Today:
1687: Isaac Newton publishes “Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica,” laying out his laws of motion and universal gravitation.
1775: The Second Continental Congress adopts the Olive Branch Petition, an attempt to avoid a full-scale war with Great Britain.
1811: Venezuela declares its independence from Spain, beginning its war for independence.
1852: Frederick Douglass delivers his famous speech, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” in Rochester, New York.
1865: President Andrew Johnson signs an executive order confirming the military conviction of those who conspired to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. Also, the United States Secret Service begins operation.
1937: Spam, the canned luncheon meat, is introduced to the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation.
1946: The first modern bikini is modeled at a swimming pool in Paris.
1954: Elvis Presley records his first single, “That’s All Right,” at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee.
1975: Arthur Ashe becomes the first black man to win the Wimbledon singles title.
1996: Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell, is born in Scotland.