0362: Emperor Julian issued an edict banning Christians from teaching in Syria.
1579: Sir Francis Drake claimed San Francisco Bay for England.
1775: The British took Bunker Hill outside of Boston.
1789: The Third Estate in France declared itself a national assembly, and began to frame a constitution.
1799: Napoleon Bonaparte incorporated Italy into his empire.
1837: Charles Goodyear received his first patent. The patent was for a process that made rubber easier to work with.
1848: Austrian General Alfred Windischgratz crushed a Czech uprising in Prague.
1854: The Red Turban revolt broke out in Guangdong, China.
1856: The Republican Party opened its first national convention in Philadelphia.
1861: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln witnessed Dr. Thaddeus Lowe demonstrate the use of a hydrogen balloon.
1872: George M. Hoover began selling whiskey in Dodge City, Kansas. The town had been dry up until this point.
1876: General George Crook’s command was attacked and bested on the Rosebud River by 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne under the leadership of Crazy Horse.
1879: Thomas Edison received an honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the trustees of Rutgers College in New Brunswick, NJ.
1885: The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City aboard the French ship Isere.
1912: The German Zeppelin SZ 111 burned in its hanger in Friedrichshafen.
1913: U.S. Marines set sail from San Diego to protect American interests in Mexico.
1917: The Russian Duma met in a secret session in Petrograd and voted for an immediate Russian offensive against the German Army.
1924: The Fascist militia marched into Rome.
1926: Spain threatened to quit the League of Nations if Germany was allowed to join.
1928: Amelia Earhart began the flight that made her the first woman to successfully fly across the Atlantic Ocean.
1930: The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill became law. It placed the highest tariff on imports to the U.S.
1931: British authorities in China arrested Indochinese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh.
1932: The U.S. Senate defeated the bonus bill as 10,000 veterans massed around the Capitol.
1940: The Soviet Union occupied Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
1940: France asked Germany for terms of surrender in World War II.
1941: WNBT-TV in New York City, NY, was granted the first construction permit to operate a commercial TV station in the U.S.
1942: Yank, a weekly magazine for the U.S. armed services, began publication. The term "G.I. Joe" was first used in a comic strip by Dave Breger.
1942: "Suspense" debuted on CBS Radio.
1944: French troops landed on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
1944: The republic of Iceland was established.
1950: Dr. Richard H. Lawler performed the first kidney transplant in a 45-minute operation in Chicago, IL.
1953: Soviet tanks fought thousands of Berlin workers that were rioting against the East German government.
1963: The U.S. Supreme Court banned the required reading of the Lord's prayer and Bible in public schools.
1965: Twenty-seven B-52’s hit Viet Cong outposts but lost two planes in South Vietnam.
1969: Boris Spasky became chess champion of the world after checkmating former champion Tigran Petrosian in Moscow.
1970: North Vietnamese troops cut the last operating rail line in Cambodia.
1972: Five men were arrested for burglarizing the Democratic Party Headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, DC. The men all worked for the reelection of President Nixon. The event was the beginning of the Watergate affair.
1981: In Cairo, Egypt, riots between Muslim and Coptic Christians result in the deaths of 17 people.
1982: Former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon was interviewed by Diane Sawyer on "The CBS Morning News."
1985: Judy Norton-Taylor was photographed for "Playboy" magazine.
1987: American journalist Charles Glass was kidnapped. He was held captive for 62 days until he escaped on August 18, 1987.
1991: The Parliament of South Africa repealed the Population Registration Act. The act had required that all South Africans for classified by race at birth.
1994: O.J. Simpson drove his Ford Bronco across Los Angeles with police in pursuit and millions of people watching live on television. After the slow speed chase ended Simpson was arrested and charged with the murders of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
Automotive
1907: Brooklands Race Track Opens:
Over 100 years ago on this day in 1907, the famous race circuit at Brooklands opened with a luncheon. It was to have tremendous effect on British car development, that oval of concrete, highly banked on the turns. Because of the speed limit of 20 m.p.h. on all open roads there was nowhere else that could be used for sustained high speed over long distances, and this had handicapped British designers as against those of other countries.
The first Brooklans committee consisted of Prince Francis of Teck, Lord Essex, Sir Redvers Buller, the Duke of Westminster, and Lord Lonsdale, along with other titled and well-known people, demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt the attitude of the "owners". Obviously horse.racing was to be the example on which Brooklands was to be based. The only person with authority who really understood the racing car was the late Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, and he was in some respects a voice crying in the wilderness.
The set pattern did not make for friendliness. Drivers were regarded as "jockeys" for the car entrants, who were all limportant. Prize money was in "Sovs"; starting money, bonuses
from the "trade", and so on would have been regarded as the worst example of professionalism. Drivers were even required to wear their owner's colours on their overalls: with, in some cases, cloth caps to match; and those colours were registered.
Fantastic as it might seem to-day there was even a "starting gate": that is, an infernally homicidal affair of steel wire rope, lowered in front of the line of waiting cars then made to shoot up when the starter used a lever. Time-keeping as such was distinctly unpopular though there was a time-keeper in attendance. All races were long by modern standards, while several were divided into heats and a final, a practice that became more popular again in the 1960's.
All this proved confusing for spectators even though the winner could be recognised because his was the first car to turn from the outer circuit into the finishing straight. Passes were not issued to the Press, who were almost ignored, and this did "not help.
Traffic control was feeble so that spectators and competitors private cars were kept waiting in one of the first traffic jams ever documented;. food was short and badly served. And then the residents of almost-stately houses nearby took umbrage in a big way about the noise and bustle and the "low type" people connected with the track. So they did their very best to have the whole thing stopped: with only partial success.
It did not take long before all this apparent grandeur faded: thanks largely to Lord Montagti. The original track had to go because it was not well enough built for modern speeds, and not sufficiently attractive to be a financial success.
