| On this date in: |
| 1533 | England's Queen Elizabeth I was born in Greenwich. |
| 1822 | Brazil declared its independence from Portugal. |
| 1901 | The Peace of Beijing ended the Boxer Rebellion in China. |
| 1927 | TV pioneer Philo T. Farnsworth succeeded in transmitting an image through purely electronic means by using a device called an image dissector. |
| 1936 | Rock musician Buddy Holly was born Charles Hardin Holley in Lubbock, Texas. |
| 1963 | The Pro Football Hall of Fame was dedicated in Canton, Ohio. |
| 1969 | Senate Republican leader Everett M. Dirksen of Illinois died at age 73. |
| 1977 | The Panama Canal treaties, calling for the United States to turn over control of the waterway to Panama, were signed in Washington. |
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| 1977 | Convicted Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy was released after serving more than four years in prison. |
| 1979 | ESPN made its cable TV debut. |
| 1986 | Desmond Tutu was installed as the first black to lead the Anglican Church in southern Africa. |
| 1990 | Kimberly Bergalis of Fort Pierce, Fla., came forward to identify herself as the young woman who had been infected with AIDS, apparently by her late dentist. Bergalis died the following year. |
| 1996 | Rapper Tupac Shakur was shot on the Las Vegas Strip; he died six days later at age 25. |
| 1997 | Mobutu Sese Seko, the former dictator of Zaire, died in exile in Morocco at age 66. |
| 1998 | St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire equaled Roger Maris' single-season home run record as he hit No. 61 in a game against the Chicago Cubs. |
| 2006 | Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage confirmed he was the source of a leak that had disclosed the identity of CIA employee Valerie Plame, saying he didn't realize Plame's job was covert. |
