1756 Britain declared war on France, beginning the French and Indian War.
1792 The New York Stock Exchange was founded at 70 Wall Street by 24 brokers.
1875 The first Kentucky Derby was run at Louisville, KY.
1940 Germany occupied Brussels, Belgium and began the invasion of France.
1946 U.S. President Truman seized control of the nation's railroads, delaying a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen.
1948 The Soviet Union recognized the new state of Israel.
1954 The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled for school integration in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. The ruling declared that racially segregated schools were inherently unequal.
1973 The U.S. Senate Watergate Committee began its hearings.
1980 Rioting erupted in Miami's Liberty City neighborhood after an all-white jury in Tampa acquitted four former Miami police officers of fatally beating black insurance executive, Arthur McDuffie. Eight people were killed in the rioting.
1985 Bobby Ewing died on the season finale of "Dallas" on CBS-TV. He returned the following season.
1987 An Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S. Navy frigate Stark in the Persian Gulf, killing 37 American sailors. Iraq and the United States called the attack a mistake.
1996 U.S. President Clinton signed a measure requiring neighborhood notification when sex offenders move in. Megan's Law was named for 7-year-old Megan Kanka, who was raped and killed in 1994.
1998 New York Yankees pitcher David Wells became the 13th player in modern major league baseball history to throw a perfect game.
2000 Thomas E. Blanton Jr. and David Luker surrendered to police in Birmingham, AL. The two former Ku Klux Klan members were arrested on charges from the bombing of a church in 1963 that killed four young black girls.
2001 The U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp based on Charles M. Schulz's "Peanuts" comic strip.