Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1776

Members of the 1st Maryland Regiment repeatedly charged a numerically superior British force during the Battle of Long Island, allowing General Washington and the rest of the American troops to escape.

1813

French Emperor Napoleon I defeats a larger force of Austrians, Russians, and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden.

1859

Edwin L. Drake drilled the first successful U.S. oil well near Titusville, Pennsylvania leading to the world's first commercially successful oil well.

1892

Fire seriously damaged New York City's original Metropolitan Opera House at Broadway and 39th Street.

1918

Battle of Ambos Nogales: U.S. Army forces skirmish against Mexican Carrancistas in the only battle of World War I fought on American soil.

1928

The Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed in Paris, outlawing war and providing for the peaceful settlement of disputes.

1945

American troops began landing in Japan following the surrender of the Japanese government in World War II.

1955

The first edition of the Guinness Book of Records is published in Great Britain.

1962

The United States launched the Mariner 2 space probe, which flew past Venus the following December.

1963

An explosion at the Cane Creek potash mine near Moab, Utah kills 18 miners.

1967

Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, was found dead in his London flat from an overdose of sleeping pills.

1971

An attempted coup fails in the African nation of Chad. The Government of Chad accuses Egypt of playing a role in the attempt and breaks off diplomatic relations.

1979

The Troubles: Eighteen British soldiers are killed in an ambush by the Provisional Irish Republican Army near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland, in the deadliest attack on British forces during Operation Banner. An IRA bomb also kills British royal family member Lord Mountbatten and three others on his boat at Mullaghmore, Republic of Ireland.

1982

Turkish military diplomat Colonel Atilla Altıkat is shot and killed in Ottawa. Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide claim to be avenging the massacre of 11⁄2 million Armenians in the 1915 Armenian genocide.

1991

The European Community recognizes the independence of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

1991

Moldova declares independence from the USSR.

1997

Former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy was charged with seeking and accepting more than $35,000 dollars in trips, sports tickets and favors from companies that did business with his agency. He was acquitted of all charges in December 1998.

2011

Hurricane Irene strikes the United States east coast, killing 47 and causing an estimated $15.6 billion in damage.

1770

German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was born in Stuttgart.

1908

Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, was born near Stonewall, Texas.

1979

British war hero Lord Louis Mountbatten was killed off the coast of Ireland in a boat explosion; the Irish Republican Army claimed responsibility. Below, Prince Charles speaks at his great-uncle's funeral at Westminster Abbey. (b. 1900)

2016

Cookie, male pink cockatoo residing at Brookfield Zoo, near Chicago, Illinois. He was believed to be the oldest member of his species alive in captivity, at the age of 82 in June 2015 (b. 1933)