Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1521

Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines, where he was killed by natives the following month.

1802

Congress authorized the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

1836

The Republic of Texas approved a constitution.

1850

''The Scarlet Letter,'' Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel about adultery, revenge and redemption in Puritan Massachusetts, was first published.

1915

The Federal Trade Commission was organized.

1935

Adolf Hitler scrapped the Treaty of Versailles.

1945

Iwo Jima was declared secured by the Allies during World War II.

1968

During the Vietnam War, the My Lai Massacre was carried out by United States troops under the command of Lt. William L. Calley Jr.

1978

Italian politician Aldo Moro was kidnapped by left-wing urban guerrillas, who later murdered him.

1984

William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by gunmen; he died in captivity.

1985

Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was abducted in Beirut; he was released in December 1991. AP photographer Donald Mell witnessed the abduction. Read the original AP story

1988

Former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter, former White House aide Oliver L. North, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord and Secord's business partner, Albert Hakim, were indicted on charges relating to the Iran-Contra affair. (Poindext

1994

Figure skater Tonya Harding pleaded guilty in Portland, Ore., to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for covering up the attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan, avoiding jail but drawing a $100,000 fine.

1995

NASA astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American to visit the Russian space station Mir.

1998

The Vatican expressed remorse for the cowardice of some Christians during the Holocaust, but defended the actions of Pope Pius XII.

1998

Rwanda, with 125,000 suspects for 500,000 murders, began mass trials for the country's 1994 genocide.

2000

Independent counsel Robert Ray Ray said he had found no credible evidence that Hillary Rodham Clinton or senior White House officials were involved in seeking the FBI background files of Republicans.

2020

The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 2,997.10, the single largest point drop in history and the second-largest percentage drop ever at 12.93%, an even greater crash than Black Monday (1929). This follows the U.S. Federal Reserve announcing that it will cut its target interest rate to 0–0.25%.

2021

Atlanta spa shootings: Eight people are killed and one is injured in a trio of shootings at spas in and near Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. A suspect is arrested the same day.

2022

A 7.4-magnitude earthquake occurs off the coast of Fukushima, Japan, killing 4 people and injuring 225.

1751

James Madison, the fourth president of the United States, was born in Port Conway, Va.

2000

Thomas Wilson Ferebee, the Enola Gay bombardier who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died in Windermere, Fla., at age 81.