532 – Nika riots in Constantinople: A quarrel between supporters of different chariot teams-the Blues and the Greens-in the Hippodrome escalates into violence.
630 – Conquest of Mecca: The prophet Muhammad and his followers conquer the city, Quraysh surrender.
1693 – A powerful earthquake destroys parts of Sicily and Malta.
1759 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first American life insurance company is incorporated.
1787 – William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.
1908 – Grand Canyon National Monument is created.
1922 – First use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient.
1935 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California.
1943 – Italian-American anarchist Carlo Tresca is assassinated in New York City.
1961 – Throgs Neck Bridge over the East River, linking New York City’s boroughs of The Bronx and Queens, opens to road traffic.
1964 – Surgeon General of the United States Dr. Luther Terry, M.D., publishes the landmark report Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the United States saying that smoking may be hazardous to health, sparking national and worldwide anti-smoking efforts.
Births
1755 – Alexander Hamilton, general, economist and politician, first United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1804)
1870 – Alexander Stirling Calder, American sculptor and educator (d. 1945)
1906 – Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist and academic, discoverer of LSD (d. 2008)
1923 – Carroll Shelby, American race car driver, engineer, and businessman, founded Carroll Shelby International (d. 2012)
Deaths
1546 – Gaudenzio Ferrari, Italian painter and sculptor (b. c. 1471)
1791 – William Williams Pantycelyn, Welsh composer and poet (b. 1717)
1843 – Francis Scott Key, American lawyer, author, and songwriter (b. 1779)
1928 – Thomas Hardy, English novelist and poet (b. 1840)
1966 – Alberto Giacometti, Swiss sculptor and painter (b. 1901)
1980 – Barbara Pym, English author (b. 1913)
2008 – Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer and explorer (b. 1919)
