1769 A lightning strike on the Bastion of San Nazaro in Brescia, Italy, ignites 90 tons of gunpowder, killing 3,000 people
1872 Aaron Montgomery Ward issues the first catalog for his mail-order business; it is one sheet listing 163 available items
1909 Mayor of Tokyo Yukio Ozaki presents Washington, D.C. with Japan's Gift of Friendship - 2,000 cherry trees, which President William Howard Taft decides to plant near the Potomac River
1938 Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the Thousand Islands Bridge connecting the US and Canada
1940 Walter Chrysler, American automotive pioneer Chrysler Corporation, and thoroughbred breeder, dies at 65
1940 Battle of Britain: Air battle known as "The Hardest Day" occurs; the Luftwaffe loses approximately 69 aircraft and the RAF 68 in one of the largest ever air battles
1944 Chartres is Liberated by US 3rd Army forces during WWII led by General George S. Patton
1955 Hurricane Diane kills 400 people in the US
1956 Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" reach #1 on the charts, staying for 11 weeks
1969 Mick Jagger accidentally shot while filming "Ned Kelly" in Australia; he survives
1981 Football running back Herschel Walker of the University of Georgia takes out a Lloyd's of London insurance policy for $1 million
1982 Longest baseball game at Wrigley Field in Chicago, IL, ends after 22 innings as LA Dodgers beat Cubs 2-1 (game started August 17th)
2017 Civilian researchers led by Paul Allen rediscover USS Indianapolis 18,000 feet below the Pacific surface 72 years after it is sunk by Japanese torpedoes
2021 MLB Los Angeles Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani from Japan becomes the fastest player in team history to reach 40 home runs in a season and also pitches 8 innings in a 3-1 win at Detroit
2024 Phil Donahue, Emmy Award-winning daytime TV talk show host, dies at 88
