Today:
1807 – Robert Fulton’s steamboat Clermont began its historic trip up the Hudson River from New York City to Albany. The successful voyage helped demonstrate the commercial potential of steam-powered transportation.
1863 – Union forces began bombarding Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor during the American Civil War. The fort had been the site where the war began more than two years earlier.
1896 – Bridget Driscoll became the first pedestrian known to have been killed by a gasoline-powered automobile in Great Britain when she was struck by a car in London.
1915 – Jewish American businessman Leo Frank was lynched near Marietta, Georgia, after his controversial conviction for the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan. His case became a notorious example of antisemitism and mob violence in the United States.
1943 – Allied forces completed the conquest of Sicily during World War II when American troops entered Messina. The campaign helped lead to the fall of Benito Mussolini’s government in Italy.
1945 – Indonesia declared its independence from the Netherlands, two days after Japan announced its surrender in World War II. Sukarno became the country’s first president.
1960 – The Beatles began their first extended engagement in Hamburg, Germany. Their months of performing long sets in the city’s clubs played an important role in developing the band’s musical style and stagecraft.
1969 – The Woodstock music festival concluded in the early morning hours when Jimi Hendrix performed his famous rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” His set became one of the defining moments of the festival and the 1960s counterculture.
1982 – The first commercially produced compact discs were manufactured at a Philips factory in Hanover, West Germany. The new digital format would eventually replace vinyl records and cassette tapes as the dominant form of recorded music.
2008 – American swimmer Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal of the Beijing Olympics as part of the U.S. 4 × 100-meter medley relay team, breaking Mark Spitz’s 1972 record of seven gold medals at a single Olympic Games.