Today:
1644: The Battle of Marston Moor took place during the English Civil War, a significant victory for the Parliamentarian forces.
1698: Thomas Savery patented the first steam engine.
1776: The Continental Congress voted for independence from Great Britain.
1788: The U.S. Congress announced that the United States Constitution had been ratified by the required nine states.
1839: Enslaved Africans aboard the Spanish schooner Amistad mutinied and took control of the ship.
1865: William Booth and his wife Catherine Booth founded the East London Christian Mission, later known as the Salvation Army.
1881: U.S. President James A. Garfield was shot and mortally wounded by Charles J. Guiteau.
1900: The first Zeppelin, a rigid airship designed by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, took its maiden flight.
1937: American aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean during their attempt to fly around the world.
1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law, prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin.