Today:
1. 1787 – The Constitutional Convention opened in Philadelphia with George Washington presiding, leading to the creation of the United States Constitution.
2. 1803 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher and poet, was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
3. 1810 – The Argentine War of Independence began with the establishment of the first local government in Buenos Aires, known as the May Revolution.
4. 1895 – Oscar Wilde was convicted of “gross indecency” and sentenced to two years of hard labor.
5. 1935 – Jesse Owens broke three world records and tied a fourth at the Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
6. 1961 – President John F. Kennedy announced the goal of sending an American to the Moon before the end of the decade.
7. 1977 – Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) was released, becoming a landmark in film history.
8. 1979 – American Airlines Flight 191 crashed shortly after takeoff from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, killing all 271 on board and two people on the ground.
9. 1995 – The Republic of Macedonia became a member of the Council of Europe.
10. 2008 – NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft landed on Mars to search for environments suitable for microbial life and to research the history of water on the planet.