TODAY IN HISTORY

1914

Germany declared war on France at the onset of World War I.

1936

Jesse Owens of the United States won the first of his four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics as he took the 100-meter sprint.

1949

The National Basketball Association was formed as a merger of the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League.

1972

The U.S. Senate ratified the Antiballistic Missile Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union.

1981

U.S. air traffic controllers went on strike, despite a warning from President Ronald Reagan they would be fired, which they were.

2014

Israel withdrew most of its ground troops from the Gaza Strip in an apparent winding down of a nearly monthlong operation against Hamas that had left more than 1,800 Palestinians and more than 60Israelis dead.