Today:
1553: Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen of England.
1832: U.S. President Andrew Jackson vetoed a bill to re-charter the Second Bank of the United States.
1890: Wyoming became the 44th state admitted to the United States.
1893: Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performed one of the world’s first successful open-heart surgeries in Chicago.
1925: The Scopes “Monkey” Trial, concerning the teaching of evolution, began in Dayton, Tennessee.
1940: The Battle of Britain began as the German Luftwaffe launched air attacks on the United Kingdom.
1943: Allied forces began their invasion of Sicily, Italy, known as Operation Husky.
1962: Telstar 1, the world’s first privately sponsored communications satellite, was launched, transmitting the first live transatlantic television signals.
1973: The Bahamas gained independence from Great Britain.
1985: The Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior was bombed and sunk in Auckland Harbour, New Zealand, by French agents.