1540 – King Henry VIII of England annuls his marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.
1776 – General George Washington orders the Declaration of Independence to be read out to members of the Continental Army in Manhattan, while thousands of British troops on Staten Island prepare for the Battle of Long Island.
1850 – President Zachary Taylor dies of cholera after eating raw fruit and iced milk; he is succeeded in office by Vice President Millard Fillmore.
1877 – The first Wimbledon tennis tournament is held in England.
1868 – The 14th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing African Americans full citizenship and all persons in the United States due process of law.
1893 – Chicago surgeon Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performed the first successful open-heart surgery.
1896 – William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of Gold speech advocating bimetallism at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
2004 – A report by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence accused the CIA and other intelligence agencies of producing false and misleading pre-war information about Iraq’s weapons program.
