1597 – 1st Dutch East India Company ships return from the Far East
1619 – 1st known African Americans in English North America (approx. 20) land at Point Comfort (Fort Monroe), Virginia. They are then sold or traded into servitude.
1741 – Alaska first sighted by Danish explorer Vitus Bering at head of Russian expedition
1866 – President Andrew Johnson formally declares US Civil War over
1905 – Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen forms the first chapter of T’ung Meng Hui, a union of all secret societies determined to bringing down the Manchus (Qing dynasty)
1968 – During the night 250,000 Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia in response to the Prague Spring
1993 – Oslo Peace Accords signed, after secret negotiations in Norway, followed by a public ceremony in Washington, D.C. the following month
2002 – A group of Iraqis opposed to the regime of Saddam Hussein take over the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin for five hours before releasing their hostages and surrendering.
2008 – Usain Bolt of Jamaica wraps up the 100/200m double in style with a new 200m world record 19.30 at the Beijing Olympics
2012 – South Africa become the top-ranked test cricket nation after defeating England
2018 – Measles cases reach record high in Europe with 41,000 infected first six months of 2018 with 37 deaths according to WHO
2019 – NASA confirms mission to Jupiter’s ice-covered moon Europa to search for alien life, to launch 2025
2019 – Computer systems in 22 small Texas towns hacked and held to ransom in coordinated attack prompts FBI investigation
2020 – Kamala Harris accepts her nomination for vice-president, becoming the 1st US woman of color on a major-party ticket saying “there is no vaccine for racism”
Film & TV:
1951 – 12th Venice Film Festival: “Rashomon” directed by Akira Kurosawa wins the Golden Lion
Music:
1882 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” debuts in Moscow
Sport:
1920 – American Professional Football Association forms; Jim Thorpe installed as president; later to become the National Football League (NFL)
2000 – PGA Championship Men’s Golf, Valhalla GC: Tiger Woods becomes first since Ben Hogan (1953) to win 3 majors in a calendar year; wins back-to-back PGA titles in 3-hole playoff with Bob May
