On this date in

1609 Explorer Henry Hudson first sailed into what was then an unnamed river.

1683 Polish troops joined with the Habsburg Army to defeat the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vienna.

1818 Inventor Richard Gatling was born.

1846 Elizabeth Barrett eloped with Robert Browning.

1848 Switzerland adopted a new constitution and became a federal state.

1857 The SS Central America sank during a hurricane; 400 passengers and crew as well as 15 tons of gold were lost (significant amounts of the gold were recovered 130 years later).

1880 Journalist-essayist-critic H.L. Mencken was born.

1888 French musical comedy star Maurice Chevalier was born.

1892 Publisher Alfred Knopf was born.

1901 Actor Ben Blue was born.

1913 Jesse Owens was born.

1938 Adolf Hitler demanded self determination for Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia.

1940 Four teenagers discovered the Lascaux caves.

1943 German paratroopers rescued former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from the hotel where he was being held prisoner by the Italian government.

1944 U.S. Army troops entered Germany for the first time during World War II; singer-songwriter Barry White was born.

1953 U.S. Senator John Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier.

1954 The television series "Lassie" made its debut.

1958 Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments demonstrated the first integrated circuit.

1959 The television series "Bonanza" made its debut.

1964 Canyonlands is designed a national park.

1974 The Ethiopian military overthrew emperor Haile Selassie, ending his 58-year reign.

1977 South African black student leader Steven Biko died while in police custody.

1992 Abimael Guzman was captured.

1994 Frank Eugene Corder crashed a stolen Cessna into the South Lawn of the White House, killing himself.

2003 Johnny Cash died.