Events
- 1774 – First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia.
- 1781 – Battle of the Chesapeake in the American Revolutionary War: The British Navy is repelled by the French Navy, contributing to the British surrender at Yorktown.
- 1812 – War of 1812: The Siege of Fort Wayne begins when Chief Winamac's forces attack two soldiers returning from the fort's outhouses.*1836 – Sam Houston is elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas.
- 1862 – American Civil War: The Army of Northern Virginia crosses the Potomac River at White's Ford in the Maryland Campaign.
- 1877 – American Indian Wars: Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse is bayoneted by a United States soldier after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson in Nebraska.
- 1882 – The first United States Labor Day parade is held in New York City.
- 1905 – Russo-Japanese War: In New Hampshire, United States, the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, ends the war.
- 1943 – World War II: The 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment lands and occupies Lae Nadzab Airport, near Lae in the Salamaua–Lae campaign.
- 1945 – Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a Japanese American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist Tokyo Rose, is arrested in Yokohama.
- 1960 – Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) wins the gold medal in the light heavyweight boxing competition at the Olympic Games in Rome.*1969 – My Lai Massacre: U.S. Army Lieutenant William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai.
- 1970 – Vietnam War: Operation Jefferson Glenn begins: The United States 101st Airborne Division and the South Vietnamese 1st Infantry Division initiate a new operation in Thừa Thiên–Huế Province.
- 1975 – Sacramento, California: Lynette Fromme attempts to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford.
- 1977 – Voyager Program: NASA launches the Voyager 1 spacecraft.
- 1978 – Camp David Accords: Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat begin peace discussions at Camp David, Maryland.
- 1984 – STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage.
- 1986 – Pan Am Flight 73 from Mumbai, India with 358 people on board is hijacked at Karachi International Airport.
- 1996 – Hurricane Fran makes landfall near Cape Fear, North Carolina as a Category 3 storm with 115 mph sustained winds. Fran caused over $3 billion in damage and killed 27 people.
Births
- 1829 – Lester Allan Pelton, American inventor (d. 1908)
- 1833 – George Huntington Hartford, American businessman (d. 1917)
- 1847 – Jesse James, American outlaw (d. 1882)
- 1856 – Thomas E. Watson, American lawyer, publisher, and politician (d. 1922)
- 1867 – Amy Beach, American pianist and composer (d. 1944)
- 1873 – Cornelius Vanderbilt III, American general and engineer (d. 1942)
- 1874 – Nap Lajoie, American baseball player and manager (d. 1959)
- 1897 – Morris Carnovsky, American actor (d. 1992)
- 1897 – Arthur Nielsen, American market analyst, founded ACNielsen (d. 1980)
- 1899 – Humphrey Cobb, American author and screenwriter (d. 1944)
- 1901 – Florence Eldridge, American actress (d. 1988)
- 1902 – Jean Dalrymple, American playwright, producer, manager, and publicist (d. 1998)
- 1902 – Darryl F. Zanuck, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1979)
- 1906 – Ralston Crawford, American painter, lithographer, and photographer (d. 1978)
- 1906 – Sunnyland Slim, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1995)
- 1912 – John Cage, American composer and theorist (d. 1992)
- 1912 – Frank Thomas, American voice actor, animator, and screenwriter (d. 2004)
- 1914 – Gail Kubik, American violinist, composer, and educator (d. 1984)
- 1916 – Frank Yerby, American novelist (d. 1991)*1917 – Pedro E. Guerrero, American photographer (d. 2012)*1920 – Peter Racine Fricker, English-American composer and educator (d. 1990)
- 1924 – Paul Dietzel, American football player and coach (d. 2013)
- 1925 – Justin Kaplan, American author (d. 2014)
- 1927 – Paul Volcker, American economist and academic (d. 2019)
- 1929 – Bob Newhart, American comedian and actor
- 1932 – Carol Lawrence, American actress and singer
- 1932 – Robert H. Dennard, American electrical engineer and inventor
