On June 29, 1767, the British Parliament approved the Townsend Revenue Acts, which imposed import duties on certain goods shipped to America; colonists bitterly protested the Acts, which were repealed in 1770.
In 1776 Virginia adopted a state constitution, and Patrick Henry was made governor.
In 1868 George Ellery Hale, the astronomer who developed the 200-inch telescope that bears his name at the Palomar Mountain Observatory in California, was born in Chicago.
In 1900 writer and aviator Antoine Saint-Exupery was born in Lyon, France.
In 1936 baseball Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew was born in Payette, Idaho.
In 1946 British authorities in Palestine arrested more than 2,700 Jews in a drive against terrorism.
In 1949 South Africa’s government banned racially mixed marriages.
In 1954 the Atomic Energy Commission voted against reinstating J. Robert Oppenheimer’s access to classified information.
In 1966 the U.S. bombed North Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, and the port of Haiphong for the first time during the Vietnam War.
In 1967 Israel defied international protests and united the eastern and western sections of Jerusalem for the first time since 1948. Also in 1967 actress Jayne Mansfield, 34, and two male companions died when their car struck a tractor-trailer east of New Orleans.
In 1970 the United States ended its two-month military offensive into Cambodia.
In 1972 the Supreme Court ruled that the way the death penalty was usually enforced constituted “cruel and unusual punishment.”
In 1988 the Supreme Court upheld the independent counsel law.
In 1989 the U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously in favor of new sanctions against China because of its crackdown on the pro-democracy movement.
In 1990 Fernando Valenzuela of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Dave Stewart of the Oakland A’s became the first pitchers to hurl no-hitters in both the National and American Leagues on the same day. (Oakland shut out the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-0, while Los Angeles blanked the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-0.)
In 1992 a divided Supreme Court ruled that women have a constitutional right to abortion, but the justices also weakened the right as defined by the Roe vs. Wade decision.
In 1994 Prince Charles said in a television documentary that he had been faithful in his marriage to Princess Diana “until it became irretrievably broken down.”
In 1995 a five-story department store mall collapsed in Seoul, killing 501 people. Also in 1995 the shuttle Atlantis and the Russian-built space station Mir docked in orbit. Also in 1995 actress Lana Turner died in Century City, Calif.; she was 74.
In 1999 Abdullah Ocalan, leader of Turkey’s rebel Kurds, was convicted of treason and sentenced to death. (The sentence was later commuted to life in prison.)
In 2000 President Bill Clinton nominated former U.S. Rep. Norman Mineta to lead the Commerce Department and become the first Asian-American Cabinet secretary.
In 2002 singer Rosemary Clooney died in Beverly Hills, Calif.; she was 74. Also in 2002 President Bush transferred presidential powers to Vice President Dick Cheney for more than two hours during a routine colon screening that ended in a clean bill of health.
In 2003 13 people were killed when a third-floor porch collapsed during a party in Lincoln Park. Also in 2003 actress Katharine Hepburn died in Old Saybrook, Conn.; she was 96.
