1819 The first bank in the U.S. opened in New York City.
1863 The U.S. Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, PA, ended after three days. It was a major victory for the North as Confederate troops retreated.
1901 The Wild Bunch, led by Butch Cassidy, committed its last American robbery near Wagner, MT. They took $65,000 from a Great Northern train.
1922 "Fruit, Garden and Home" magazine was introduced. It was later renamed "Better Homes and Gardens."
1939 Chic Young’s comic strip character, "Blondie," was first heard on CBS radio.
1940 Bud Abbott and Lou Costello debuted on NBC radio.
1945 The first civilian passenger car built since February 1942, was driven off the assembly line at the Ford Motor Company plant in Detroit, MI. Production had been diverted due to World War II.
1954 Food rationing ended in Great Britain almost nine years after the end of World War II.
1962 Jackie Robinson became the first African American to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
1981 The Associated Press ran its first story about two rare illnesses afflicting homosexual men. One of the diseases was later named AIDS.
1986 U.S. President Reagan presided over a ceremony in New York Harbor that saw the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty.
1988 The USS Vincennes shot down an Iran Air jetliner over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard. The jetliner was misidentified as an Iranian F-14 fighter.
1997 U.S. President Clinton made his first formal response to the charges of sexual harassment from Paula Jones. He denied all the charges and asked that the judge dismiss the case.