Today:
1621 – The Dutch West India Company received a charter for trade in the Americas and West Africa.
1800 – U.S. President John Adams became the first president to take up residence in Washington, D.C., at the Union Tavern.
1839 – Lin Zexu destroyed large quantities of opium in Humen, China, an event that helped trigger the First Opium War.
1888 – The poem “Casey at the Bat” was published for the first time in the San Francisco Examiner.
1937 – The Duke of Windsor (formerly King Edward VIII) married Wallis Simpson in France.
1940 – The Battle of Dunkirk ended with the successful evacuation of Allied forces.
1965 – Gemini 4 was launched, during which Ed White performed the first American spacewalk.
1979 – A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the Gulf of Mexico caused a major oil spill.
1989 – The Chinese government declared martial law in Beijing and ordered troops to retake Tiananmen Square.
2017 – London Bridge was attacked by terrorists, resulting in 8 deaths and dozens of injuries.