1825, Walter Hunt invents the safety pin.
1948, a dying Babe Ruth made his last appearance at Yankee Stadium, on the 25th anniversary of opening of “The House That Ruth Built,” to see his uniform number 3 retired and to acknowledge his fans. Ruth died just over two months later, on August 16th, and his body lay in state at Yankee Stadium.
1966, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark “Miranda v. Arizona” decision, ruling that criminal suspects have to be informed of their constitutional “Miranda” rights prior to questioning by police. That’s why suspects are told: “You have the right to remain silent,” etc.
1967, The James Bond film You Only Live Twice, starring Sean Connery, opens.
1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
1971, the New York Times began publishing “The Pentagon Papers,” a secret study of America’s involvement in Vietnam.
1977, James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was recaptured following his escape three days earlier from a Tennessee prison.
1980 The movie Roadie, starring Meat Loaf and featuring Debbie Harry, Pat Benatar, Cheap Trick,Alice Cooper, Styx, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and others, opens.
1986, The movie Back To School, starring Rodney Dangerfield, opens.
1992, Police in Texas call for a ban of the song “Cop Killer” by Body Count.
1994, a jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blamed recklessness by Exxon Corp. and Captain Joseph Hazelwoodfor the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the nation’s worst oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages.
1997, Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh was sentenced to death for the Oklahoma City bombing, in which 168 people were killed. McVeigh was executed on June 11th, 2001.
1997, just days after celebrating their NHL Stanley Cup championship, Detroit Red Wings star defensemenVladimir Konstantinov and Viacheslav Fetisov were severely injured after the limo they were in hit a tree outside Detroit.
2000, Italy pardoned Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who’d tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981.
2005, Michael Jackson was found not guilty on all 10 counts in his California child molestation trial.