On This Day, July 16: Apollo 11 blasts off on mission to moon

July 16 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1790, the U.S. Congress designated the District of Columbia as the permanent seat of the U.S. government.

In 1935, the world's first parking meter was installed in Oklahoma City.

In 1945, the first test of the atom bomb was conducted at a base near Alamogordo, N.M. Because the test was top secret, military officials issued a press release announcing the explosion of a remote ammunition dump in case civilians noticed the blast.

In 1951, J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye was published.

In 1959, Billie Holiday, considered one of the greatest jazz singers despite a tragic life, died of cardiac failure at age 44.

File Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress

In 1969, Apollo 11, the first moon-landing mission, was launched from the Kennedy Space Center, carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan was unanimously nominated as the Republican candidate for president at the GOP National Convention in Detroit. He chose George H. W. Bush as his running mate after former President Gerald Ford declined to join the ticket.

UPI File Photo

In 1990, an earthquake struck Luzon Island in the Philippines, killing about 1,600 people.

In 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, were killed in the crash of a single-engine plane in the Atlantic Ocean off the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard. The son of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy was 39.

In 2004, TV personality and businesswoman Martha Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison and five months of house arrest after being found guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of an agency proceeding and making false statements to federal investigators.

In 2015, four Marines were killed and three others seriously injured when a gunman opened fire at two U.S. military facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn. The attacker, Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, was killed by police in a gunfight.

In 2018, President Donald Trump said he didn't "see any reason why" Russia would have interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election after a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki Finland.