On this date in history:

In 1794, Maximilien Robespierre, architect of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror, was overthrown and arrested by the National Convention. Robespierre, who encouraged the execution, mostly by guillotine, of more than 17,000 enemies of the revolution, was himself guillotined the following day.

In 1909, Orville Wright set a record by staying aloft in a plane for 1 hour, 12 minutes, 40 seconds.

In 1921, at the University of Toronto, Canadian scientists Frederick Banting and Charles Best successfully isolated insulin -- a hormone they believed could prevent diabetes -- for the first time.

In 1953, a truce officially ended the Korean War, which had begun June 25, 1950.

In 1974, the House judiciary committee voted to recommend impeachment of President Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal. The 37th president resigned less than two weeks later.

In 1986, Greg LeMond, 25, of Sacramento, became the first American to win cycling's most famous contest, the Tour de France.

In 1989, a Korean Air DC-10 crashed in heavy fog while attempting to land at Tripoli airport in Libya, killing 82 people, four of them on the ground.

In 1996, a bomb exploded at Olympic Park in Atlanta during the Summer Games, killing two people and injuring more than 100 other people.

In 2002, nine coal miners were trapped 240 feet underground in southwestern Pennsylvania when a wall collapsed, inundating them with water. A three-day rescue operation saved them all.

In 2012, the Summer Olympics opened in London, with 10,820 athletes representing 204 countries.

In 2020, Rep. John Lewis became the first Black lawmaker to lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda 10 days after his death from cancer.

Copyright 2021 by United Press International