On this date...
In 1754, King’s College opened in New York City. The Anglican academy would later grow into the venerable Columbia University. The ten students of the college met for their first classes, in Latin and Greek, in a schoolhouse adjoining Trinity Church at Broadway and Wall streets.
In 1775, the Third Virginia Convention met in St. John’s Church in Richmond after Royal Governor Lord Dunmore had fled, effectively becoming the governing power in Virginia.
In 1776, Washington reports to John Hancock that, last evening, a flag arrived from General William Howe carrying a letter addressed to “George Washington Esq. &c. &c. &c.” Washington refuses it, just as he has refused one from Admiral Lord Richard Howe. The issue is not vanity: He will not let Britain treat the commander in chief as a private gentleman. That same day, he rebukes another failure. A 150-man detachment for Kingsbridge leaves three hours late, misses the tide, and lacks officers. Negligent brigade majors now face accountability.
In 1776, St. George Island, Maryland (St. Mary’s County) was the site of arguably the largest clash in Maryland during the Revolutionary War.
In 1821, Spain ceded Florida to the United States.
In 1861, at Manassas, Virginia, General Beauregard requested reinforcements for his 22,000 men. General Johnston is ordered to Manassas.
In 1862, Abraham Lincoln’s wartime Congress passed the second Confiscation Act, a precursor to the Emancipation Proclamation.
In 1898, Spanish troops in Santiago, Cuba, surrendered to U.S. forces during the Spanish-American War.
In 1902, American mechanical engineer Willis Carrier completed drawings for what would become the first modern air conditioner.
In 1938, Douglas Corrigan, the last of the early glory-seeking fliers, took off from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, on a flight that would finally win him a place in aviation history.
In 1941, New York Yankees center fielder Joe DiMaggio failed to get a hit against the Cleveland Guardians (then known as the Cleveland Indians), ending his historic 56-game hitting streak. The record run had captivated the country for two months.
In 1941, an ammunition ship exploded while being loaded in Port Chicago, California, killing 320 people. The United States’ World War II military campaign in the Pacific was in full swing at the time. Poor procedures and lack of training led to the disaster.
In 1945, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Harry S. Truman met at the Potsdam Conference, the last Allied summit conference of World War II.
In 1948, Southern Democrats opposed to the party’s civil rights position met in Birmingham, Ala., to endorse South Carolina Gov. Strom Thurmond for president.
In 1955, Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California.
In 1967, one of the oddest musical pairings in history came to an end when Jimi Hendrix dropped out as the opening act for teenybopper sensations The Monkees.
In 1975, as part of a mission aimed at developing space rescue capability, the U.S. spacecraft Apollo 18 and the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 19 rendezvoused and docked in space. As the hatch was opened between the two vessels, commanders Thomas P. Stafford and Aleksei Leonov shook hands. They exchanged gifts in celebration of the first such meeting between the two Cold War adversaries in space.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan formally accepted the Republican nomination for US president.
In 1981, 114 people were killed when a pair of suspended walkways above the lobby of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel collapsed during a tea dance.
In 1984, the Reverend Jesse Jackson delivers his famous “Rainbow Coalition” speech in San Francisco at the Democratic National Convention, which presents the upcoming election as a stark choice between a future of justice for all or advantages for some under another term for President Ronald Reagan.
In 1996, TWA flight 800 exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Long Island, killing all 230 people on board. A U.S. government inquiry determined that an electrical short circuit caused a mixture of fuel and air to ignite within one of the plane’s fuel tanks.
In 1988, Florence Griffith Joyner of the US ran the women’s 100 m in 10.49 seconds at the US Olympic trials in Indianapolis, setting a world record that still stands.
In 2022, a report said nearly 400 law enforcement officials rushed to a mass shooting that left 21 people dead at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, but “egregiously poor decision-making” resulted in a chaotic scene that lasted more than an hour before the gunman was finally confronted and killed.
In 2024, A 27-foot-long stegosaurus skeleton, dubbed Apex, sells for $44.6 million at Sotheby’s, setting a new record for a fossil. It was discovered by a paleontologist in 2022 at, of all places, Dinosaur, Colorado.
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