Black teenager Emmett Till was murdered for allegedly flirting with and offending a white woman in Mississippi.

One of the most destructive volcanic events in modern history occurred when Krakatoa’s eruption reached its climax.

The National Constituent Assembly of France adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

Captain Matthew Webb became the first person to successfully swim across the English Channel.

Political activist Abbie Hoffman and a group of protesters threw dollar bills onto the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

King Michael I of Romania led a coup d’état that removed the Nazi-aligned government of Ion Antonescu.

Slaves in the French colony of Saint-Domingue on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola began the Haitian Revolution.

Hawaii became the 50th state to join the United States of America after a referendum.

Leon Trotsky was fatally wounded with an ice axe by Spanish communist Ramón Mercader.

The Cold War border between Austria and Hungary was opened for a short period of time for the Pan-European picnic.