Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1765

The Stamp Act Congress convened in New York to draw up colonial grievances against England.

1777

The second Battle of Saratoga began during the American Revolution.

1868

Cornell University was inaugurated in Ithaca, N.Y.

1949

The Republic of East Germany was formed.

1954

Marian Anderson became the first black singer hired by the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

1963

President Kennedy signed the documents of ratification for a nuclear test ban treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union.

1968

The Motion Picture Association of America adopted its film-rating system.

1981

Egypt's parliament named Vice President Hosni Mubarak to succeed the assassinated Anwar Sadat.

1982

The Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical ''Cats'' opened in New York, beginning its record run of 7,485 performances.

1985

Palestinian gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean with more than 400 people aboard.

1989

Hungary's Communist Party renounced Marxism in favor of democratic socialism during a party congress in Budapest.

1998

Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, was beaten, robbed and left tied to a wooden fence post outside of Laramie; he died five days later.

1999

American Home Products Corp. resolved one of the biggest product liability cases ever by agreeing to pay up to $4.83 billion to settle claims that the fen-phen diet drug combination caused dangerous heart valve problems.

2000

Vojislav Kostunica took the oath of office as Yugoslavia's first popularly elected president, closing the turbulent era of Slobodan Milosevic.

2023

Hamas and several other Palestinian militant groups launch an attack into Israel, which results in the deaths of around 1,200, mostly civilians, and taking more than 240 hostages, including civilians and soldiers.

1849

Author Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore at age 40.

2024

Jack Ponti, producer and songwriter who worked with Bon Jovi, Alice Cooper and other performers. Ponti began his music career playing guitar in a band called the Rest in the 1970s. The lead singer was a then-unknown Jon Bon Jovi. (b. 1958)

2024

Cissy Houston, American soul and gospel singer. Houston was a founding member of the R&B group The Sweet Inspirations, and sang backup for artists such as Roy Hamilton, Dionne Warwick, Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin among others. (b. 1933)