On Aug. 21, 1680, Pueblo Indians captured Santa Fe in present-day New Mexico after driving out the Spanish.
In 1858 senatorial contenders Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas held the first of their seven famous debates.
In 1944 the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and China opened talks at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington that helped pave the way for establishment of the United Nations.
In 1959 President Dwight Eisenhower signed an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state.
In 1975 the U.S. lifted a 12-year ban on exports to Cuba by foreign subsidiaries of American firms.
In 1991 the hard-line coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev collapsed in the face of a popular uprising led by Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin.
In 2003 the French government acknowledged that as many as 10,000 people might have died in the country’s heat wave.
