Today:
In 1692, Bridget Bishop was hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem, Massachusetts, becoming the first person executed during the Salem witch trials.
In 1752, Benjamin Franklin reportedly flew a kite during a thunderstorm, collecting ambient electrical charge in a Leyden jar and demonstrating the connection between lightning and electricity.
In 1854, the U.S. Naval Academy held its first graduation ceremony.
In 1898, U.S. Marines landed at Guantánamo Bay during the Spanish-American War.
In 1935, Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in Akron, Ohio, by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith.
In 1940, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini declared war on France and Great Britain, formally entering Italy into World War II.
In 1944, 15-year-old Joe Nuxhall became the youngest player ever to play Major League Baseball when he pitched for the Cincinnati Reds.
In 1967, the Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors ended with a United Nations-brokered cease-fire.
In 1977, James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Tennessee. He was recaptured three days later.
In 2001, Timothy McVeigh, convicted of the Oklahoma City bombing, was executed.