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In 1777, the U.S. flag was flown in battle for the first time, during a Revolutionary War skirmish at Cooch’s Bridge, Del.

In 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed, officially ending the 7-year American Revolutionary War and recognizing U.S. independence from Britain.

In 1916, the Allies turned back the Germans in the World War I Battle of Verdun.

In 1936, Britain’s Malcolm Campbell set a land-speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah, averaging 301.129 mph in two runs.

In 1939, Britain declared war on Germany. Britain was quickly joined by France, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada.

In 1942, Frank Sinatra began his solo singing career after leaving Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra.

In 1976, the Viking 2 took the first close-up, color photographs of Mars.

In 1991, film director Frank Capra, best known for such feel-good movies as “It Happened One Night” and “It’s A Wonderful Life,” died at the age of 94.

In 1992, an Italian plane carrying eight people and nearly 10,000 pounds of blankets for Bosnian war victims crashed en route to Sarajevo. Evidence suggested
it was shot down.

Also in 1992, Nobel laureate geneticist Barbara McClintock died at 90.

In 1996, the United States fired 27 missiles in Iraq, hitting air defense batteries. Despite criticism from Arab allies and European allies, the United
States fired 17 more missiles the next day.

In 1997, Arizona Gov. Fife Symington was convicted of fraud by a federal jury in Phoenix and resigned two days later, becoming the third U.S. governor
in recent years to quit because of a criminal conviction.

In 2001, the United States and Israel walked out of the U.N. conference on racism in Durban, South Africa.

In 2004, the 3-day Russian school crisis ended in a bloody 13-hour battle when security forces stormed the Beslan school building after Chechen terrorists
opened fire on hostages. At least 350 people, including about 155 children, were reported killed. All but one of the 31 suspected hostage-takers also died.

In 2005, William H. Rehnquist, the chief justice of the United States, died after a long bout with thyroid cancer at the age of 80. He had been on the
court since 1971.

In 2006, the Sudanese government launched a fresh offensive in Darfur, once again violating the U.N. resolution demanding an end to the conflict.

In 2007, U.S. President George W. Bush, in a third visit to Iraq, said some American troops could be withdrawn from the country if security improves.

Also in 2007, Arab tribes in Sudan’s western Darfur region were reported fighting among themselves instead of against government-backed militias.

In 2008, Sen. John McCain of Arizona was officially nominated as the Republican presidential candidate at the national GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was nominated for vice president, the first Republican woman candidate for such a high office.

Also in 2008, in what was reported to be their first acknowledged ground attack on Pakistani soil, U.S. military forces raided a village near the Afghanistan
border said to be home to al-Qaida militants.

In 2009, authorities reported evidence indicating that the largest brushfire in Los Angeles County history had been deliberately set. Two firefighters
were killed and close to 150,000 acres were scorched in the $43.5 million blaze.

Also in 2009, the United States said it had cut off all non-humanitarian aid to Honduras to try to pressure the de facto government into reinstating ousted
President Manuel Zelaya.

In 1666, the Great Fire of London began. It destroyed 13,000 houses in four days.

In 1935, a hurricane hit the Florida Keys, killing more than 350 people.

In 1945, Japan signed an unconditional surrender aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay, formally ending World War II.

In 1983, Moscow admitted to the Sept. 1 shooting down of a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747, killing all 269 people aboard, but said the jumbo jet intentionally
intruded into Soviet air space.

In 1991, the European Community-approved plan to end the civil war in Yugoslavia was accepted by the Yugoslav federal presidency. But federal forces renewed
their offensive against Croatia.

In 1992, more than 100 people were killed when earthquake-spawned tidal waves swept Pacific coast villages in Nicaragua.

In 1997, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 257.36 points for its largest one-day point gain, closing at 7,879.

In 1998, a Swissair jetliner en route from New York to Geneva, Switzerland, crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. All 229 people aboard were killed.

