1492: Christopher Columbus sails from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, his final port of call before crossing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.
1522: The Victoria, the only surviving ship of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition, returns to Spain, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the world.
1620: The Pilgrims sail from Plymouth, England, on the Mayflower to settle in North America.
1775: George Washington asks Canadians to Join the American War of Independence.
1803: British scientist John Dalton begins using symbols to represent the atoms of different elements.
1864: At the Charlottetown Conference, the first order of business is the taking of the official photograph of the Fathers of Confederation.
1870: Louisa Ann Swain of Laramie, Wyoming becomes the first woman in the United States to cast a vote legally after 1807.
1897: Founding of the Regina Roughrider football club; today's Saskatchewan Roughriders.
1901: Leon Czolgosz, an unemployed anarchist, shoots and kills US President William McKinley in Buffalo, New York.
1913: Hamilton Alerts apply for ORFU reinstatement under a new name, the Hamilton Rowing Club; forerunner of CFL Hamilton Tiger Cats.
1916: The first self-service grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, was opened in Memphis, Tennessee, by Clarence Saunders.
1949: Allied military authorities relinquish control of former Nazi Germany assets back to German control.
1952: First Canadian TV begins as Radio-Canada's CBFT-TV in Montréal starts regular broadcasting.
1957: Paul Anka's hit single Diana reaches #1 on the Billboard pop chart.
1972: Nine Israeli athletes taken hostage and die at the Munich Olympic Games by the Palestinian "Black September" terrorist group.
1972: Canada-USSR Summit Series - Team Canada 4 - USSR 4 in the Game 3 of the Summit Series.
1995: Cal Ripken, Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles plays in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking a record that had stood for 56 years.
1996: Northwest Territories residents vote to keep that name for the western part of territory after the eastern part becomes the territory of Nunavut.
1997: The Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales takes place in London. Well over one million people lined the streets, and 2.5 billion watched around the world on television.