Today:
1298 – Battle of Falkirk: Edward I of England defeated the Scottish forces led by William Wallace during the Wars of Scottish Independence.
1587 – Colonists led by John White arrived on Roanoke Island to establish England’s second colony in the New World, later known as the “Lost Colony.”
1793 – Alexander Mackenzie became the first recorded person to cross North America by land north of Mexico, reaching the Pacific Ocean.
1933 – Wiley Post completed the first solo flight around the world, landing back in New York after a journey of just over seven days.
1934 – John Dillinger was shot and killed by federal agents outside Chicago’s Biograph Theater.
1942 – The mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka Extermination Camp began during the Holocaust.
1962 – Mariner 1, the first U.S. spacecraft intended to fly by Venus, was destroyed shortly after launch because of a guidance system failure.
1975 – Apollo–Soyuz Test Project concluded with the safe splashdown of the American Apollo spacecraft after the first joint U.S.–Soviet space mission.
2003 – Uday Hussein and Qusay Hussein, sons of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, were killed during a U.S. military operation in Mosul.
2011 – 2011 Norway attacks began when a bomb exploded in Oslo, followed by a mass shooting on the island of Utøya, killing 77 people.