In 1999, the Clintons bought a house in the New York suburb of Chappaqua for $1.7 million, establishing residency for first lady Hillary Clinton, who was
planning a run for the U.S. Senate.

In 2004, U.S. President George W. Bush accepted the GOP nomination for re-election, promising to build a “safer world and a more hopeful America.”

In 2005, the European Commission called for uniform rules for deporting illegal immigrants and refugees who are denied asylum in member countries.

In 2006, Canadian troops under NATO control and Afghan forces launched an offensive in southern Afghanistan’s Kandahar Province amid evidence of renewed
Taliban influence.

In 2007, the death toll from flooding in Bihar, India, rose to 556 but all major rivers were reported to be receding.

Also in 2007, the Lebanese army defeated Palestinian Islamic militants based at a refugee camp in northern Lebanon, climaxing a 3-month siege that killed
more than 400 people.

In 2008, Thai leaders in Bangkok declared a state of emergency when government protests grew violent. For more than a week, thousands of protesters have
clashed over efforts to force the resignation of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej.

In 2009, an estimated 60 people were killed and about that many were reported missing when an earthquake, measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale, rattled the
heavily populated Indonesian island of Java.

In 1807, Aaron Burr, vice president of the United States under Thomas Jefferson, was acquitted of treason charges growing out of an alleged plot to set
up an independent empire in the nation’s south and west.

In 1914, the last known passenger pigeon died at the Cincinnati Zoo.

In 1923, an earthquake struck Yokohama, Japan, killing an estimated 143,000 people.

In 1939, after Germany invaded Poland, Great Britain and France served an ultimatum on Adolf Hitler but it was ignored.

In 1972, American Bobby Fischer defeats Russian Boris Spassky and wins title of world chess champion.

In 1974, the SR-71 Blackbird set the record for shortest flight from New York to London.

In 1983, a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 strayed into Soviet air space and was shot down by a Soviet jet fighter. All 269 people aboard died.

In 1985, scientists found the wreck of the British luxury liner Titanic, sunk by an iceberg in 1912, in the Atlantic Ocean south of Newfoundland.

In 1990, three planes left Iraq with about 500 Western and Japanese women and children in the first airlift, four days after Saddam Hussein’s pledge to
begin releasing some of his so-called guests.

In 1991, U.S. President George H.W. Bush established diplomatic relations with Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

In 1995, a peace agreement worked out among Liberia’s warring militias moved forward with the swearing in of an interim ruling council.

In 1996, the United Nations suspended the permission it gave Iraq to sell oil after Iraq took over the unofficial Kurdish capital city in violation of
the cease-fire terms of the Gulf War.

In 2003, Libya agreed to compensate relatives of the 170 people killed in the 1989 bombing of a French airliner over the Sahara.

In 2004, a heavily armed band of 31 Chechen terrorists seized a school in Belstan in southern Russia, taking hundreds of hostages.

In 2005, U.S. President George W. Bush ordered a suspension of rules restricting shipments of oil and gasoline between U.S. ports to help ease hurricane-caused
shortages.

In 2006, the U.S. Defense Department said casualties among Iraqi civilians and security forces had increased 51 percent from May 20 to Aug. 11, compared
to the previous three-month period, said to be an average of nearly 120 Iraqis a day.

Also in 2006, a fiery airport crash of a Russian-made Tupolev 154 airliner in Mashland, Iran, left 29 people dead but 148 passengers survived.

In 2007, six Democratic presidential hopefuls, including frontrunners Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, agreed not to campaign in Florida and Michigan
because of party primary rules infractions.

Also in 2007, Russia set to expand testing of new warheads for intercontinental ballistic missiles. That word came amid growing tensions about a U.S. plan
to deploy elements of its global anti-ballistic missile defense system in Central Europe.

