Today:
1789 – The mutiny on the HMS Bounty occurred as Fletcher Christian led a rebellion against Captain William Bligh.
1789 – Maryland became the seventh U.S. state to ratify the Constitution.
1881 – Billy the Kid escaped from jail in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
1919 – The League of Nations held its first meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.
1930 – The first night game in organized baseball history was played in Independence, Kansas.
1945 – Italian partisans captured Benito Mussolini during World War II.
1947 – Thor Heyerdahl and his crew set sail from Peru on the raft Kon-Tiki.
1952 – Japan’s post-World War II occupation officially ended with the Treaty of San Francisco coming into effect.
1967 – Muhammad Ali refused induction into the U.S. Army and was stripped of his boxing title.
1996 – The Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, Australia, began, resulting in 35 deaths.