On this day in 1945, the Atomic Age began when the United States successfully detonated a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
On this day in 1951, the Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger was published for the first time by Little, Brown and Company.
On this day 1965, the Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France and Italy opened.
On this day 1969, Apollo 11, the first mission to land astronauts on the Moon, was launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Kennedy, Florida.