1701 – After being convicted of piracy and of murdering William Moore, Captain William Kidd is hanged in London.
1785 – Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals.
1788 – South Carolina ratifies the Constitution as the eighth U.S. State.
1911 – The New York Public Library is dedicated.
1934 – Infamous American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by police and killed in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
1945 – Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel, commits suicide while in Allied custody.
