1905 – Orville and Wilbur Wright make a circling flight on “Flyer Hill” of 24.2 miles in 39 minutes and 23 seconds.
1912 – Baseball: New York Highlanders’ last game at Hilltop Stadium and beat Washington 8-6. Brooklyn Dodgers’ last game at Washington Park and lost 1-0 to the New York Giants.
1924 – First Little Orphan Annie strip appears in New York Daily News.
1925 – WSM-AM in Nashville, Tennessee begins radio transmission.
1943 – United States air raid on Wake Island. Japanese execute 98 US prisoners in retaliation.
1945 – “Meet the Press” premieres on radio.
1947 – Harry Truman makes the first presidential address televised from the White House.
1950 – Boston Celtics owner Walter Brown and coach Red Auerbach draw lots out of hat for three members of the defunct Chicago Stags franchise and hit the jackpot with future 6-time NBA champion Bob Cousy.
1954 – Hurricane Hazel forms in the Caribbean, killing 400 to 1,000 people in the Bahamas and Haiti.
1961 – “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” film, based on the novella by Truman Capote, directed by Blake Edwards and starring Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard and Buddy Ebsen, premieres.
1970 – Public Broadcasting System becomes a television network.
1976 – Major League Baseball expansion draft: Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays pick 30 unprotected American League players. Ruppert Jones, outfielder (Seattle) and Bob Bailor, outfielder (Toronto) are first picks.
1983 – Polish solidarity leader Lech Walsea wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
1991 – Fresno State ties NCAA football record with 49 points in a quarter (2nd) as it routs New Mexico 94-17 at Bulldog Stadium in Fresno, California.
1994 – National Basketball Association shortens the 3-point distance to a uniform 22 feet in an attempt to help offensive players score more. Michael Jordan sets career highs in 3-point attempts and converted 3-point field goals, nearly double previous statistics.
2001 – Robert Stevens becomes the first victim in the 2001 anthrax attacks.
2007 – Film “Michael Clayton,” a legal thriller starring George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton, is released.
2015 – Floods in South Carolina during a “1,000-year storm” result in 12 deaths and nine dams to fail.
2018 – Unemployment figures hit lowest levels since 1969 at 3.7%, according to the Department of Labor.
2023 – Record 961 migrating birds die after hitting McCormick Place Lakeside Center building in Chicago during fall migration.