1861 First Battle of Bull Run [Battle of First Manassas], the first major battle of the US Civil War, is fought near Manassas, Virginia, and ends in a Confederate victory
1904 After 13 years, the 4,607-mile Trans-Siberian Railway is completed
1853 Central Park in New York created when New York State Legislature puts aside more than 750 acres of land on Manhattan Island
1865 In Springfield's market square in Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first true western showdown
1873 Jesse James and James Younger gang's 1st train robbery at Adair, Iowa
1899 Ernest Hemingway American author (The Old Man and the Sea, Nobel Prize for Literature -1954), born in Oak Park, Illinois
1919 Anthony Fokker establishes his new aircraft company, the Dutch Aircraft Factory in Amsterdam(Those Fokker's were Messerschmidts)
1919 Dirigible crashes through bank skylight killing 13 in Chicago, Illinois
1924 Don Knotts, American actor (Andy Griffth Show, 3's Company), born in Morgantown, West Virginia
1930 110°F (43°C) at Millsboro, Delaware (state record)
1934 113°F (45°C), near Gallipolis, Ohio (state record)
1949 Al Hrabosky(The Mad Hungarian) MLB player (St. Louis Cardinals), born in Oakland, California
1951 Robin Williams actor and comedian,born in Chicago, Illinois
1967 Basil Rathbone,South African born British actor (Sherlock Holmes), dies at 75
1972 In New York 57 murders occur in 24 hours
1972 MLB Los Angeles Dodgers release knuckleball pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm, ending his career
1975 NY Met Félix Millán hits 4 singles; erased by Joe Torres 4 double plays
1978 World's strongest dog, 80-kg St. Bernard, pulls a 2,909-kg load 27 meters
1983 World's lowest-ever natural temperature is recorded: -89.2°C (-128.6°F; 184.0 K) at the Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica
1989 Mike Tyson KOs Carl "The Truth" Williams in 1:33 for heavyweight boxing title
1998 Alan Shepard,1st American in space, dies of leukemia at 74
1991 Ferguson Jenkins, Gaylord Perry, Rod Carew, Tony Lazzeri, and Bill Veeck, Jr are inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York
2017 Singer Justin Bieber is barred from performing in China by Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture, citing his "bad behavior"(evidently Tiananmen is OK)
2022 US President Joe Biden tests positive for COVID-19(Brains scans came back normal,though)
2023 Tony Bennett American Grammy and Emmy Award-winning pop and jazz singer dies at 96.
2024 US President Joe Biden abandons his campaign for re-election and endorses Vice President Kamala Harris