Today:
1. 1665 – England installs a municipal government in New York City (formerly the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam).
2. 1776 – The Virginia Declaration of Rights is adopted.
3. 1817 – The earliest form of bicycle, the dandy horse, is driven by Karl Drais.
4. 1898 – The Philippines declares independence from Spain.
5. 1935 – Senator Huey Long of Louisiana introduces a bill that would limit the income of any American to one million dollars.
6. 1942 – Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.
7. 1963 – Civil rights leader Medgar Evers is assassinated in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi.
8. 1964 – Anti-apartheid activist and African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison for sabotage in South Africa.
9. 1987 – During a visit to the divided city of Berlin, President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”
10. 1991 – Russians go to the polls for the first time to elect a President of the Russian Federation.