| On this date in: |
| 1832 | The first Democratic National Convention got under way, in Baltimore. |
| 1840 | New Zealand was declared a British colony. |
| 1881 | Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross. |
| 1892 | The opera "I Pagliacci" by Ruggiero Leoncavallo was first performed, in Milan, Italy. |
| 1924 | Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb, two students at the University of Chicago, killed a 14-year-old boy in a "thrill killing." |
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| AP Photo |
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| 1956 | The United States exploded the first airborne hydrogen bomb, over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. |
| 1959 | The musical "Gypsy" starring Ethel Merman opened on Broadway. |
| 1979 | Former San Francisco City Supervisor Dan White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting deaths of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. |
| 1980 | "The Empire Strikes Back," the second movie in the "Star Wars" series, was released. |
| 1991 | Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a suicide bomber. |
| 1998 | A 15-year-old student open fired inside Thurston High School in Springfield, Ore., killing two students and wounding 23, one day after killing his parents. |
| 1999 | Susan Lucci, star of the ABC soap opera "All My Children," won her first Daytime Emmy Award for best actress in the 19th straight year she was nominated. |
| 2008 | David Cook won the seventh season of "American Idol." |
