"It's all been downhill after that!"

(from the New York Times)

1533 Pope Clement VII excommunicated England's King Henry VIII.

1767 John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States, was born in Braintree, Mass.

1798 The U.S. Marine Corps was created by an act of Congress.

1804 Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in a pistol duel near Weehawken, N.J.

1914 Baseball Hall of Famer Babe Ruth made his major league debut as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. (Ruth struck out in his first at-bat and didn't figure in the decision in Boston's 4-3 victory over the Cleveland Naps.)

1952 The Republican National Convention, meeting in Chicago, nominated Dwight D. Eisenhower for president and Richard M. Nixon for vice president.