On this date

In 1798,

Congress passed the Sedition Act, making it a federal crime to publish false, scandalous or malicious writing about the U.S. government.

In 1881,

outlaw William H. Bonney Jr., alias “Billy the Kid,” was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner in present-day New Mexico.

In 1914,

scientist Robert H. Goddard received a U.S. patent for a liquid-fueled rocket apparatus.

In 1921,

Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were convicted in Dedham, Mass., of murdering a shoe company paymaster and his guard. (Sacco and Vanzetti were executed six years later.)

In 1933,

all German political parties, except the Nazi Party, were outlawed.

In 1966,

the city of Chicago awoke to the news that eight student nurses had been murdered during the night in a South Side dormitory. (Richard Speck was convicted of the mass killing and condemned to death, but had his sentence reduced to life in prison, where he died in 1991.)

In 2004,

the Senate scuttled a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. (Forty-eight senators voted to advance the measure — 12 short of the 60 needed — and 50 voted to block it).

Ten years ago:

President George W. Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore oil drilling which had stood since his father was president.

Five years ago:

Thousands of demonstrators across the country protested a Florida jury’s decision the day before to clear George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

One year ago:

A Russian-American lobbyist said he attended a June 2016 meeting with President Donald Trump’s son that was billed as part of a Russian government effort to help the Republican campaign.

Associated Press