Edwin Prescott was awarded a patent for the vertical loop Roller Coaster.
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Michael Phelps won the 100-meter butterfly swim in a record 50:58 at the Beijing Olympic finals.
NASA launched its Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers mission (AMPTE) from the Cape Canaveral launch pad.
More than 1,200 tin homes were destroyed after a fire broke out in the Chalantika slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
The first issue of Sports Illustrated magazine is published.
Over 566 wildfires swept through British Columbia in Canada, which led to a State of Emergency, and 3,000 people were evacuated.
