| On this date in: |
| 1802 | The U.S. Military Academy opened at West Point, N.Y. |
| 1804 | Author Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Mass. |
| 1826 | Death claimed the second and third presidents of the United States: John Adams died at age 90 in Braintree, Mass., while Thomas Jefferson died at 83 at Monticello, his home near Charlottesville, Va. |
| 1826 | Songwriter Stephen Foster was born in present-day Pittsburgh. |
| 1831 | James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States, died at age 73 in New York City. |
| 1845 | American writer Henry David Thoreau began a two-year experiment in simple living at Walden Pond near Concord, Mass. |
| 1872 | Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States, was born in Plymouth, Vt. |
| 1939 | Baseball player Lou Gehrig, afflicted with a fatal illness, bid a tearful farewell at Yankee Stadium in New York, telling fans, "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth."
 | Lou Gehrig |
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| AP Photo/Murray Becker |
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| 1946 | The Philippines became independent. |
| 1958 | Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, was appointed auxilliary bishop of Krakow, Poland, by Pope Pius XII. |
| 1959 | A 49th star was added to the American flag to represent the new state of Alaska. |
| 1960 | The number of stars on the American flag was increased to 50 to honor the new state of Hawaii. |
| 1966 | President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act into law. |
| 1976 | Israeli commandos raided Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing almost all of the passengers and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by pro-Palestinian hijackers. |
| 1987 | Klaus Barbie, the former Gestapo chief known as the "Butcher of Lyon," was convicted by a French court of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison. |
| 2004 | The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower was laid at the World Trade Center site. |
| 2008 | Former Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., died at age 86. |
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