On this day...

In 1862, Confederate spy Marie Isabella “Belle” Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. It was the first of three arrests for this skilled spy who provided crucial information to the Confederates during the war.

In 1609, Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs at Ticonderoga, New York, setting the stage for French-Iroquois conflicts for the next 150 years

In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon is declared a rebel for assembling frontiersmen to protect settlers from Native Americans

In 1773, First schoolhouse west of the Allegheny Mountains is completed in Schoenbrunn, Ohio

In 1775, The Continental Congress adopted a resolution recognized chaplains in the national army with a rank equal to that of a Captain and a monthly pay of twenty dollars.

In 1781, Loyalists win the Battle of the House in the Horseshoe, a battle that took place at the home of North Carolina militia colonel, Philip Alston.

In 1786, The Pittsburgh Gazette, the first newspaper west of the Alleghenies, is published

In 1794, African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia is dedicated

In 1858, the United States and Japan signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce (the Harris Treaty).

In 1872, Nathaniel P. Langford and James Stevenson made the first ascent of Grand Teton, the highest peak of the Teton Range in Wyoming.

In 1905, US Secretary of War William Howard Taft makes a secret agreement with Japanese Prime Minister Katsura, agreeing to give Japan free rein in Korea in return for non-interference with the US in the Philippines

In 1914, transcontinental telephone service in the U.S. became operational with the first test conversation between New York and San Francisco.

In 1958, NASA is established. The legislation was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In 1965, The first 4,000 paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division arrive in Vietnam, landing at Cam Ranh Bay. They made a demonstration jump immediately after arriving, observed by Gen. William Westmoreland and outgoing Ambassador (formerly General) Maxwell Taylor. Taylor and Westmoreland were both former commanders of the division, which was known as the “Screaming Eagles.”

In 1967, an accidental rocket launch on the deck of the supercarrier USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin resulted in a fire and explosions that killed 134 service members.

In 1986, a federal jury in New York found that the National Football League had committed an antitrust violation against the rival United States Football League, but the jury ordered the NFL to pay token damages of just three dollars.

In 1993, The Israeli Supreme Court acquitted retired Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk of being Nazi death camp guard "Ivan the Terrible" and threw out his death sentence.

In 1994, abortion opponent Paul Hill shot and killed Dr. John Bayard Britton and Britton’s escort, James H. Barrett, outside the Ladies Center clinic in Pensacola, Florida.

In 1999, a former day trader, apparently upset over stock losses, opened fire in two Atlanta brokerage offices, killing nine people and wounding 13 before shooting himself; authorities said Mark O. Barton had also killed his wife and two children.

In 2008, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, was indicted on seven felony counts of concealing more than a quarter of a million dollars in house renovations and gifts he had received from a powerful oil contractor. (A judge later dismissed the case, saying prosecutors had withheld evidence.)

In 2016, former suburban Chicago police officer Drew Peterson was given an additional 40 years in prison for trying to hire someone to kill the prosecutor who put him behind bars for killing his third wife.

In 2021, American Sunisa Lee won the gold medal in women’s all-around gymnastics at the Tokyo Games; she was the fifth straight American woman to claim the Olympic title in the event.