On this date...

Burr - Hamilton Duel

In 1776, Washington’s attention was on the army’s health as much as on the enemy. The weather is very warm, and he warns that sickness will spread unless officers enforce cleanliness in quarters. Men must change their linen, clean themselves, and avoid cooking where they sleep. Across the East River, Brigadier General Nathanael Greene sees the same danger. A putrid fever is spreading in his brigade. Greene suspects too much meat in soldiers’ diets. He also asks for extra soap for filthy soldiers worn down by fatigue duty.

In 1779, the Battle of Norwalk was possibly the largest battle in Connecticut during the Revolution. Twenty-six hundred British and Hessian troops, led by Major General William Tryon, attacked the town because it was a hotbed of Patriot activity and privateer action.

In 1782, British Royal Governor Sir James Wright, along with several civil officials and military officers, fled the city of Savannah, Georgia, and headed to Charleston, South Carolina.

In 1798, the U.S. Marine Corps, originally established in 1775, was formally reestablished.

In 1804, Aaron Burr challenged his longtime rival to a duel and then on July 11th fatally shot Alexander Hamilton in Weehawken, New Jersey, because he was outraged over disparaging remarks that Alexander Hamilton had allegedly made at a dinner party,

In 1861, Union troops under General George B. McClellan scored another major victory in the struggle for western Virginia at the Battle of Rich Mountain. The Yankee success secured the region and ensured the eventual creation of West Virginia.

In 1863, angered by unfair practices in Civil War conscription, New York City workers rioted and attacked draft headquarters.

In 1864, Confederate forces led by Gen. Jubal Early began an abortive invasion of Washington, D.C., and his raid was turned back the next day.

In 1892, the US Patent Office stated that Joseph Swan, rather than Thomas Edison, invented the electric light carbon for the incandescent lamp.

In 1905, Black intellectuals and activists led by W.E.B. Du Bois organized the civil rights Niagara Movement.

In 1906, Factory worker Grace Brown was murdered by her boyfriend, Chester Gillette, at Big Moose Lake, New York, a celebrated case that later inspired Theodore Dreiser’s novel “An American Tragedy”.

In 1914, George Herman (“Babe”) Ruth played in his first major league baseball game for the Boston Red Sox.

In 1934, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first US President to travel through the Panama Canal.

In 1936, the Triborough Bridge (later renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge), designed by David Barnard Steinman, opened in New York City.

In 1952, the Republican National Convention, meeting in Chicago, nominated Dwight D. Eisenhower for president and Richard M. Nixon for vice president.

In 1955, the U.S. Air Force Academy officially opened in temporary quarters at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado.

In 1960, “To Kill a Mockingbird” was published.

In 1967, Kenny Rogers formed the First Edition, a genre-blending group that fused pop, rock, folk, and country, helping launch his rise from band member to major solo star.

In 1977, the Medal of Freedom was awarded posthumously to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in a White House ceremony.

In 1979, Parts of Skylab, the United States’ first space station, entered the Earth’s atmosphere, broke up, and scattered debris over the southeastern Indian Ocean and Western Australia.

In 1980, American hostage Richard Queen was freed by Iranian militants due to illness.

In 1988, Heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson hired Donald Trump as an adviser to help manage business strategy and public relations.

In 1995, the United States normalized relations with Vietnam.

In 2022, President Joe Biden revealed the first image from NASA’s new space telescope, the farthest humanity had ever seen in both time and distance, closer to the dawn of the universe and the edge of the cosmos.