1776 – Final draft of Declaration of Independence submitted to Continental Congress.
1870 – Congress creates federal holidays (New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day), applicable only to federal employees.
1902 – United States buys rights to build Panama canal from French for $40 million.
1919 – Treaty of Versailles, ending WWII and establishing the League of Nations, is signed in France.
1926 – Mercedes Benz forms when the world’s oldest automobile manufacturers, DMG and Benz & Cie, merge.
1935 – President Franklin Roosevelt orders a federal gold vault to be built at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
1939 – Pan Am opens southern transatlantic route air service known as the Dixie Clipper.
1951 – “Amos ‘n’ Andy” premieres on CBS TV.
1957 – Major League Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick overrules fan voting, due to ballot stuffing in Cincinnati, and names Stan Musial, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron to the All-Star team.
1965 – First United States ground combat forces in Vietnam authorized by President Lyndon Johnson.
1968 – Daniel Ellsberg indicted for leaking the “Pentagon Papers” to the New York Times.
1976 – First women admitted to Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
1987 – Boston outfielder Don Baylor sets Major League Baseball career hit-by-pitch mark at 244 when plunked by Rich Rhoden in Red Sox 6-2 win over the New York Yankees.
1993 – Carlton Fisk, 45, released by Chicago White Sox as all-time leader of most games caught and most home runs by a catcher.
1996 – Remake of “The Nutty Professor” starring Eddie Murphy opens in theaters.
2003 – “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”, directed by Gore Verbinski, starring Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, premieres at Disneyland.
2007 – NBA Draft: Ohio State center Greg Oden is the first pick by the Portland Trail Blazers.
2017 – “Spider-man: Homecoming,” directed by Jon Watts, starring Tom Holland, Michael Keaton and Robert Downey Jr., premieres in Los Angeles.
2020 – Global death toll from COVID-19 passes 500,000, doubling in less than two months, according to Johns Hopkins University.
2022 – In dramatic testimony to the January 6 Committee hearing, a senior White House aide testifies President Donald Trump wanted to march to the Capitol and was furious when he couldn’t.
2023 – New York Yankees pitcher Domingo German, 30, throws a perfect game in a 1-0 win over the Oakland A’s at Oakland Alameda County Coliseum. It is his first complete game in 7-year Major League Baseball career.
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