1519 – Ferdinand Magellan’s five ships set sail from Seville to circumnavigate the globe. The Basque second-in-command Juan Sebastián Elcano completed the expedition after Magellan’s death in the Philippines.
1628 – The Swedish warship Vasa sank in the Stockholm harbor after only about 20 minutes of her maiden voyage.
1675 – The foundation stone of the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London, England was laid.
1680 – The Pueblo Revolt began in New Mexico.
1755 – Under the direction of Charles Lawrence, the British began to forcibly deport the Acadians from Nova Scotia to the Thirteen Colonies and France.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: Word of the United States Declaration of Independence reached London.
1793 – The Musée du Louvre officially opened in Paris, France.
1821 – Missouri was admitted as the 24th U.S. state.
1846 – The Smithsonian Institution was chartered by the United States Congress after James Smithson donated $500,000.
1856 – The Last Island hurricane struck Louisiana, which resulted in over 200 deaths.
1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Wilson’s Creek: A mixed force of Confederate, Missouri State Guard, and Arkansas State troops defeated outnumbered attacking Union forces in the southwestern part of the state.
1901 – The U.S. Steel recognition strike by the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers began.
1932 – A 5.1 kilograms (11 lb) chondrite-type meteorite broke into at least seven pieces and landed near the town of Archie in Cass County, Missouri.
1944 – World War II: The Battle of Guam came to an effective end.
1944 – World War II: The Battle of Narva ended with a defensive German victory.
1948 – Candid Camera made its television debut after being on radio for a year as Candid Microphone.
1949 – An amendment to the National Security Act of 1947 enhanced the authority of the United States Secretary of Defense over the Army, Navy and Air Force, and replaced the National Military Establishment with the Department of Defense.
1954 – At Massena, New York, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Saint Lawrence Seaway was held.
1954 – Elvis Presley made an appearance in Memphis where he debuted “That’s All Right (Mama).”
1959 – The four male members of the Platters are arrested and charged with aiding and abetting prostitution, lewdness and assignation. They were acquitted on December 10, 1959.
1961 – Vietnam War: The U.S. Army began Operation Ranch Hand, spraying an estimated 20 million US gallons of defoliants and herbicides over rural areas of South Vietnam in an attempt to deprive the Viet Cong of food and vegetation cover.
1969 – A day after murdering Sharon Tate and four others, members of Charles Manson’s cult killed Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.
1970 – Jim Morrison’s trial for allegedly exposing himself onstage in Miami, FL, began.
1971 – The Society for American Baseball Research was founded in Cooperstown, New York.
1972 – Paul and Linda McCartney were arrested for drug possession after a concert in Gothenburg Sweden. Paul was fined $1,000 and Linda $200.
1977 – In Yonkers, New York, 24-year-old postal employee David Berkowitz (“Son of Sam”) was arrested for a series of killings in the New York City area over the period of one year.
1978 – Three members of the Ulrich family were killed in an accident. This led to the Ford Pinto litigation.
1981 – Murder of Adam Walsh: The head of John Walsh’s son was found. This inspired the creation of the television series America’s Most Wanted and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
1985 – Madonna’s Like A Virgin became the first album by a female to be certified for 5 million sales.
1988 – Japanese American internment: U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, providing $20,000 payments to Japanese Americans who were either interned in or relocated by the United States during World War II.
1990 – The Magellan space probe reached Venus.
1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were indicted for the bombing. Michael Fortier pled guilty in a plea-bargain for his testimony.
1995 – Jimmy Buffett led a birthday celebration for U.S. President Clinton’s birthday at the White House.
2001 – Space Shuttle program: The Space Shuttle Discovery was launched on STS-105 to the International Space Station, carrying the astronauts of Expedition 3 to replace the crew of Expedition 2.
2004 – The iTunes Music Store became the first store to have a catalog of more than one million songs.
2018 – Horizon Air employee Richard Russell hijacked and performed an unauthorized takeoff on a Horizon Air Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 plane at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport in Washington, flying it for more than an hour before crashing the plane and killing himself on Ketron Island in Puget Sound.
2020 – Derecho in Iowa became the most costly thunderstorm disaster in U.S. history.
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