1863 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Fort Wagner: One of the first formal African American military units, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, supported by several white regiments, attempts an unsuccessful assault on Confederate-held Battery Wagner.
1914 – The U.S. Congress forms the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, giving official status to aircraft within the U.S. Army for the first time.
1925 – Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf.
1942 – World War II: The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me 262 using its jet engines for the first time.
1944 – World War II: Hideki Tōjō resigns as Prime Minister of Japan because of numerous setbacks in the war effort.
1966 – Human spaceflight: Gemini 10 is launched from Cape Kennedy on a 70-hour mission that includes docking with an orbiting Agena target vehicle.
1968 – Intel is founded in Mountain View, California.
1969 – After a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts drives his car off a bridge and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, dies.
1976 – Nadia Comăneci becomes the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
1984 – McDonald's massacre in San Ysidro, California: In a fast-food restaurant, James Oliver Huberty opens fire, killing 21 people and injuring 19 others before being shot dead by police.
1986 – A tornado is broadcast live on KARE television in Minnesota when the station's helicopter pilot makes a chance encounter.
1995 – Dreaming of You by Selena, is released posthumously, became the best-selling Latin album in the United States.
2013 – The Government of Detroit, with up to $20 billion in debt, files for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.
1867 – Margaret “Molly” Brown, American philanthropist and activist (d. 1932)
1886 – Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., American general (d. 1945)
1895 – Machine Gun Kelly, American gangster (d. 1954)
1909 – Harriet Nelson, American singer and actress (d. 1994)
1921 – John Glenn, American colonel, astronaut, and politician
1929 – Dick Button, American figure skater and actor
1929 – Screamin' Jay Hawkins, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (d. 2000)
1935 – Tenley Albright, American figure skater and physician
1937 – Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author (d. 2005)
1941 – Martha Reeves, American singer, actress, and politician
1947 – Steve Forbes, American publisher and politician
1966 – Dan O'Brien, American decathlete and coach
1975 – Torii Hunter, American baseball player
1792 – John Paul Jones, Scottish-American admiral and diplomat (b. 1747)
1863 – Robert Gould Shaw, American colonel (b. 1837)
1899 – Horatio Alger, Jr., American novelist and journalist (b. 1832)
1954 – Machine Gun Kelly, American gangster (b. 1900)
1969 – Mary Jo Kopechne, American educator and secretary (b. 1940)
1990 – Karl Menninger, American psychiatrist and author (b. 1896)
1997 – Eugene Merle Shoemaker, American geologist and astronomer (b. 1928)
2005 – William Westmoreland, American general (b. 1914)