On this date...

Map of Battle of Long Island

In 1776, British forces under General William Howe landed on Long Island in Gravesend Bay. Soon, the Battle of Long Island is about to begin.

In 1781, British Major James H. Craig commanding Regulars and Loyalist militia skirmished with American militia company commanded by Colonel James Gorham at Kinston, North Carolina. The Patriots had been drinking and were easily dispersed. Major Craig’s men plundered and burned four houses and would have continued if he had not received word that General Anthony Wayne was headed toward them with 500 men.

In 1793, Prominent Philadelphia physician Benjamin Rush alerts the city's mayor that an epidemic of yellow fever was fast emerging. By the time the epidemic ended, some 5,000 people had died.

In 1831,  Nat Turner leads rebellion of enslaved people that eventually killed at least 55 people before being stopped by a 3,000-man militia.

In 1858, Debates between Abraham Lincoln, Republican Party nominee for the U.S. Senate, and incumbent Senator Stephen A. Douglas of the Democratic Party began; their focus was the question of whether slavery was to be extended to America's western territories.

In 1863, The vicious guerrilla war in Missouri spills over into Kansas and precipitates one of the most appalling acts of violence during the war when Southern partisans raid the abolitionist town of Lawrence, Kansas and murder 150 men.

In 1878, The American Bar Association was founded in Saratoga, N.Y.

In 1888, American inventor William Seward Burroughs patents the adding machine

In 1897, Ransom Eli Olds of Lansing, Michigan, founds Olds Motor Vehicle Company, which will later become Olds Motor Werks and then Oldsmobile.

In 1912, Arthur R. Eldred of Oceanside, New York, achieved the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest rank in the Boy Scouts of America. He was the first person to earn the award. He did not receive the actual badge until September 2 (Labor Day), as the badge had not yet been made.

In 1950, officials of the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) accept Althea Gibson into their annual championship at Forest Hills, New York, making her the first African American player to compete in a U.S. national tennis competition.

In 1958, KUT-FM in Austin, Texas, begins radio transmissions

In 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state.

In 1968, PFC James Anderson Jr. is the first African American Marine to receive the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War

In 1971, Antiwar protesters associated with the Catholic Left raid draft offices in Buffalo, New York, and Camden, New Jersey, to confiscate and destroy draft records. The FBI and local police, tipped off by an informant, arrested 25 protesters, including two Catholic priests, in the midst of destroying and removing draft files.

In 1974, The Equal Educational Opportunities Act is enacted on August 21, 1974. The new law addressed civil rights issues in education, barring states from discriminating against students based on gender, race, color or nationality and requiring public schools to provide for students who do not speak English.

In 1980, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is incorporated by animal rights advocates Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco.

In 1987, Sgt. Clayton Lonetree, the first Marine ever court-martialed for spying, was convicted in Quantico, Va., of passing secrets to the KGB.

In 1992, An 11-day siege began at the cabin of white separatist Randy Weaver in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, as government agents tried to arrest him for failing to appear in court on charges of selling two illegal sawed-off shotguns.

In 2009, Leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to lift a ban that prohibited sexually active gays and lesbians from serving as ministers.

In 2016, Greenville, S.C., police investigate reports of creepy clowns hanging around a local apartment complex, trying to lure kids into the woods. The story gains worldwide attention and sets off a “killer clown panic” across the US.

In 2017, For the first time in nearly 40 years, the continental United States experienced a total solar eclipse, which was viewed from Oregon to South Carolina.