Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1492

Christopher Columbus sails from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, his final port of call before crossing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.

1522

The Victoria returns to Spain, the only surviving ship of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition and the first known ship to circumnavigate the world. Unfortunately Magellan died in battle before the feat was achieved.

1781

The Battle of Groton Heights takes place during the American Revolutionary War, resulting in a British victory.

1803

British scientist John Dalton begins using symbols to represent the atoms of different elements.

1861

Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant bloodlessly capture Paducah, Kentucky, giving the Union control of the Tennessee River's mouth during the American Civil War.

1870

Louisa Ann Swain of Laramie, Wyoming becomes the first woman in the United States to cast a vote legally after 1807.

1885

Eastern Rumelia declares its union with Bulgaria, thus accomplishing Bulgarian unification.

1901

President McKinley was shot and mortally wounded by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y. He died eight days later, and his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt, was sworn in.

1909

American explorer Robert Peary sent word that he had reached the North Pole five months earlier.

1916

The first supermarket, Piggly Wiggly, was opened by Clarence Saunders in Memphis, Tennessee. The chain is still operating throughout the American South.

1939

South Africa declared war on Germany.

1941

Jews over the age of 6 in German-occupied areas were ordered to wear yellow Stars of David.

1966

South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd was stabbed to death by a deranged page during a parliamentary session in Cape Town

1970

Palestinian guerrillas seized control of three jetliners which were later blown up on the ground in Jordan after the passengers and crews were evacuated.

1995

Cal Ripken Jr. played in his 2,131st consecutive baseball game, breaking the record set by Lou Gehrig. He played in 2,632 games before his streak ended.

1996

Eddie Murray of the Baltimore Orioles hit his 500th career home run during a game against the Detroit Tigers.

1997

Britain bade farewell to Princess Diana with a funeral service at Westminster Abbey. Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey offers prayers for Diana. Well over a million people lined the streets.

1997

Royal Brunei Airlines Flight 238 crashes in the Lambir Hills National Park while on approach to Miri Airport in Malaysia, killing 10.

2003

Mahmoud Abbas resigns from his position of Palestinian Prime Minister.

2007

Israel executes the air strike Operation Orchard to destroy a nuclear reactor in Syria.

2012

Sixty-one people die after a fishing boat capsizes off the Izmir Province coast of Turkey, near the Greek Aegean islands.

2013

Forty-one elephants are poisoned with cyanide in salt pans, by poachers in Hwange National Park.

2018

Supreme Court of India decriminalized all consensual sex among adults in private, making homosexuality legal on the Indian lands.

2022

Boris Johnson resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and is replaced by Liz Truss. Their meetings with Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle were the Queen's final official duties before her death two days later.

2022

Ukraine begins its Kharkiv counteroffensive, surprising Russian forces and retaking over 3,000 square kilometers of land, recapturing the entire Kharkiv Oblast west of the Oskil River, within the next week.

1962

Chris Christie, American lawyer, 55th Governor of New Jersey, and failed presidential candidate.

1962

Elizabeth Vargas, American journalist and author. She has written a memoir detailing her struggles and triumphs with addiction and recovery. (b. 1962)

1992

A 35-year-old man who was the recipient of a transplanted baboon liver died at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 10 weeks after receiving the organ.

1998

Japanese movie director Akira Kurosawa died in Tokyo at age 88. (b. 1910)