On this date...

John and Abigail Adams

In 1776, On this day Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, John Adams, describing reaction to the Proclamation for Independence being read out at Boston, Massachusetts.

In 1776, The 20-gun British transport HMS Glasgow ran aground on a sandbar at Spencer’s Inlet South Carolina. (now Dewee's Inlet) A South Carolina Row Battery, commanded by Lt. Francis Pickering of the SC 2nd Regiment, discovered the Glasgow and fired on it.

In 1780, The Battle of Colson's Mill took place in North Carolina.

In 1780, The Battle of Bull's Ferry took place on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River in the vicinity of modern day West New York and North Bergen.

In 1861, during the Civil War, the first Battle of Bull Run was fought at Manassas, Virginia, resulting in a Confederate victory. It was a dry summer Sunday, in the first major engagement of the Civil War, the First Battle of Bull Run.

In what may be the first true western showdown, Wild Bill Hickok shoots Dave Tutt dead in the market square of Springfield, Missouri.

In 1925, The trial of high-school teacher John T. Scopes ended with his conviction in Tennessee; he had taught Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in violation of a state law.

In 1944, American forces landed on Guam during World War II, capturing it from the Japanese some three weeks later.

In 1944, The Democratic National Convention in Chicago nominated Sen. Harry S. Truman to be vice president.

In 1949, The U.S. Senate ratified the North Atlantic Treaty.

In 1961, Virgil I. (“Gus”) Grissom became the second American to enter space during Project Mercury.

In 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin blasted off from the moon aboard the ascent stage of the lunar module for docking with the command module.

In 1972, Comedian George Carlin is arrested for his infamous "seven dirty words" routine. Charges were dropped, but a later complaint about a broadcast of his act would propel the issue of indecent speech to the Supreme Court.

In 1988, Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis accepted the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in Atlanta. He would lose the presidential race later that year to Vice President George H. W. Bush.

In 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the most sweeping overhaul of U.S. lending and high finance rules since the 1930s.

In 2011, The U.S. space shuttle program ended, after 135 missions, as the orbiter Atlantis landed at NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

In 2024, Pres. Joe Biden announced that he was ending his reelection bid; he became the first president since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 to not seek reelection.