In 1540, King Henry VIII’S chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, was executed, the same day Henry married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard.

In 1821, Peru declared independence from Spain.

In 1932, federal troops forcibly dispersed the “Bonus Army” of World War I veterans who had gathered in Washington to demand payments they weren’t scheduled to receive until 1945.

In 1914, World War I began as Austria-hungary declared war on Serbia.

In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced the end of coffee rationing, which had limited people to one pound of coffee every five weeks since it began in November 1942.

In 1976, an earthquake devastated northern China, killing at least 242,000, according to an official estimate.

In 1984, the Los Angeles Summer Olympics opened.

In 2015, it was announced that Jonathan Pollard, the former Naval intelligence analyst who had spent nearly three decades in prison for spying for Israel, had been granted parole.