1489 – Christopher Columbus proposes his plan to search for a western route to India in an audience with Spanish monarch, Isabella. Full support is granted 3 years later, in 1492.
1920 – Legendary slugger Babe Ruth smashes his 50th MLB career home run, his first for the NY Yankees in 6-0 win over the Boston Red Sox.
1928 – Pitcairn Airlines (later Eastern) begins service.
1931 – Empire State Building opens in New York City.
1937 – US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Neutrality Act, banning travel on belligerent ships and imposes an arms embargo on warring nations.
1939 – Batman first appears in Detective Comics #27.
1941 – General Mills introduces CheeriOats (renamed Cheerios in 1945) an oat-based, ready-to-eat cold cereal.
1941 – US saving bonds go on sale to help finance the war effort.
1943 – Food rationing begins in the United States during World War II.
1950 – Pulitzer prize awarded to Rogers & Hammerstein for musical “South Pacific”
1952 – Mr Potato Head introduced.
1957 – US gives Poland credit of $95 million.
1961 – 1st US airplane hijacked to Cuba.
1969 – Leonard Tose buys NFL Philadelphia Eagles for a professional sports record $16.5m.
1981 – Tennis player Billie Jean King acknowledges a lesbian relationship with Marilyn Barnett – becoming first prominent sportswoman to come out.
1982 – 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee opens.
1989 – 135 acres Disney’s MGM studio officially opens to public.
1991 – Texas Ranger starter Nolan Ryan pitches MLB record 7th no hitter, beats Toronto, 3-0; at 44, Ryan is oldest to throw no-hitter.
2003 – In what becomes know as the “Mission Accomplished” speech, U.S. President George W. Bush declares that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended” on board the USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of California.
2012 – Guggenheim Partners make the largest ever purchase of a sports franchise after buying the Los Angeles Dodgers for $2.1 billion.
2019 – New York City officially names a street Sesame Street at the intersection of West 63rd Street and Broadway in honor of the show’s 50th anniversary.
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