1608, the city of Quebec was founded by French explorer Samuel de Champlain.
1775, General George Washington took command of the Continental Army.
1863, the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania ended after three days in a major victory for the North over Confederate troops under General Robert E. Lee.
1884, Dow Jones published its first average of U.S. stocks in the Customer’s Afternoon Letter, the forerunner of The Wall Street Journal.
1940, the comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello debuted with their network radio show on NBC.
1981 The movie The Cannonball Run, starring Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett, Dom DeLuise, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr., opens.
1985 The movie Back To The Future, starring Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, andCrispin Glover, opens.
1986, President Ronald Reagan re-lit the Statue of Liberty’s torch after a $66 million restoration of the statue was completed during the 100th anniversary year of its dedication.
1988, the U.S.S. Vincennes shot down an Iranian passenger jet over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people on board, when the crew of the Vincennes wrongly identified the plane as an Iranian F-14 fighter.
1989 Actor Jim Backus (It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Gilligan’s Island‘s “The Millionaire” Thurston Howell III; the voice of Mister Magoo) dies at age 76.
1991 The movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton,Edward Furlong, and Robert Patrick, opens.
1995 Courtney Love‘s request to spread the ashes of late husband Kurt Cobain is rejected by Seattle’s Lake View Cemetery, who say they’ve already got their hands full with people wanting to see Bruce andBrandon Lee‘s gravesites.
1996 The movie Independence Day, starring Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch,Robert Loggia, and Randy Quaid, opens.
2002 The movie Men In Black II, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith, opens.