3114 BC – The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, notably the Maya, began.

1315 – The Great Famine of Europe became so dire that even the king of England had difficulties buying bread for himself and his entourage.

1866 – The world’s first roller rink opened (Newport, Rhode Island).

1896 – Harvey Hubbell patented the electric light bulb socket with a pull chain.

1929 – Babe Ruth became the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio.

1934 – The first civilian prisoners arrived at the Federal prison on Alcatraz Island.

1942 – Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil received a patent for a Frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones, two-way radio communications, and Wi-Fi.

1951 – First televised baseball game in color, on WCBS in New York City (Boston Braves beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 8-1).

1962 – Vostok 3 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev became the first person to float in microgravity.

1964 – “A Hard Days Night,” a musical comedy film featuring the Beatles, was released in the US.

1965 – “Help,” a musical comedy film featuring the Beatles, was released in the US.

1966 – The last Beatles concert tour of US began.

1968 – The Beatles launched “Apple Records” label.

1969 – The Apollo 11 astronauts were released from a three-week quarantine following their liftoff from the moon.

1971 – Construction began on the Louisiana Superdome.

1972 – Vietnam War: The last United States ground combat unit left South Vietnam.

1973 – “American Graffiti”, directed by George Lucas, opened in cinemas across the US.

1976 – “The Who” drummer Keith Moon collapsed and was hospitalized in Miami, Florida.

1984 – “We begin bombing in five minutes”: United States President Ronald Reagan, while running for re-election, joked while preparing to make his weekly Saturday address on National Public Radio.

2000 – An air rage incident occured on board Southwest Airlines Flight 1763 when 19-year-old Jonathan Burton attempted to storm the cockpit, but he was subdued by other passengers and died from his injuries.

2016 – A Greenland shark was declared the oldest vertebrate animal in the world at 392 years by international team of scientists.