On this date in history:

In 1777, the U.S. flag was flown in battle for the first time during a Revolutionary War conflict at Cooch's Bridge, Del.

In 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed, officially ending the American Revolutionary War and recognizing U.S. independence from Britain.

In 1916, the Allies turned back the Germans in the World War I Battle of Verdun.

In 1936, Britain's Malcolm Campbell set a land-speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah, averaging 301.129 mph in two runs.

In 1939, Britain declared war on Germany and was quickly joined by France, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada.

In 1942, Frank Sinatra began his solo singing career after leaving Tommy Dorsey's orchestra.

In 1991, film director Frank Capra, best known for such feel-good movies as It Happened One Night and It's a Wonderful Life, died at the age of 94.

In 1997, Arizona Gov. Fife Symington was convicted of fraud by a federal jury in Phoenix. (He resigned two days later.)

In 2004, a three-day school crisis ended in a 13-hour battle between security forces that stormed a school building in Beslan, Russia, and Chechen terrorists who had opened fire on hostages. Nearly 350 people, including about 155 children, were killed. All but one of the 31 suspected hostage-takers also died.

In 2005, William H. Rehnquist, the chief justice of the United States, died at the age of 80 after a long bout with thyroid cancer. He had been on the Supreme Court since 1971.

In 2012, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church, died in South Korea. He was 92.

In 2013, Ariel Castro, 53, who was sentenced to life plus 1,000 years for holding three young women captive for a decade, and sexually assaulting them, hanged himself in his cell at the Correction Reception Center in Orient, Ohio.

In 2014, Pakistan's army said more than 900 militants had been killed in a military mission that began in June in North Waziristan. The army said it lost 82 soldiers in the operation.

Copyright 2015 by United Press International