- 1501 – Michelangelo begins work on his statue of David.
- 1788 – The Philadelphia Convention sets the date for the first presidential election in the United States, and New York City becomes the country’s temporary capital.
- 1814 – The British fail to capture Baltimore during the War of 1812. During the battle, Francis Scott Key composes his poem “Defence of Fort McHenry,” which is later set to music and becomes the United States’ national anthem.
- 1899 – Henry Bliss is the first person in the United States to be killed in an automobile accident.
- 1948 – Margaret Chase Smith is elected Senator, and becomes the first woman to serve in both the House of Representatives and Senate.
- 1962 – An appeals court orders the University of Mississippi to admit James Merideth, the first African-American student admitted to the segregated university.
- 1971 – State police and National Guardsmen storm New York’s Attica Prison to quell a prison revolt.
- 1993 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shakes hands with Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat at the White House after signing the Oslo Accords granting limited Palestinian autonomy.
