1889: William Gray patented the coin-operated telephone.
1930: Capt. Frank Hawkes set an air speed record by flying from Los Angeles to New York in 12 hours, 25 minutes.
1961: East Germany closed the Brandenburg Gate and prepared to start building the Berlin Wall.
1980: U.S. President Jimmy Carter was nominated for a second term by the Democratic National Convention in New York but lost in November to Ronald Reagan.
1990: Singer/songwriter Curtis Mayfield was left paralyzed when he was hit by a wind-blown lighting rig on an outdoor stage in New York. He died in 1999.
1992: A gunman dressed in military fatigues went on a shooting spree in a plant nursery in Watsonville, California, killing three and wounding four others before killing himself.
1993: Israel agreed for the first time to negotiate with a Palestinian delegation whose members belonged officially to the PLO.
1994: North Korea agreed to allow U.N. monitors to inspect a secret nuclear laboratory.
