Today:
1613 – The Globe Theatre in London, built by Shakespeare’s playing company, burned down.
1880 – France annexed Tahiti.
1927 – The Bird of Paradise, a US Army Air Corps Fokker tri-motor airplane, completes the first transpacific flight from the mainland United States to Hawaii.
1956 – The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 was signed, creating the United States Interstate Highway System.
1964 – Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed in the U.S. Senate after an 83-day filibuster.
1974 – Isabel Perón was sworn in as the first female President of Argentina.
1995 – The Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian space station Mir for the first time.
2007 – Apple Inc. released the first-generation iPhone.
2008 – Thomas Beatie, known as the “Pregnant Man,” gave birth to a daughter.
2014 – The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) self-declared its caliphate in Syria and northern Iraq.