In 1787, the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia began to debate the articles contained in a draft of the U.S. Constitution.
In 1806, the Holy Roman Empire went out of existence as Emperor Fancis I abdicated.
In 1825, Bolivia declared its independence from Peru.
In 1890, the electric chair was first used, at a prison in Auburn, N.Y. The exucution of convicted murderer William Kemmler raised a storm of controversy over whether the method was humane.
In 1945, the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, killing an estimated 80,000 people outright and abliterating more than half the city in the first use of a nuclear weapon in warfare.