1713
Spain and Britain signed one of the treaties of Utrecht, this one giving Gibraltar and Minorca to Britain.
1787
The U.S. Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which laid the basis for the government of the Northwest Territory and for the admission of its constituent parts as states of the union.
1832
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft identified the source of the Mississippi River as Lake Itasca in Minnesota.
1861
General George B. McClellan and Union troops defeated Confederate forces in northwestern Virginia, an area that subsequently became West Virginia.
1878
The Treaty of Berlin was signed—replacing the Treaty of San Stefano, which had ended the last of the Russo-Turkish wars.
1939
Backed by trumpeter Harry James, American singer Frank Sinatra recorded his first single, From the Bottom of My Heart.
1942
American actor Harrison Ford, who was perhaps best known for playing charismatic rogues in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones film franchises, was born.
1985
The benefit concert Live Aid was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia; the event drew an estimated 1.5 billion television viewers and raised millions of dollars for famine relief in Ethiopia.
2010
American businessman George Steinbrenner—who, while principal owner of the New York Yankees, became one of the most controversial personalities in major league baseball—died at age 80.
2016
Theresa May, the Conservative Party leader, became the second woman prime minister of the United Kingdom, replacing David Cameron, who resigned after the country voted to leave the European Union.
2017
Chinese writer and human rights activist Liu Xiaobo, who advocated for democratic reforms and was the first Chinese citizen to be awarded (2010) the Nobel Peace Prize, died at age 61.
