1777 – The U.S. flag was flown in battle for the first time during a Revolutionary War conflict at Cooch’s Bridge, Delaware.
1783 – The Treaty of Paris was signed, officially ending the American Revolutionary War and recognizing U.S. independence from Britain.
1838 – Future abolitionist Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery.
1929 – The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 381.17, its pre-crash high.
1935 – Sir Malcolm Campbell reaches a speed of 304.331 miles per hour on the Bonneville Salt Flats, becoming the first person to drive an automobile over 300 mph.
1939 – Britain and France declared war on Germany, two days after the Nazi invasion of Poland.
1944 – Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from the Westerbork transit camp to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
1976 – The unmanned U.S. spacecraft Viking 2 landed on Mars to take the first close-up, color photographs of the planet.
