On this date in

1875 Matthew Webb became the first person to swim the English Channel.

1916 The National Park Service was created; Van Johnson was born.

1918 Leonard Bernstein was born.

1919 George Wallace was born.

1930 Sean Connery was born.

1944 Allied forces liberated Paris.

1975 Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" was released

1981 Voyager 2 came within 63,000 miles of the planet Saturn.

1984 Truman Capote died.

1985 Samantha Smith was killed in airplane crash in Lewiston, Maine.

1998 Former Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell died.

2003 Pete Sampras retired.