Also on this date
delegates began gathering at the State House in Philadelphia to draw up the United States Constitution; the convention did not achieve a quorum of seven states until May 25.
In 1787,
In 1796,
English physician Edward Jenner inoculated 8-year-old James Phipps against smallpox by using cowpox matter.
In 1804,
the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the Louisiana Territory as well as the Pacific Northwest left camp near presentday Hartford, Illinois.
In 1940,
the Netherlands surrendered to invading German forces during World War II.
In 1955,
representatives from eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, signed the Warsaw Pact in Poland. (The Pact was dissolved in 1991.)
In 1961,
Freedom Riders were attacked by violent mobs in Anniston and Birmingham, Alabama.
In 1998,
singer-actor Frank Sinatra died at a Los Angeles hospital at age 82.
In 1998,
the hit sitcom “Seinfeld” aired its final episode after nine years on NBC.
In 2001,
the Supreme Court ruled 8-0 that there is no exception in federal law for people to use marijuana for medical purposes.
In 2008,
the Interior Department declared the polar bear a threatened species because of the loss of Arctic sea ice.
At New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund and potential candidate for president of France, was removed from a Paris-bound plane and charged with sexually assaulting a Manhattan hotel maid, Nafissatou Diallo. (Strauss-Kahn later resigned; the charges against him were eventually dropped.)
A charter bus headed to a casino in rainy conditions crashed north of Laredo, Texas, killing eight people and injuring 44 others.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned doctors about a serious rare inflammatory condition in children linked with COVID-19. Carnival Corp., the world’s largest cruise company, said it would lay off hundreds because of the pandemic.
Associated Press