Monday

1875 ÷ Captain Matthew Webb became the first person to swim across the English Channel, traveling from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 22 hours.

1944 ÷ Paris was liberated by Allied forces after four years of Nazi occupation.

Tuesday

1920 ÷ The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing American women the right to vote, was declared in effect.

1939 ÷ Major league baseball was televised for the first time as experimental station W2XBS broadcast a doubleheader between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.

Wednesday

1883 ÷ The island volcano Krakatoa erupted; the resulting tidal waves in Indonesia's Sunda Strait claimed some 36,000 lives in Java and Sumatra.

1962 ÷ The United States launched the Mariner 2 space probe, which flew past Venus the following December.

Thursday

1963 ÷ 200,000 people participated in a peaceful civil rights rally in Washington, D.C., where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

1996 ÷ The 15-year marriage of Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana ended with the issuing of a divorce decree.

Friday

1533 ÷ The last Incan King of Peru, Atahualpa, was murdered on orders from Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro.

1991 ÷ The Supreme Soviet, the parliament of the U.S.S.R., suspended all activities of the Communist Party, bringing an end to the institution.