Today in history
1528 — England experiences its first serious outbreak of the plague.
1631 — The world’s first employment agency opens in Paris.
1776 — American Declaration of Independence is approved by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. The day is now Independence Day in the United States.
1826 — Deaths of Thomas Jefferson, third US president (1801-09), and John Adams, second president (1797-1801).
1827 — Slavery is abolished in New York and more than 10,000 slaves receive their freedom.
1829 — The first regular scheduled bus service is introduced in London.
1848 — The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, is published.
1862 — English clergyman Charles L Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) begins inventing the story of Alice in Wonderland for his friend Alice Pleasance Liddell during a boating trip.
1884 — The Statue of Liberty is presented to America by the people of France.
1894 — Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed.
1934 — Death of Marie Curie, Polish-french physicist and Nobel prize winner.
1946 — Republic of the Philippines is founded after 47 years of US rule.
1976 — About 20 Ugandan soldiers, four Israelis and seven hijackers are killed when Israeli commandos raid a hijacked airliner in Uganda, to rescue 103 hostages.
1987 — Klaus Barbie, a Gestapo chief in World War II, is convicted of crimes against humanity in Lyon, France, and sentenced to life imprisonment.
1988 — Stefan Edberg defeats Boris Becker to win his first Wimbledon title.
1994 — Tutsi rebels seize most of Kigali and another key city in Rwanda, ending the worst of the genocide in those areas.
1996 — President Boris Yeltsin sweeps to a stunning victory and a second term as Russians decisively reject his Communist opponent.
1998 — Police and British soldiers transform the town of Portadown in Northern Ireland into a military camp, wrapping its Catholic enclave in an armoured cocoon to thwart Protestant marchers.
2008 — Italy grants Pompeii emergency status, a move that will allow authorities to appoint a special commissioner to oversee the site’s preservation and management. Today’s Birthdays: John Pierre Blanchard, French balloonist, (1753-1809); Louis Armstrong, US jazz musician (1900-1971); Eva Marie Saint, US actress (1924-); Anne Kirkpatrick, Australian country music singer (1952-); Pam Shriver, US tennis player (1962-).