1787 The Constitutional Convention opened in Philadelphia with George Washington presiding.
1895 Oscar Wilde, an English playwright, was convicted of a morals charge and sentenced to prison in London.
1895 James P. Lee first published "Gold in America -- A Practical Manual".
1925 John Scopes was indicted for teaching the Darwinian theory in school.
1927 Ford Motor Co. announced that the Model A would replace the Model T.
1927 The "Movietone News" was shown for the first time at the Sam Harris Theatre in New York City.
1934 The Dionnes were born in Callander, Ontario. They were the first quintuplets to survive infancy.
1935 Babe Ruth hit his final homerun, his 714th, and set a record that would stand for 39 years.
1935 Jesse Owens tied the world record for the 100-yard dash. He ran it in 9.4 seconds.
1961 America was asked by U.S. President Kennedy to work toward putting a man on the moon before the end of the decade.
1977 "Star Wars" opened and became the largest grossing film to date.
1981 Chicago's Sears Tower was scaled by daredevil Daniel Goodwin (while wearing a "Spiderman" costume) in 7 1/2 hours.
1986 Approximately 7 million Americans participated in "Hands Across America" in an effort to raise money to fight hunger and homelessness.
1997 U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond became the longest-serving senator in U.S. history (41 years and 10 months).
1997 Poland adopted a constitution that removed all traces of communism.
1999 A report by the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China concluded that China had "stolen design information on the U.S. most-advanced thermonuclear weapons" and that China's penetration of U.S. weapons laboratories "spans at least the past several decades and almost certainly continues today."