In 2008, Hurricane Gustav slammed into Louisiana southwest of New Orleans as a Category 2 storm, packing winds of 110 mph and heavy rain and forcing evacuation
of about 2 million people. But, New Orleans’ levee system, strengthened since 2005′s Hurricane Katrina devastated the area, held against a 12-foot storm
surge.

Also in 2008, the United States transferred responsibility for security of the once-troubled province of Anbar, known as a center for Sunni insurgency,
to the Iraqi military and police. More than 1,000 members of the U.S. military died there during the war.

And, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, in office barely a year, announced he would resign. Critics in parliament accused him of mismanagement of domestic
issues.

In 2009, leaders of the southern Afghan tribe of Bariz accused President Hamid Karzai and his aides of vote forgery and ballot box-stuffing in the recent
election.

In 1897, Thomas Edison was awarded a patent for his movie camera, the Kinetograph.

In 1888, prostitute Mary Ann Nichols became the first reported victim of the notorious London serial killer known as “Jack the Ripper.”

In 1903, a Packard automobile completed a 52-day journey from San Francisco to New York, becoming the first car to cross the nation under its own power.

In 1986, an Aeromexico DC-9 collided with a single-engine plane over Cerritos, Calif., killing 82 people, including 15 on the ground.

In 1991, the Soviet republics of Uzbekistan and Kirghizia declared independence, leaving five republics in the Soviet Union.

Also in 1991, Serbia accepted a European Community proposal that included international observers to oversee a cease-fire in Croatia.

In 1992, white separatist Randy Weaver surrendered, ending an 11-day siege of his Idaho mountain cabin that cost the lives of his wife and teenage son
and a U.S. marshal.

In 1993, the Israeli government agreed in principle a plan for interim Palestinian self-rule of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho.

In 1994, the Irish Republican Army declared a cease-fire following six months of secret talks with Britain.

In 1997, Britain’s Princess Diana died of injuries a few hours after a car accident in Paris that killed her companion, Dodi Fayed, and their driver.

In 2003, a Russian K-159 nuclear-powered submarine was lost in the Barents Sea, claiming the lives of nine of its 10-member crew. Russian authorities blamed
negligence by navy officials.

In 2004, in the first major attacks inside Israel in nearly six months, Palestinian suicide bombers blew up two buses almost simultaneously in Beersheba,
killing at least 16 passengers and themselves and wounding more than 80.

In 2005, close to 1,000 people, largely Shiite pilgrims, died in a stampede and the partial collapse of a bridge over the Tigris River in northern Baghdad.

Also in 2005, in New Orleans, martial law was declared amid reports of looters running wild, food and drinking water dwindling and bodies floating in floodwaters.

In 2006, Norwegian authorities recovered the world famous painting “The Scream” by Edvard Munch, stolen at gunpoint, along with Munch’s “Madonna,” from
an Oslo museum nine days earlier.

In 2007, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called for a cease-fire by all armed militias.

In 2008, while the U.S. economy continued to show signs of distress overall, stocks and commodities on Wall Street were showing some promise as August
ended. The Dow Jones industrial average, Standard and Poor’s index and the Nasdaq composite all closed up better than 1 percent and crude oil prices fell
almost 7 percent. But, initial claims for unemployment insurance averaged nearly 35 percent higher than the previous August.

In 2009, the Dow Jones industrial average had its best August in nine years, closing at 9,496.28, a 1-month gain of 3.5 percent. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq
also showed gains.

In 1884, the first known photograph of a tornado was made.

In 1922, a New York City realty company paid $100 for the first radio commercial, on station WEAF.

In 1955, while visiting family in Money, Miss., 14-year-old Emmett Till, an African-American from Chicago, was slain for flirting with a white woman four
days earlier. His alleged killers were acquitted.

In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I have a dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before more than 200,000 people gathered for
the “Freedom March” in Washington.

In 1968, the Democratic Party nominated Hubert Humphrey for president as thousands of anti-Vietnam War demonstrators battled police in the streets and parks
of Chicago.

