1776 Thomas Jefferson‘s draft of the Declaration Of Independence is presented to Congress for consideration.
1778 The Continental Army, under the command of General George Washington, defeats the British at Monmouth, New Jersey.
1838, Britain’s Queen Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey.
1914, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian-Hungarian empire, and his wife, Sofia, were assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serb nationalist. The event triggered World War One.
1917 The Raggedy Ann doll is invented.
1919, the Treaty of Versailles, with its punitive terms against Germany, was signed in France, officially ending World War One.
1946 Actress-comedian Gilda Radner is born. She dies in 1989.
1948, actress Jane Wyman divorced future U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
1951, a TV version of the radio program Amos ‘N’ Andy began a two-year run on CBS. Although criticized for racial stereotyping, this network TV series featured an all-black cast. Two years later, a protest by the NAACP forced CBS to drop the show.
1971, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled public funds could not be used for parochial schools.
1971, the Supreme Court, by a vote of 8-0, overturned the draft evasion conviction of Muhammad Ali, four years after he was convicted and stripped of his title.
1975 The TV show Kung Fu airs its last new episode.
1975 Twilight Zone host Rod Serling dies at age 50.
1976, the U.S. Air Force Academy went co-ed, admitting its first woman.
1978 The Supreme Court orders the medical school at the University Of California At Davis to admit Allan Bakke, a white man who argued his admission had been rejected due to reverse discrimination.
1990 Jurors in the drug and perjury trial of Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry watch a videotape of Barry smoking crack cocaine during an FBI hotel-room sting operation.
1996, the Citadel voted to admit women, ending a 153-year-old policy at the South Carolina military school.
1996 The movie The Nutty Professor, starring Eddie Murphy, Jada Pinkett, James Coburn, Larry Miller, and Dave Chappelle, opens.
1997, In a wild rematch, Evander Holyfield retained the WBA heavyweight boxing championship after his opponent, Mike Tyson, was disqualified for biting Holyfield’s ear during the third round of their fight in Las Vegas.
2000, seven months after he was rescued at sea, Elian Gonzalez returned to his native Cuba with his father.
2000, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts can ban gays from their organization.