On this date...

In 1767, Irish-born Hugo Oconór—a major in the Spanish army—became the governor ad interim of Texas.

In 1609, English explorer Henry Hudson is the first European to sail into Delaware Bay, naming it South Bay

In 1775, The ill fated expedition against Canada began with General Richard Montgomery in command.

In 1845, the first issue of “Scientific American” magazine was published; it remains the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States.

In 1862, the Second Battle of Bull Run began in Prince William County, Virginia, during the Civil War; the Union army retreated two days later after suffering 14,000 casualties.

In 1869, Convinced they will have a better chance surviving the desert than the raging rapids that lay ahead, three men leave John Wesley Powell’s expedition through the Grand Canyon and scale the cliffs to the plateau above.

In 1898, pharmacist Caleb Bradham of New Bern, North Carolina changed the name of the carbonated beverage he’d created five years earlier from “Brad’s Drink” to “Pepsi-Cola.”

In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson is picketed by suffragists in front of the White House, who demand that he support an amendment to the Constitution that would guarantee women the right to vote.

In 1922, The first radio commercial aired, on WEAF in New York City.

In 1955, Black teenager Emmett Till is brutally lynched after wrongfully being accused of offending a white woman.

In 1957, U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond (D-S.C.) began what remains the longest speaking filibuster in Senate history (24 hours and 18 minutes) in an effort to stall the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

In 1963, MLK delivers "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, DC.

In 1968, Protests at the Democratic National Convention—fueled, in part, by opposition to the Vietnam War—culminated in the so-called Battle of Michigan Avenue, a violent confrontation between demonstrators and police.

In 2014, American spy John Walker, a U.S. Navy communications specialist who passed classified documents to Soviet agents for nearly two decades (1967–85) before being caught, died in prison at age 77.