Today:
509 BC: The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Rome’s Capitoline Hill was dedicated.
1759: The Battle of the Plains of Abraham was fought near Quebec City, a pivotal conflict in the Seven Years’ War between Great Britain and France.
1788: The Congress of the Confederation designated New York City as the temporary capital of the United States.
1814: Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the poem “The Defence of Fort McHenry” after witnessing the bombardment of the fort. The poem later became the lyrics for “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the United States national anthem.
1899: Henry Bliss became the first recorded person to be killed in an automobile accident in the United States after being struck by a taxi in New York City.
1922: The highest temperature ever reliably recorded on Earth, 136.4°F (58°C), was documented in El Azizia, Libya.
1959: The Soviet Union’s Luna 2 spacecraft became the first man-made object to reach the surface of the Moon when it crash-landed.
1971: State police and National Guardsmen stormed Attica Prison in New York to end a four-day inmate uprising.
1993: At a ceremony in Washington, D.C., Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat signed the Oslo Accords, a historic peace agreement.
2007: The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.