On this day in history

1914: Three German cruisers are sunk by ships of the Royal Navy in the Battle of Heligoland Bight, the first major naval battle of World War I.
1941: The German U-boat U-570 is captured by the British and renamed Graph.
1944: German forces in Toulon and Marseilles, France, surrender to the Allies.
1945: Chinese communist leader Mao Tse-Tung arrives in Chunking to confer with Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek in a futile effort to avert civil war.
1963: One of the largest demonstrations in the history of the United States, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, takes place and reaches its climax at the base of the Lincoln Memorial when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I have a dream" speech.
1965: The Viet Cong are routed in the Mekong Delta by U.S. forces, with more than 50 killed.
1968: Clash between police and anti-war demonstrators during Democratic Party's National Convention in Chicago.
1979: Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb explodes under bandstand in Brussels' Great Market as British Army musicians prepare for a performance; four British soldiers wounded.
1981: John Hinckley Jr. pleads innocent to attempting to assassinate President Ronald Reagan.
1982: First Gay Games held, in San Francisco.
1986: U.S. Navy officer Jerry A. Whitworth given 365-year prison term for spying for USSR.
1986: Bolivian president Victor Paz Estenssoro declares a state of siege and uses troops and tanks to halt a march by 10,000 striking tin miners.
1993: Two hundred twenty-three die when a dam breaks at Qinghai (Kokonor), in northwest China.
2005: Hurricane Katrina reaches Category 5 strength; Louisiana Superdome opened as a "refuge of last resort" in New Orleans.
2012: U.S. Republican convention nominates Mitt Romney as the party's presidential candidate.

Source: HistoryNet.com