2016
XXXI Summer Olympic Games officially open in Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2011
NASA announced that its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had captured photographic evidence of possible liquid water on Mars during warm seasons.
1992
4 officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, acquttied on charges of beating Rodney King, are indicted on civil rights charges.
1981
US President Regan fires 11,500 striking air traffic controllers.
1966
The Beatles release their “Revolver” album in the UK.
1964
US begins bombing North Vietnam.
1962
Apartheid in South Africa: Nelson Mandela is jailed. He would not be released until 1990.
1953
“From Here to Eternity” directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift and Frank Sinatra is released (Academy Awards Best Picture 1954).
1926
Harry Houdini performs his greatest feat, spending 91 minutes underwater in a sealed tank before escaping.
1914
Canada joins the rest of the British Empire in the war on Germany; the day after the German invasion of Belgium.
1891
World’s 1st traveler’s cheques issued (American Express).