1776: US Congress proclaims the Declaration of Independence and independence from Great Britain

1785: James Hutton, geologist, publicly reads an abstract of his theory of uniformitarianism for the first time at the meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

1803: The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people by President Thomas Jefferson

1838: Huskar Colliery Mining Disaster in Silkstone England: mining pit floods drown 26 children, leads to 1842 ‘Mines and Collieries Act’ bans women and children working underground

1934: Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard patents the chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb

2017: North Korea tests first successful intercontinental ballistic missile into Sea of Japan

Source: Onthisday.com