On this day in 1939, The Wizard of Oz premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California.
On this day in 1971, US President Richard Nixon completed the break from the gold standard by ending convertibility of the United States dollar into gold by foreign investors.
On this day in 1977, the Big Ear, a radio telescope operated by Ohio State University as part of the SETI project, received a radio signal from deep space; the event was named the "Wow! Signal" from the notation made by a volunteer on the project.
On this day in 2005, Israel's unilateral disengagement plan to evict all Israelis from the Gaza Strip and from four settlements in the northern West Bank began.