- 1934 – Dennis Letts, American actor and educator (d. 2008)
- 1935 – Werner Erhard, American author and philanthropist, founded Werner Erhard and Associates and The Hunger Project
- 1936 – John Danforth, American politician and diplomat, 24th United States Ambassador to the United Nations
- 1936 – Jonathan Kozol, American sociologist, author, and educator
- 1936 – Bill Mazeroski, American baseball player and coach
- 1939 – Claudette Colvin, American nurse and activist
- 1939 – William Devane, American actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1939 – John Stewart, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2008)
- 1940 – Raquel Welch, American actress and singer
- 1946 – Dennis Dugan, American actor and director
- 1946 – Loudon Wainwright III, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
- 1947 – Chip Davis, American pianist, songwriter, and producer
- 1947 – Buddy Miles, American singer-songwriter and drummer (d. 2008)
- 1950 – Cathy Guisewite, American cartoonist, created Cathy
- 1951 – Michael Keaton, American actor and producer
- 1951 – Jamie Oldaker, American drummer and percussionist (d. 2020)
- 1952 – David Glen Eisley, American rock singer-songwriter and actor
- 1953 – Victor Davis Hanson, American historian and journalist
- 1954 – Frederick Kempe, American journalist and author
- 1963 – Juan Alderete, American bass player and songwriter
- 1963 – Jeff Brantley, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1963 – Terry Ellis, American R&B singer–songwriter and actress
- 1964 – Ken Norman, American basketball player
- 1964 – Thomas Mikal Ford, American actor (d. 2016)
- 1968 – Dennis Scott, American basketball player and sportscaster
- 1968 – Brad Wilk, American singer-songwriter and drummer
- 1970 – Liam Lynch, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, puppeteer, and director
- 1973 – Rose McGowan, American actress
- 1975 – Rod Barajas, American baseball player and manager
- 1975 – Randy Choate, American baseball player
- 1977 – Rosevelt Colvin, American football player and sportscaster
- 1977 – Nazr Mohammed, American basketball player
- 1983 – Lincoln Riley, American football coach
- 1985 – Justin Dentmon, American basketball player
- 1985 – Ryan Guy, American soccer player
- 1986 – Colt McCoy, American football player
- 1989 – Elena Delle Donne, American basketball player
- 1990 – Lance Stephenson, American basketball player
Deaths
- 1877 – Crazy Horse, American tribal leader (b. 1849)
- 1898 – Sarah Emma Edmonds, Canadian-American nurse, soldier, and spy (b. 1841)
- 1912 – Arthur MacArthur, Jr., American LTG (Army), Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1845)
- 1920 – Robert Harron, American actor (b. 1893)
- 1930 – Robert Means Thompson, American soldier, businessman, and philanthropist (b. 1849)
- 1932 – Paul Bern, German-American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1889)
- 1948 – Richard C. Tolman, American physicist and chemist (b. 1881)
- 1973 – Jack Fournier, American baseball player and coach (b. 1889)*1975 – Alice Catherine Evans, American microbiologist (b. 1881)* 1984 – Jane Roberts, American psychic and author (b. 1929)
- 1990 – Jerry Iger, American cartoonist and publisher, co-founded Eisner & Iger (b. 1903)
- 1992 – Fritz Leiber, American author and poet (b. 1910)*1997 – Leon Edel, American author and critic (b. 1907)* 1998 – Leo Penn, American actor and director (b. 1921)* 1999 – Allen Funt, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1914)
- 2002 – David Todd Wilkinson, American cosmologist and astronomer (b. 1935)
- 2007 – Jennifer Dunn, American engineer and politician (b. 1941)
- 2007 – Paul Gillmor, American lawyer and politician (b. 1939)
- 2007 – D. James Kennedy, American pastor and author (b. 1930)
- 2012 – Victoria Fyodorova, Russian-American actress and author (b. 1946)
- 2013 – Edwin Bideau, American lawyer and politician (b. 1950)
- 2013 – Isamu Jordan, American journalist and academic (b. 1975)
- 2014 – Bruce Morton, American journalist (b. 1930)
- 2015 – Chester Stranczek, American baseball player and businessman (b. 1929)
- 2016 – Hugh O'Brian, American actor (b. 1925)
- 2016 – Phyllis Schlafly, American lawyer, writer, and political activist (b. 1924)