Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1509

England's King Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon.

1770

Capt. James Cook, commander of the British ship Endeavour, discovered the Great Barrier Reef off Australia by running onto it.

1776

The Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence from Britain.

1919

Sir Barton won the Belmont Stakes, becoming horse racing's first Triple Crown winner.

1927

Aviator Charles Lindbergh received the Distinguished Flying Cross from President Calvin Coolidge for making the first ever solo, nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

1942

The United States and the Soviet Union signed a lend lease agreement to aid the Soviet war effort in World War II.

1962

3 inmates escaped from the maximum-security prison Alcatraz in the only recorded successful escape in Alcatraz’s history. The inmates were never seen or heard from again and it is unclear whether they drowned in the water surrounding Alcatraz Island.

1963

After defying a federal court order to allow two blacks to enroll at the University of Alabama, Gov. George Wallace relented following a confrontation with federal troops.

1963

Buddhist monk Quang Duc immolated himself on a Saigon street to protest the government of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.

1977

Seattle Slew won the Belmont Stakes, capturing the Triple Crown.

1982

The iconic Steven Spielberg film E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial was released in theaters and would go on to become the highest-grossing film up until that time.

1986

A divided Supreme Court struck down a Pennsylvania abortion law, while reaffirming its 1973 decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion.

1987

Margaret Thatcher became the first British prime minister in 160 years to win a third consecutive term of office.

1990

The Supreme Court struck down a federal law prohibiting desecration of the American flag.

1992

The Supreme Court ruled that people who commit ''hate crimes'' motivated by bigotry may be sentenced to extra punishment.

1996

Closing a congressional career that had lasted 3 1/2 decades, Bob Dole said goodbye to the Senate to begin in earnest his campaign for the presidency

2009

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the H1N1 Swine Flu to be a global pandemic.

1979

Actor John Wayne died at age 72.

1985

Karen Ann Quinlan, the comatose patient whose case prompted a historic right-to-die court decision, died in Morris Plains, N.J., at age 31.

1999

Actor DeForest Kelley of ''Star Trek'' fame died in Woodland Hills, Calif., at age 79.