In 1986, Soviet spy Jerry Whitworth was sentenced in San Francisco to 365 years in prison and fined $410,000.

In 1988, more than 50 people were killed in the Philippines in an unsuccessful coup attempt against President Corazon Aquino.

In 1990, at least 27 people died and more than 350 were injured when a tornado struck Will County, Ill., southwest of Chicago.

In 1996, after four years of separation, Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, and his wife, Princess Diana, were formally divorced.

In 2002, four men, three of them working at the airport, were indicted in Detroit as suspected terrorists. Another man, suspected of trying to set up a
terrorist training camp in Oregon, was indicted in Seattle.

In 2003, North Korea said it would prove it had nuclear weapons by conducting a test. The warning came at the conclusion of talks in Beijing with other
nations over North Korea’s weapons program.

In 2004, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell canceled plans to attend closing ceremonies at the Summer Olympics in Greece after protests against U.S. foreign
policy.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina picked up strength as it roared toward the Gulf Coast, reaching Category 5 status, with winds of almost 150 miles an hour, touching
off one of the largest evacuations in U.S. history. The mayor of New Orleans issued a mandatory evacuation order while fleeing residents clogged highways
in other parts of Louisiana and in Mississippi and Alabama.

In 2007, Abdullah Gul was elected president in the third round of parliamentary voting in Turkey, reported to be the nation’s first Islamist chief in modern
history.

Also in 2007, U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, admitted he pleaded guilty without consulting a lawyer to disorderly conduct in a Minneapolis airport men’s
room incident in June but insisted he had done nothing wrong.

In 2008, Sen. John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee for president, chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate.

Also in 2008, as part of a $3 billion deal, China agreed to provide Iraq with technical advisers, workers and equipment to develop the Ahdab oil field.

In 2009, the June 27 death of entertainer Michael Jackson was ruled a homicide by drug overdose after his personal physician admitted giving him the powerful
anesthetic propofol and the sedative lorazepam on the day of his death.

In 1859, the first successful oil well in the United States was drilled near Titusville, Pa.

In 1883, the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history occurred on Krakatoa, a small, uninhabited island located west of Sumatra in Indonesia.

In 1928, the Kellogg-Briand Pact, outlawing war as a means to settle international disputes, was signed by 15 nations in Paris. World War II began 11 years
later.

In 1939, Adolf Hitler served notice on England and France that Germany wanted Danzig and the Polish Corridor.

In 1962, the Mariner 2 was launched.

In 1977, IRA militants killed Louis Mountbatten, a cousin of the queen, by blowing up his boat. It was the IRA’s first attack on the royal family.

In 1991, the Soviet republic of Moldavia declared independence and the European Community recognized Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as independent countries.

In 1992, Serbian leaders at the Yugoslav peace conference pledged to close the prisoner-of-war camps, end “ethnic cleansing” and work toward peace.

In 1999, two Russian cosmonauts and a French astronaut left Mir to return to Earth, leaving the orbiting Russian space station unmanned for the first time
in 13 years.

In 2003, the United States and North Korea met privately in Beijing during the six-nation talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear program. Diplomats said there was
no breakthrough in the talks.

In 2004, Russian authorities said traces of explosives were found in the wreckage of two airliners that crashed within minutes of each other after takeoff
earlier in the week in Moscow, heightening suspicion of terrorism. A total of 89 people died in the crashes.

In 2006, reports said hundreds of tribal chiefs signed a pact supporting reconciliation and an end to sectarian strife in Iraq while bombs and gunfire
killed 100 Iraqis over a two-day period.

In 2007, beleaguered U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced his resignation, effective Sept. 17. He had been embroiled in several controversies
including the firings of nine U.S. attorneys, treatment of detainees, surveillance and other issues.

