Today:
1686: Albany, New York, was formally chartered as a municipality.
1793: Alexander Mackenzie reached the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first recorded person to complete a transcontinental crossing of North America.
1862: President Abraham Lincoln presented to his Cabinet a preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation.
1894: The world’s first competitive motor race was held in France, running from Paris to Rouen.
1916: A bomb exploded during a Preparedness Day parade in San Francisco, killing 10 people and injuring 40.
1933: American aviator Wiley Post completed the first solo flight around the world, landing in New York after 7 days, 18 hours, and 49 minutes.
1934: Bank robber John Dillinger was shot and killed by federal agents outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago.
1942: The systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka extermination camp began.
1987: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev indicated his willingness to negotiate a ban on intermediate-range nuclear missiles without conditions, paving the way for the INF Treaty.
2011: A series of terrorist attacks in Norway occurred, with a car bomb exploding in Oslo and a mass shooting at a youth camp on Utøya island, resulting in 77 deaths.