Today:
1381 – During the Peasants’ Revolt in England, rebel forces led by Wat Tyler entered London.
1665 – England installed a municipal government in New York City after taking control from the Dutch.
1775 – British General Thomas Gage declared martial law in Massachusetts during the early American Revolutionary period.
1776 – The Virginia Convention adopted the Virginia Declaration of Rights, an influential document for later American constitutional ideas.
1812 – Napoleon Bonaparte began his invasion of Russia by leading the Grande Armée across the Niemen River.
1898 – The Philippines declared independence from Spain, with Emilio Aguinaldo as a leading figure.
1924 – George H. W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States, was born in Milton, Massachusetts.
1939 – The Baseball Hall of Fame was formally dedicated in Cooperstown, New York.
1963 – Civil rights leader Medgar Evers was assassinated outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi.
1987 – President Ronald Reagan gave his famous “tear down this wall” speech at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin.