In 1997, in Hong Kong, the Union Jack was lowered for the last time over Government House as Britain prepared to hand the colony back to China after ruling it for 156 years.
 

In 1995, the shuttle Atlantis and the Russian space station Mir docked, forming the largest man-made satellite ever to orbit the Earth.
 

In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed in France, ending World War I.
 

In 1950, President Truman ordered the Air Force and Navy into the Korean War following a call from the United Nations Security Council for member nations to help South Korea repel an invasion from the North.
 

In 1963, President Kennedy visited West Berlin, where he made his famous declaration: "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a Berliner).
 

In 1997, the Air Force released a report on the so-called "Roswell Incident," suggesting the alien bodies witnesses reported seeing in 1947 were actually life-sized dummies.
 

In 1947, the Senate joined the House in overriding President Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act.
 

In 1964, three civil rights workers disappeared in Philadelphia, Miss. Their bodies were found buried in an earthen dam six weeks later. Eight members of the Ku Klux Klan went to prison on federal conspiracy charges; none served more than six years.
 

In 1967, boxer Muhammad Ali was convicted in Houston of violating Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted. The conviction was later overturned by the Supreme Court.
 

In 1928, Amelia Earhart embarked on the first trans-Atlantic flight by a woman. She flew from Newfoundland to Wales in about 21 hours.
 

In 1933, President Roosevelt opened his New Deal recovery program, signing bank, rail, and industry bills and initiating farm aid.
 

In 1904, more than 1,000 people died when fire erupted aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York City's East River.
 

In 1966, the Supreme Court issued its landmark Miranda vs. Arizona decision, ruling that criminal suspects must be informed of their constitutional rights prior to questioning by police.
 

In 1942, the United States and the Soviet Union signed a lend lease agreement to aid the Soviet war effort in World War II.
 

In 1967, the Six-Day War ended as Israel and Syria agreed to observe a United Nations-mediated cease-fire.
 

In 1969, authorities announced the capture in London of James Earl Ray, the suspected assassin of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
 

In 1929, the sovereign state of Vatican City came into existence as copies of the Lateran Treaty were exchanged in Rome.
 

In 1944, the D-Day invasion of Europe took place during World War II as Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France.
 

In 1989, Chinese army troops stormed Tiananmen Square in Beijing to crush the pro-democracy movement; hundreds - possibly thousands - of people died.
 

In 1965, astronaut Edward White became the first American to ``walk'' in space, during the flight of Gemini 4.
 

In 1953, Queen Elizabeth II of Britain was crowned in Westminster Abbey, 16 months after the death of her father, King George VI.
 

In 1968, author-lecturer Helen Keller, who earned a college degree despite being blind and deaf most of her life, died in Westport, Conn.