1861 – US President Abraham Lincoln prohibits Union states from trading with Confederacy.
1870 – Fred Goldsmith demonstrates curve ball isn’t an optical illusion.
1898 – Edwin Prescott patents roller coaster.
1904 – NYC begins building Grand Central Station.
1934 – US ends occupation of Haiti (been there since 1915)
1944 – US 15th Army corp reaches Eure, surrounds Dreux.
1947 – Ralph Kiner becomes 1st Pittsburgh Pirate to hit 3 consecutive HRs.
1956 – Adlai E. Stevenson nominated as US Democratic presidential candidate.
1960 – Joseph Kittinger parachutes from balloon at 84,700 ft.
1961 – Martin L. King protests for black voting rights in Miami.
1964 – St. Louis Card Curt Flood gets 8 straight hits in a doubleheader.
1984 – LA federal jury acquits auto maker John Z. DeLorean on cocaine changes.
1987 – Northwest Airlines 255 plane crashes in Detroit, 156 die (1 survives)
1988 – IBM introduces software for artificial intelligence.
1988 – NY Mayor Koch says he plans to wipe out street-corner windshield washers.
1991 – US President George H.W. Bush declares recession is near an end.
2003 – US Representative from South Dakota Bill Janklow hits and kills a motorcyclist with his car at a rural intersection near Trent, South Dakota; he will eventually be convicted of manslaughter and will resign from Congress.
2016 – Wildfire breaks out in San Bernardino County, California, engulfing 15,000 acres, prompting evacuation of 82,000 people.
2017 – Baltimore city council removes confederate statues under cover of darkness in response to Charlottesville violence.