1814 – “Star Spangled Banner” published as a song, lyrics by Francis Scott Key, tune by John Stafford Smith.
1904 – Orville & Wilbur Wright fly a circle in their Flyer II.
1924 – PGA Championship Men’s Golf, French Lick CC: 1921 champion Walter Hagen beats Englishman Jim Barnes 2-up in the final.
1931 – MLB’s Lou Gehrig’s 4 RBIs break his old RBI mark of 175 en route to 184.
1939 – Joe Louis KOs Bob Pastor in 11 for heavyweight boxing title.
1946 – Churchill argues for a ‘United States of Europe’
1953 – Cubs Ernie Banks hits his 1st major league HR.
1955 – Willis Mays is 7th player to reach 50 HRs in a season.
1961 – African-American student James Meredith is refused enrollment to the segregated University of Mississippi.
1963 – JFK proposes a joint US-Soviet voyage to the moon.
1969 – Ryder Cup Golf, Royal Birkdale GC: US, Great Britain tie, 16-16; great sporting gesture, America’s Jack Nicklaus concedes missable 3-foot putt to Tony Jacklin at the 18th hole for the draw.
1973 – Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in battle-of-sexes tennis match.
1979 – Lee Iacocca is elected President of the Chrysler Corporation.
1984 – “Cosby Show” premieres on NBC-TV.
1989 – USAir overshoots runway at LaGuardia Airport in NYC, 2 people die.
1994 – Space shuttle STS-64 (Discovery 20), lands.
2001 – In an address to a joint session of Congress and the American people, US President George W. Bush declares a “war on terror”
2011 – The United States ends its “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly for the first time.
2013 – Alex Rodriquez sets new MLB record with 24 Grand Slam home runs for the New York Yankees.
2017 – US Federal Reserve says it will start to unwind its bond portfolio employed in wake of the financial crisis.
2019 – Batman Day – 80th anniversary of the first Batman comic.