On this day

In 1794, Blue Jacket, a Sahwnee War Chief, attacked Fort Recovery, a place located in present-day Ohio and then in the Northwest Territory.

In 1860, scientists debated Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in what became known as the Oxford Evolution Debate.

In 1905, Albert Einstein published his article "Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper" ("On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies") in which he introduced ideas which came to be known as the special theory of relativity.

In 1934, Adolph Hitler successfully consolidated his power by purging some of the radical elements in his movement. The purge came to be known as the Night of the Long Knives or the Röhm-Putsch.

In 1971, the state of Ohio ratified the Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The Amendment lowered the voting age to eighteen.

In 1986, the Supreme Court of the United States delivered its opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186. The court ruled that the states have the authority to outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults. The Supreme Court subsequently reversed this decision in Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003).

In 1990, East and West Germany merged their economies.