Today:
1567: Mary, Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicate her throne in favor of her one-year-old son, James VI.
1701: Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded the trading post at Fort Pontchartrain, which later became the city of Detroit.
1847: Brigham Young led 148 Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley, leading to the establishment of Salt Lake City.
1901: Short story writer O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) was released from prison after serving three years for embezzlement.
1911: Hiram Bingham III rediscovered Machu Picchu, the ancient Inca site in Peru.
1915: The passenger ship SS Eastland capsized in the Chicago River, killing over 840 people.
1923: The Treaty of Lausanne, which settled the boundaries of modern Turkey, was signed.
1943: Operation Gomorrah began, with British and American bombers raiding Hamburg, Germany.
1959: U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev engaged in the “Kitchen Debate” in Moscow.
1969: Apollo 11, the first space mission to land humans on the moon, splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean.