On this date

In 1859,

Big Ben, the great bell inside the famous London clock tower, chimed for the first time.

In 1937,

American composer and pianist George Gershwin died at a Los Angeles hospital of a brain tumor; he was 38.

In 1955,

the U.S. Air Force Academy swore in its first class of cadets at its temporary quarters at Lowry Air Force Base in Colorado.

In 1977,

the Presidential Medal of Freedom was presented to polio vaccine pioneer Jonas Salk and (posthumously) to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. by President Jimmy Carter.

In 1979,

the abandoned U.S. space station Skylab made a spectacular return to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere and showering debris over the Indian Ocean and Australia.

In 1995,

the U.N.-designated “safe haven” of Srebrenica in BosniaHerzegovina fell to Bosnian Serb forces, who then carried out the killings of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys.

In 1995,

the United States normalized relations with Vietnam.

Ten years ago:

Oil prices reached a record high of $147.27 a barrel.

Five years ago:

Tens of thousands of workers across Brazil walked off their jobs in a mostly peaceful nationwide strike, demanding better working conditions and improved public services in Latin America’s largest nation.

One year ago:

Emails released by Donald Trump Jr. revealed that he’d been told before meeting with a Russian attorney during the presidential campaign that the Russian government had information that could “incriminate” Hillary Clinton.