1. In 1743, Charles Pinckney, a prominent South Carolina statesman who helped draft the United States Constitution, was born in Charleston.

2. On July 23, 1780, during the American Revolution, British forces under General Cornwallis captured Fort Motte in present-day Calhoun County. The fort had served as a base for Patriot resistance in the area.

3. In 1824, Robert Mills, a South Carolina-born architect who designed notable public buildings such as the Washington Monument and the U.S. Treasury Building, was appointed as the first architect of the U.S. government.

4. On July 23, 1941, the U.S. Army Air Corps established the Savannah River Plant in Aiken County as part of efforts to produce enriched uranium for the Manhattan Project, which developed the first nuclear weapons.

5. In 1997, James B. Edwards, a former governor of South Carolina and U.S. Secretary of Energy under President Ronald Reagan, died at the age of 70. Edwards had been a prominent figure in state and national politics, working to improve education and economic development in South Carolina.