1305 - William Wallace, who led the Scottish resistance against England, is captured by the enemy forces near Glasgow and transported to London where he is put on trial and executed.
1583 - Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes the first English colony in North America, at what is now St. John's, Newfoundland.
1620 - The Mayflower departs from Southampton, England on its first attempt to reach the New World.
1689 - 1,500 Iroquois attacks the village of Lachine in New France.
1763 - British forces led by Henry Bouquet defeat Chief Pontiac's Indians at Bushy Run.
1861 - In order to help pay for the war effort, the government levies the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861, 3% of all incomes over US $800.00.
1862 - Along the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Confederate troops drive Union forces back into the city during the American Civil War.
1863 - Joseph Merrick, human curiosity nicknamed the "Elephant Man," was born today.
1864 - At Mobile Bay, Alabama, Admiral David Farragut leads a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses and seals one of the last major Southern ports.
1884 - The cornerstone of the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.
1914 - The German minelayer Konigin Luise lays a minefield about 40 miles of the Thames Estuary. She is eventually intercepted and sunk by the British light-cruiser HMS Amphion.
1930 - Neil Armstrong, American astronaut and first man to walk on the moon is born.
1944 - Possibly the largest prison breakout in history occurs as 545 Japanese POWs attempt to escape outside the town of Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
1944 - The Nazis begin a three-day massacre of anywhere between 40,000 and 100,000 civilians and POWs in Wola, Poland.
1962 - Nelson Mandela is jailed, and will not be released until 1990.
1964 - American aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bomb North Vietnam in retaliation for strikes against U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, codenamed Operation Pierce Arrow.
1981 - President Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work.
Marilyn Monroe - the American actress, singer, and model raised Norma Jeane Baker died on this day in 1962. The circumstances of her death have been subject to conjecture, most likely because of an overdose of barbiturates. It is also unknown if it was a probable suicide, accidental overdose, as well as, possibility of homicide.
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