In 2008, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois was formally elected the Democratic presidential nominee at the party’s national convention in Denver. In a symbolic
gesture, Sen. Hillary Clinton, his closest opponent, moved to end the roll call and nominate Obama by acclamation. Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware was the party’s
vice presidential nominee.

In 1862, the Second Battle of Bull Run began.

In 1964, Democrats nominated U.S. President Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey to face the Republicans in November.

In 1974, Charles Lindbergh died at the age of 72.

In 1978, Cardinal Albino Luciani was elected the 263rd pope and chose the name John Paul I. He died 33 days later.

In 1992, U.S. President George H.W. Bush announced a ban on Iraqi military flights over southern Iraq to protect the Shiite Muslims. He said any planes
that violate the order would be shot down by U.S.-led coalition forces.

In 1996, a court in South Korea sentenced former President Chun Doo-hwan to death for the coup that put him in power. His successor, Roh Tae-woo, was sentenced
to prison for taking bribes.

In 1998, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno asked for a 90-day preliminary investigation into alleged illegal campaign fundraising phone calls Vice President
Al Gore made from the White House.

In 2003, NASA was severely criticized on several counts by a federal board investigating the Feb. 1 Columbia shuttle disaster.

Also in 2003, the U.N. Security Council denounced as a “grave violation of human rights” the killings of Kuwaiti prisoners, believed to be in the hundreds,
by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime.

In 2004, a leader in the U.S. Army panel investigating prisoner abuse at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison said the team had discovered “serious misconduct and
a loss of moral values.”

Also in 2004, a mortar attack on a mosque in Koufa in central Iraq killed 40 people and injured another 70.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck Florida’s Atlantic coast, causing flooding that claimed 11 lives. The massive storm then moved into the Gulf of Mexico
where it picked up strength and sent thousands of Gulf Coast residents fleeing its expected onslaught.

Also in 2005, a Gallup Poll indicated U.S. President George W. Bush’s approval rating was 40 percent — the lowest Gallup rating of his presidency.

In 2006, Iran rebuffed the U.N. edict to stop its nuclear project or face sanctions and went ahead with expansion steps.

In 2007, the unofficial estimate of people killed in flooding in North Korea ballooned to 600.

Also in 2007, wildfires, all believed to be the act of arsonists, raged in Greece, fanned by gale force winds, killing at least 59 people and destroying
thousands of acres of crops, pasture land and forests.

In 2008, median U.S. household income climbed 1.3 percent from 2006 to 2007, reaching $50,233 for a third consecutive increase, the U.S. Census Bureau
reported. The report said the nation’s official poverty rate in 2007 was 12.5 percent — 37.3 million — about the same as a year earlier.

Also in 2008, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed decrees recognizing the independence of two breakaway regions of Georgia. Medvedev said granting
South Ossetia and Abkhazia independence was an act of necessity and urged other nations to make similar diplomatic moves.

In 1718, the city of New Orleans was founded.

In 1875, Matthew Webb, a 27-year-old British merchant navy captain, became the first person known to successfully swim the English Channel.

In 1944, U.S. troops liberated Paris from the Nazis in World War II.

In 1967, a sniper assassinated American Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell in Arlington, Va.

In 1985, Samantha Smith, 13, was killed with her father and six other people in a plane crash in Maine. Her 1983 letter to Soviet President Yuri Andropov
about her fear of nuclear war earned her a visit to the Soviet Union.

In 1990, the U.N. Security Council voted 13-0 to authorize use of “minimal” force against ships breaking the economic embargo of Iraq.

In 1991, the Soviet republic of Byelorussia, now known as Belarus, declared independence.

In 1992, researchers reported that cigarette smoking significantly boosts the risk of developing cataracts, a leading cause of blindness.

Also in 1992, right-wing extremists, egged on by Berlin residents, set fire to a hostel for Vietnamese asylum seekers during a third night of violence
against foreigners.

In 1993, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman was indicted by a federal grand jury in New York in connection with a number of terrorist activities, including the bombing
of the World Trade Center.

