1897 – Portable pencil sharpener patented by American inventor John Lee Love.
1904 – III Summer (Modern) Olympic Games close in St Louis.
1909 – Wright Brothers form million dollar corporation to manufacture airplanes.
1921 – US President Warren G. Harding signs Willis Campell Act (anti-beer bill) forbidding doctors prescribing beer or liquor for medicinal purposes.
1936 – 1st issue of Life picture magazine created by Henry R. Luce published.
1942 – US Coast Guard Woman’s Auxiliary (SPARS) authorized.
1945 – Most US wartime rationing of foods, including meat & butter, ends.
1954 – For the first time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the peak it reached just before the 1929 crash.
1960 – Tiros 2, a weather satellite is launched!
1971 – China People’s Republic seated in UN Security Council.
1977 – European weather satellite Meteosat 1 launched from Cape Canaveral.
1982 – FCC drops limits on duration & frequency of TV ads.
1988 – Wayne Gretzky scores his 600th NHL goal.
1992 – 10,000,000 cellular telephones sold.
2001 – 53rd NASCAR Sprint Cup: Jeff Gordon wins.
2008 – Economists at the University of Hawaii report that the state entered recession in the previous quarter based on the drop in tourist figures and growing unemployment, with 8,800 jobs expected to be cut in 2009.
2014 – 42nd American Music Awards: One Direction, Sam Smith and Katy Perry win.
2018 – Phil Mickelson claims $9m winner-takes-all prize in dramatic match play golf duel with Tiger Woods, finishing under floodlights in Las Vegas; match goes to 22nd hole before Mickeleson sinks 4-foot putt for rich victory.
2020 – AstraZeneca is the third drugmaker to report an effective vaccine for COVID-19 (62% or 90% effective depending on how it is given) and easy to make and distribute.
2021 – Manuscript of early workings of Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity “one of the most important scientific documents of the 20th century” sells at auction for $13 million.
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