1837 – US blacksmith John Deere creates the first steel plough in Grand Detour, Illinois.
1896 – Samuel Pierpont Langley flies his unpiloted Number 5 aircraft using a catapult launch from a boat on the Potomac River, USA. The aircraft travels almost 3/4 of a mile – ten times further than any previous heavier-than-air flying machine.
1915 – Red Sox Babe Ruth pitching debut & 1st HR, loses to Yanks 4-3 in 15 innings.
1937 – German airship Hindenburg explodes in flames at Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 35 of the 97 on board and 1 on the ground.
1940 – Pulitzer prize awarded to John Steinbeck for “The Grapes of Wrath”
1941 – At California’s March Field, Bob Hope performs his first USO show.
1957 – Last broadcast of “I Love Lucy” on CBS-TV.
1957 – Pulitzer prize awarded to John F. Kennedy (Profiles in Courage)
1960 – US President Eisenhower signs Civil Rights Act of 1960.
1967 – 93rd Kentucky Derby: Bobby Ussery on Proud Clarion wins in 2:00.6.
1974 – Smallest attendance at Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium (4,149)
1981 – US expels Libyan diplomats.
1982 – Seattle Mariner Gaylord Perry becomes 15th pitcher to win 300 games.
1987 – American televangelist Jim Bakker and Rich Dortch dismissed from Assemblies of God after revelations of an alleged rape of a church secretary.
1991 – Space Shuttle STS 39 (Discovery 12) lands.
1997 – Michael Jackson & Bee Gees inducted into Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
2002 – Entrepreneur Elon Musk founds SpaceX.
2004 – TV sitcom “Friends” airs season finale in 10th and final season in US (52.5 million viewers)
2013 – Wal-Mart becomes the largest company by revenue on the Fortune 500 list.
2019 – One million plant and animal species are now at risk of extinction according to a major new UN report.
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