Today:
1. 1607 – English colonists make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia, marking the first permanent English settlement in North America, which later became Jamestown.
2. 1803 – Thousands of meteor fragments fall from the sky in L’Aigle, France; the event convinces scientists that meteors exist after much skepticism.
3. 1923 – The wedding of Prince Albert, Duke of York (later King George VI), and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later the Queen Mother) takes place in Westminster Abbey.
4. 1933 – The Gestapo, the official secret police of Nazi Germany, is established by Hermann Göring.
5. 1945 – Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain, the leader of France’s Vichy government during World War II, is arrested on charges of treason.
6. 1962 – NASA’s Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon, marking the USA’s first spacecraft to reach another celestial body.
7. 1986 – The Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurs in Ukraine, one of the most catastrophic nuclear accidents in history.
8. 1994 – South Africa holds its first multiracial elections, which results in Nelson Mandela being elected as the first black president of South Africa.
9. 2005 – Syria ends its 29-year military occupation of Lebanon.
10. 2018 – Comedian Bill Cosby is found guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault, marking a significant moment in the #MeToo movement.