008

Michael Phelps wins 8 Gold Medals in 2008 Olympics

2010

Afghan archeologists discover the remains of a Buddhist site located south of Kabul

2011

In Kabul, a rocket is fired into the compound of Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan

2013

A wildfire near Yosemite National Park burns over 25 square miles, forcing residents of the Pine Lake community to evacuate

2014

Residents of the West Point shantytown in Monrovia, Nigeria loot an Ebola quarantine center, stealing items that include contaminated bedsheets; patients flee during the raid, raising the risk of spreading the virus among the 50,000 slum inhabitants

2014

Kurdish peshmerga fighters are able to recapture part of the Syria Mosul Dam after U.S. airstrikes push back Islamic State militants

2015

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service revealed hackers who stole taxpayer data in May accessed additional databases, adding 220,000 to the previous estimate of 114,000 taxpayers who have had their information compromised

1987

Rudolf Hess, the last member of Adolf Hitler's inner circle, died at a Berlin hospital near Spandau Prison at age 93, having apparently committed suicide by strangling himself with an electrical cord.

1988

Pakistani President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel were killed in a plane crash.