1859 – Otis Tufts patents the first passenger elevator in the United States.
1898 – Rudolf Diesel of Germany obtains patent #608,845 for his internal combustion engine, later known as the diesel engine.
1910 – Chicago resident Alva Fisher receives US patent for an electric washing machine.
1930 – 113 degrees F at Perryville, Tennessee (state record)
1941 – Winston Churchill reaches Newfoundland for talks with President Franklin Roosevelt.
1944 – Smokey Bear debuts as spokesman for fire prevention for US Forest Service (named after New York City fireman Smokey Joe Martin)
1945 – United States drops second atomic bomb, “Fat Man,” on Nagasaki, Japan, destroying part of the city.
1956 – 1st state-wide state-supported educational TV network in Alabama.
1966 – The Beatles release their “Yellow Submarine” single and its album “Revolver” in the United States.
1971 – Satchel Paige inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame.
1974 – Richard Nixon resigns as President of the United States and Vice President Gerald Ford swears the oath of office to take his place as the 38th President.
1975 – 1st NFL game in Louisiana Superdome. Houston beats New Orleans 13-7.
1981 – PGA Championship Men’s Golf, Atlanta Athletic Club; Larry Nelson wins by 4 strokes from Fuzzy Zoeller.
1992 – Revival of Tennessee Williams’ play “A Streetcar Named Desire,” starring Alec Baldwin & Jessica Lange, closes at Ethel Barrymore in New York City, after 137 performances.
2001 – President George W. Bush announced his support for federal funding of limited research on embryonic stem cells.
2012 – The death toll from the Philippines’ floods rise to 70.
2016 – American swimmer Michael Phelps swims 1:53.36 to win the men’s 200-meter butterfly gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics; beats Japan’s Masato Sakal by 0.04 for his 20th Olympic gold medal.
2017 – North Korea says it plans to fire rockets on US territory Guam in continuing escalation of tension between it and the United States.
2020 – PGA Championship Men’s Golf, TPC Harding Park: 23-year-old American Colin Morikawa fires final round 64 (-6) to win his first major title by 2 strokes from Paul Casey of England.
2022 – Tennis superstar Serena Williams announces her intention to retire in an interview with “Vogue”