On Aug. 25, 1718, hundreds of French immigrants arrived in Louisiana, with some of them settling at what is now New Orleans.
In 1819 Allan Pinkerton, a onetime Cook County lawman who would go on to create the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, was born in Glasgow, Scotland.
In 1825 Uruguay declared its independence from Brazil.
In 1875 Matthew Webb became the first person to swim the English Channel, traveling from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 22 hours.
In 1916 the National Park Service was established within the Department of Interior.
In 1918 conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Mass.
In 1921 the United States and Germany signed a peace treaty in Berlin.
In 1927 tennis player Althea Gibson, who would become the first African-American to win singles championships at Wimbledon as well as the French and U.S. Opens, was born in Silver, S.C.
In 1930 actor Sean Connery was born in Edinburgh.
In 1931 (the year as published has been corrected in this text) television personality Regis Philbin was born in New York.
In 1941 British and Soviet troops invaded Iran in World War II.
In 1944 Allied forces liberated Paris, ending four years of German occupation in World War II.
In 1954 singer-songwriter Elvis Costello was born Declan Patrick McManus in London.
In 1956 human sexuality researcher Alfred Kinsey died in Bloomington, Ind.; he was 62.
In 1984 author Truman Capote was found dead in Los Angeles.
