Today:
1009 – The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah.
1356 – The Basel earthquake, the most significant seismological event to have occurred in Central Europe, devastates the Swiss town of Basel.
1540 – Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: The Burning of Falmouth (now Portland, Maine) prompts the Continental Congress to establish the Continental Navy.
1851 – Herman Melville’s novel *Moby-Dick* is first published in London as *The Whale*.
1867 – The United States formally takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million, a deal often referred to as “Seward’s Folly.”
1898 – The United States takes possession of Puerto Rico from Spain under the terms of the Treaty of Paris.
1922 – The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) is founded.
1954 – Texas Instruments announces the first transistor radio.
1967 – The Soviet probe Venera 4 becomes the first spacecraft to send data from Venus.