Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1777

British troops occupied Philadelphia during the American Revolution.

1789

Thomas Jefferson was appointed America's first Secretary of State; John Jay the first chief justice of the United States; Samuel Osgood the first Postmaster-General; and Edmund Jennings Randolph the first Attorney General.

1914

The Federal Trade Commission was established.

1950

United Nations troops recaptured the South Korean capital of Seoul from the North Koreans.

1957

The musical ''West Side Story'' opened on Broadway.

1960

The first televised debate between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy took place in Chicago.

1980

The Cuban government abruptly closed Mariel Harbor, ending the freedom flotilla of Cuban refugees that began the previous April.

1981

The twin-engine Boeing 767 made its maiden flight in Everett, Wash.

1986

William H. Rehnquist was sworn in as the 16th chief justice of the United States, while Antonin Scalia joined the Supreme Court as its 103rd member.

1990

The Motion Picture Association of America announced it had created a new rating, NC-17, designed to bar moviegoers under age 17 from certain films without the commercial stigma of the old X rating.

1991

Four men and four women began a two-year stay inside a sealed-off structure known as Biosphere 2 in Oracle, Ariz.

1995

The prosecution began its closing argument in the murder trial of O.J. Simpson.

1996

Richard Allen Davis, the killer of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, was sentenced to death in San Jose, Calif.

2000

Slobodan Milosevic conceded that his challenger, Vojislav Kostunica, had finished first in Yugoslavia's presidential election and declared a runoff- a move that prompted mass protests leading to Milosevic's ouster.

1898

Composer George Gershwin was born in Brooklyn, New York.

1998

Grammy-winning jazz singer Betty Carter died in New York at age 69.