1807 – Robert Fulton’s steamboat Clermont begins first trip up Hudson River.
1891 – Electric self-starter for automobile patented.
1903 – Joe Pulitzer donates $1 million to Columbia University & begins the Pulitzer Prizes in America.
1915 – Hurricane strikes Galveston, Texas killing 275.
1933 – MLB player Lou Gehrig plays record 1,308th consecutive game.
1936 – An unemployed worker, Neils B. Ruud, in Madison, Wisconsin receives the first unemployment benefit check paid under a State law, for $15.
1943 – US 8th Air Force loses 60 B-17s during attack on Schweinfurt and Regensburg.
1952 – “Fallout” 1st used (NY Times)
1955 – Hurricane Diane, following Hurricane Connie, floods Connecticut River killing 190 & doing $1.8 billion damage.
1960 – Francis Gary Powers U-2 spy trial opens in Moscow.
1966 – Willie Mays takes 2nd place on all-time HR list.
1969 – Hurricane Camille strikes US coastline and kills 259 people (mainly in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana)
1978 – 1st successful crossing of the Atlantic by balloon (3 Americans)
1984 – Pete Rose returns to Cincinnati Reds as player-manager (gets 2 hits)
1992 – Hurricane Andrew forms southeast of Barbados in the Caribbean.
1997 – PGA Championship Men’s Golf, Winged Foot GC: Davis Love III wins his only major title by 5 strokes from Justin Leonard.
1998 – Monica Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony he had an “improper physical relationship” with the intern and on the same day admits before the nation he “mislead people” about the relationship.
2008 – US team Michael Phelps, Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen & Jason Lezak wins 4 x 100m medley relay at the Beijing Olympics in world record 3:29.34; Phelps’ 8th gold medal of Games breaks Mark Spitz’s 1972 record (7)
2020 – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is the 1st US college to send students home and convert to online classes after 135 COVID-19 cases detected.
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