1789 – During the French Revolution, citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille prison and released the seven prisoners inside.
1798 – Congress passed the Sedition Act, making it a federal crime to publish false, scandalous or malicious writing about the U.S. government.
1874 – The Chicago Fire of 1874 burns down 47 acres of the city, destroying 812 buildings and killing 20.
1881 – Billy the Kid is shot and killed.
1921 – Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were convicted in Dedham, Mass., of killing a shoe company paymaster and his guard. (They were executed in 1927.)
1933 – All German political parties except the Nazi Party were outlawed.
