On July 14, 1789, in an event symbolizing the start of the French Revolution, citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille prison.

In 1798, Congress passed the Sedition Act, making it a federal crime to publish false, scandalous or malicious writing about the United States government.

In 1912, American folk singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie (“This Land Is Your Land”) was born in Okemah, Oklahoma.

In 1933, all German political parties, except the Nazi Party, were outlawed.

In 1976, Jimmy Carter won the Democratic presidential nomination at the party’s convention in New York.

In 1980, the Republican national convention opened in Detroit, where nominee-apparent Ronald Reagan told a welcoming rally he and his supporters were determined to “make America great again.”