In 1997, Diana, the Princess of Wales, was killed in an automobile accident in a tunnel by the Seine in Paris. The accident also killed Emad Mohammed al-Fayed, the Harrod's heir.
 

In 1963, the hot-line communications link between Washington, D.C., and Moscow went into operation.
 

In 1991, the Supreme Soviet, the parliament of the U.S.S.R., suspended all activities of the Communist Party, bringing an end to the institution.
 

In 1963, 200,000 people participated in a peaceful civil rights rally in Washington, D.C., where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
 

In 1962, the United States launched the Mariner 2 space probe, which flew past Venus the following December.
 

In 1920, the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, guaranteeing American women the right to vote, was declared in effect.
 

In 1992, Hurricane Andrew smashed into Florida, causing record damage; 55 deaths in Florida, Louisiana and the Bahamas were blamed on the storm.
 

In 1927, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in Boston for the murders of two men during a 1920 robbery. They were vindicated in 1977 by Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis.
 

In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt became the first United States chief executive to ride in an automobile.
 

In 1959, President Eisenhower signed an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union.
 

In 1968, the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague Spring" liberalization drive of Alexander Dubcek's regime.
 

 

In 1963, James Meredith became the first black to graduate from the University of Mississippi.

In 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair concluded near Bethel, N.Y.

In 1977, Elvis Presley died at Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tenn., at age 42.

In 1947, India and Pakistan became independent after some 200 years of British rule.

In 1945, President Truman announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally, ending World War II.

In 1961, Berlin was divided as East Germany sealed off the border between the city's eastern and western sectors in order to halt the flight of refugees. Two days later, work began on the Berlin Wall.

In 1898, the peace protocol ending the Spanish-American War was signed.

In 1965, rioting and looting broke out in the predominantly black Watts section of Los Angeles. In the week that followed, 34 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured.

In 1977, postal employee David Berkowitz was arrested in Yonkers, N.Y., accused of being the "Son of Sam" gunman responsible for six random slayings and seven woundings. Berkowitz is serving six consecutive terms of 25 years to life in state prison.

In 1945, three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, the United States exploded a nuclear device over Nagasaki, killing an estimated 74,000 people.

In 1974, President Nixon announced he would resign following damaging revelations in the Watergate scandal.

In 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, giving President Johnson broad powers in dealing with reported North Vietnamese attacks on United States forces.

In 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II, killing an estimated 140,000 people in the first use of a nuclear weapon in warfare.

In 1963, the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union signed a treaty in Moscow banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, space and underwater.

In 1914, Britain declared war on Germany while the United States proclaimed its neutrality.

In 1958, the nuclear-powered submarine Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater.

In 1923, the 29th president of the United States, Warren G. Harding, died in San Francisco. Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office as President of the United States.

In 1936, the Olympic games opened in Berlin with a ceremony presided over by Adolf Hitler.