On this date...

Harvard

In 1642, Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, holds its first commencement

In 1779, The United States ship Bonhomme Richard, commanded by Captain John Paul Jones, wins a hard-fought engagement against the 44-gun Royal Navy frigate Serapis, off the eastern coast of England.

In 1780, British spy John Andre was captured along with papers revealing Benedict Arnold’s plot to surrender West Point to the British.

In 1806, Lewis and Clark arrived in St. Louis, Missouri, at the end of their daring expedition to the Pacific Northwest.

In 1875, Billy the Kid is arrested for the first time after stealing a basket of laundry.

In 1884, American Herman Hollerith patents his mechanical tabulating machine, beginning the era of data processing.

In 1889, Nintendo is founded as a playing card company.

In 1933, a party of American geologists lands at the Persian Gulf port of Jubail in Saudi Arabia and begins its journey into the desert. That July, with the discovery of a massive oil field at Ghawar, Saudi King Abdel Aziz had granted the Standard Oil Company of California a concession to “explore and search for and drill and extract and manufacture and transport” petroleum and “kindred bituminous matter” in the country’s vast Eastern Province; in turn, Standard Oil immediately dispatched the team of scientists to locate the most profitable spot for the company to begin its drilling.

In 1944, during a campaign dinner with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union, President Franklin D. Roosevelt makes a reference to his small dog, Fala, who had recently been the subject of a Republican political attack. The offense prompted Roosevelt to defend his dog’s honor and his own reputation.

In 1949, In a surprisingly low-key and carefully worded statement, President Harry S. Truman informs the American people that the Soviets have exploded a nuclear bomb. The Soviet accomplishment, years ahead of what was thought possible by most U.S. officials, caused a panic in the American government.

In 1952, Sen. Richard M. Nixon, R-Calif., salvaged his vice presidential nomination by appearing on television from Los Angeles to refute allegations of improper campaign fundraising in what became known as the “Checkers” speech for its reference to his family’s cocker spaniel.

In 1955, a jury in Sumner, Mississippi, acquitted two white men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, of killing Black teenager Emmett Till. (The two later admitted to the crime in an interview with Look magazine.)

In 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower ordered U.S. troops to support the integration of black students at a high school in Little Rock, Arkansas.

In 1962, ABC's first color TV series, "The Jetsons," created by Hanna-Barbera, premieres

In 1969, The American film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had its world premiere, and it became a western classic, especially noted for the pairing of Paul Newman and Robert Redford as the titular outlaws.

In 1976, US televised presidential debate between Republican incumbent Gerald Ford and Democratic challenger Jimmy Carter

In 2011, The soap opera "All My Children" broadcast its final episode on ABC, ending a 41-year run.