Birthdays
1881 Alexander Fleming, discovered penicillin
1911 Lucille Ball
1917 Robert Mitchum, American actor
1928 Andy Warhol
1961 David Robinson
Events
1661 The Treaty of The Hague is signed, under which the Dutch Republic relinquishes its claims to Dutch Brazil to Portugal in exchange for the equivalent of 63 metric tons of gold
1806 Emperor Francis II renounces his imperial title while remaining Emperor of Austria thereby dissolving the Holy Roman Empire, described by Voltaire as "in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire"
1890 Future Hall of Fame pitcher Cy Young makes his MLB debut, throwing a 3-hitter for the Cleveland Spiders in an 8-1 win over the Chicago Colts at League Park in Cleveland
1890 Murderer William Kemmler becomes the first person executed by electric chair at Auburn Prison in New York
1914 Denis Patrick Dowd Jr. enlists in the French Foreign Legion, becoming the first American to fight in WWI.
1926 American Gertrude Ederle (20) becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel from Cap Gris-Nez, France, to Kingsdown, England, in 14 hours and 39 minutes, setting a record for males and females
1941 Detroit Tigers pitcher Al Benton set an enduring Major League Baseball record by hitting two sacrifice bunts in a single inning during an 11-2 rout of the Cleveland Indians at Cleveland's League Park. Benton is know as the only pitcher to have faced Babe Ruth(1934) and Mickey Mantle(1952) and BOTH hit home rins off of him.
1945 An atomic bomb is dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima by the US B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay"
1952 St. Louis Browns veteran pitcher Satchel Paige, 46, becomes the oldest pitcher to win a complete shutout, 1-0 over the Detroit Tigers in 12 innings
1960 Chubby Checker performs "The Twist" on "The Dick Clark Show," starting a worldwide dance craze
1962 Jamaica becomes independent after 300 years of British rule
1967 Future Baseball Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson of the Baltimore Orioles hits into an MLB-record fourth career triple play
1979 Marcus Hooper, 12, becomes the youngest person to swim across the English Channel - great day for channel swimmers
1989 "Oh! Calcutta!" closes at Edison Theatre, NYC, after 5,959 performances: Broadway’s longest-running musical revue. Actress Shelley Winters,said: “I think on-stage nudity is disgusting, shameful and damaging to all things American. But if I were 22 with a great body, it would be artistic, tasteful, patriotic, and a progressive religious experience!”
1991 Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web and debuts WWW as a publicly available service on the internet
1995 Cleveland's major league sports franchises, NFL Browns and MLB Indians, play in Cleveland for the first time on the same day; both lose-White Sox 5, Indians 1; Giants 19, Browns 13 (exhibition) Shocker I tell you - and I was there at the Browns game
1997 Microsoft announces it will invest $150 million in Apple Computer Inc
2011 A helicopter containing members of Navy SEAL Team 6 is shot down in Afghanistan, killing 38
2015 World's largest pinball tournament, Pinburgh, with 700 machines, takes place in Pittsburgh
2018 Chicago police appeal for more help after 66 people are shot in the city in one weekend - Sweet Home Chicago