1542 – Explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo discovers California, at San Diego Bay, naming it San Miguel and claims it for Spain.
1701 – Divorce legalized in Maryland.
1779 – American Revolution: Samuel Huntington is elected President of the Continental Congress, succeeding John Jay.
1787 – Congress sends Constitution to state legislatures for their approval.
1850 – US Navy abolishes flogging as punishment.
1867 – The United States takes control of Midway Island.
1904 – Woman arrested for smoking a cigarette in a car on 5th Avenue, NYC.
1928 – 1st recording session in Nashville (Warmack’s Gully Jumpers)
1937 – FDR dedicates Bonneville Dam on Columbia River (Oregon)
1951 – Allie Reynolds’ 2nd no-hitter of 1951; Yanks clinch pennant #18.
1967 – Walter Washington elected 1st mayor of Washington, D.C.
1973 – ITT Building in New York City bombed to protest ITT’s involvement in the September 11 1973 coup d’etat in Chile.
1974 – US 1st Lady Betty Ford undergoes a radical mastectomy.
1981 – Joseph Paul Franklin, avowed racist, sentenced to life imprisonment for killing 2 black joggers in Salt Lake City.
1982 – 1st reports appear of death from cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules.
1988 – LA Dodger Orel Hershiser sets record for consecutive scoreless innings.
1991 – “Shinny Happy People” by REM peaks to #10.
2008 – SpaceX launches the first ever private spacecraft, the Falcon 1 into orbit.
2015 – NASA scientists announce the discovery of flowing water on Mars.
2016 – Hurricane Mathew forms near the Windward Islands, will go on to kill over 1000 in Haiti, the Caribbean and the US.
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