Also in 1993, on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average closed at an all-time high of 3,652.09.

In 1999, the FBI admitted it fired pyrotechnic tear-gas canisters at the Branch Davidian cult compound near Waco, Texas, on the day in 1993 that the standoff
came to a fiery end but said the containers bounced away harmlessly.

In 2003, at least 45 people died and more than 61 were injured when two car bombs exploded in a crowded area of Mumbai.

In 2004, a U.S. Army investigation concluded that military intelligence units played a major role in the Abu Ghraib prison abuses in Iraq.

Also in 2004, the World Health Organization warned that polio was on the verge of becoming a major epidemic in Africa.

In 2006, Pulkova Ailines Flight 612 crashed near the Russian border in Ukraine, killing 171 people.

In 2007, the Democratic National Committee voted to strip Florida of its delegates to the 2008 presidential nominating convention for rescheduling its
primary for Jan. 29 in violation of party policy. Michigan received a similar penalty.

Also in 2007, back-to-back explosions thought to be set by terrorists killed at least 44 people and injured more than 50 in Hyderabad, India. Authorities
uncovered explosives at 16 other locations in and near the city, officials said.

In 2008, two Afghan army commanders were fired after a U.S.-led coalition airstrike killed 89 civilians, many of them children. Afghan President Hamid
Karzai blamed the casualties on a failure of coordination between coalition forces and the Afghan army.

Also in 2008, Israel freed 198 Palestinian prisoners to show support for the leadership of the Fatah party governing the West Bank. Nearly 9,000 Palestinians
remained in Israeli prisons for offenses ranging from attacks to membership in militant groups, including one behind bars since 1977.

In 79 A.D., thousands died and the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy.

In 1814, the British captured Washington and burned the Capitol building and the White House.

In 1853, potato chips were first prepared.

In 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly non-stop across the United States.

In 1987, a U.S. appeals court in Cincinnati ruled public schools could require students to study textbooks not accepted by religious fundamentalists.

In 1990, Irish-British hostage Brian Keenan, held by pro-Iranian Muslim extremists in Lebanon for more than four years, was freed.

In 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev quit as general secretary of the Communist Party central committee. He also ordered his Cabinet to resign.

In 1992, Hurricane Andrew smashed into Florida south of Miami with sustained winds of up to 145 mph, carving a path of destruction.

In 1995, Beijing convicted and then expelled Chinese-American human rights activist Harry Wu, arrested in June while trying to enter China from Kazakhstan.

In 1996, four women became students at The Citadel, a military school in South Carolina that had fought in court to remain all-male.

In 2004, two Russian passenger jetliners crashed within minutes of each other after taking off from Domodedovo Airport in Moscow. A total of 89 people
were killed.

In 2005, U.S. President George Bush vowed in an Idaho speech that he wouldn’t retreat from Iraq or the rest of the Middle East until U.S. troops “win the
war on terror.”

Also in 2005, a Peruvian passenger plane crashed in the jungle of central Peru, killing at least 40 people.

In 2006, Pluto, the small, distant planet that has been around officially since 1930, was demoted to a non-planet status when the International Astronomical
Union voted to adopt a new definition of “planet,” which excludes Pluto.

In 2007, an amount of phosgene, a potentially deadly chemical nerve gas component, was found in secured vials in a U.N. office in New York. There were
no injuries and an inquiry was opened to find out how the substance got there.

Also in 2007, Chinese officials, under global pressure regarding the safety of their products, said they have launched a “special war” to improve quality
and supervision. The list of products runs from food and drugs to toys and electric wires.

In 2008, the Summer Olympic Games came to a close in Beijing with the United States winning the most medals, 110, including 36 gold. Host China captured
the most gold medals, 51, and was second in the overall category, at 100. U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps turned in the most outstanding individual performance
with a record eight gold medals in eight events.