On this date in history:

In 1822, Brazil declared independence from Portugal.

In 1892, James Corbett knocked out John L. Sullivan in the 21st round of a prizefight at New Orleans, the first major fight under the Marquess of Queensberry Rules.

In 1901, the Boxer Rebellion in China ended with the Boxer Protocol, a peace agreement between China and other world powers.

In 1940, Nazi Germany launched the London blitz, bombings that Adolf Hitler believed would soften Britain for invasion. The invasion never materialized.

In 1943, a fire swept through the Gulf Hotel in Houston, killing 55 men, many of whom were homeless.

In 1963, the Pro Football Hall of Fame opened in Canton, Ohio. The inaugural inductees included George Halas and Harold Red Grange.

In 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos signed a treaty agreeing to transfer control of the Panama Canal from the United States to Panama at the end of the 20th century.

In 1986, Desmond Tutu was installed as the Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, becoming first black titular head of South Africa's fourth-largest Christian church.

In 1992, 12 people were killed when a twin-engine plane carrying skydivers crashed in a soybean field in Hinckley, Ill.

In 1996, rapper Tupac Shakur was hospitalized after being shot four times in Las Vegas. Shakur died six days later.

In 2007, the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego agreed to pay almost $200 million to 144 people who said they were sexually abused by members of the clergy.

In 2008, the U.S. government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, giant mortgage firms that owned or backed $5.3 trillion in mortgages, after they failed to properly account for losses, using questionable accounting methods to push them into the future so they wouldn't need to be reported until the next year.

In 2009, the British government convicted three men of plotting to blow up seven trans-Atlantic flights, smuggling explosives aboard in soft drink bottles, a plan that led to tighter airline regulations on carry-on bottles of liquid.

In 2011, a plane crash near the Russian city of Yaroslavl killed 44 people, including almost the entire Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Kontinental Hockey League team. Several of the victims had ties to North America's National Hockey League. A member of the aircraft's crew was the only survivor.

In 2019, Bianca Andreescu became the first Canadian to win a Grand Slam when she defeated Serena Williams to take the U.S. Open.

In 2021, El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.

In 2022, researchers announced that they found what appears to be the earliest-known evidence of surgical amputation, from a 31,000-year-old skeleton unearthed in Indonesia.

In 2023, actor Danny Masterson, star of That '70s Show, was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for raping two women in Los Angeles in 2003.

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