Today:
476: The Western Roman Empire falls as the last emperor, Romulus Augustulus, is deposed by the Germanic chieftain Odoacer.
1781: Los Angeles is founded by a group of 44 Spanish settlers. The original name given to the settlement was “El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula.”
1886: After years of conflict, the Apache leader Geronimo surrenders to U.S. forces in Skeleton Canyon, Arizona, marking the end of the mainstream Apache Wars.
1888: George Eastman patents the first successful roll-film camera and registers the trademark “Kodak.”
1951: The first transcontinental television broadcast in the United States is made by President Harry S. Truman from the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco.
1957: Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus calls out the National Guard to prevent nine African American students from entering Little Rock Central High School, a key event in the American Civil Rights Movement.
1972: U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz wins his seventh gold medal at the Munich Olympics, becoming the first athlete to win that many gold medals in a single Olympic Games.
1998: Google is formally incorporated by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, graduate students at Stanford University.
2006: Australian television personality and conservationist Steve Irwin, known as “The Crocodile Hunter,” dies after being pierced in the chest by a stingray barb.
2014: Comedian and television host Joan Rivers dies in New York City at the age of 81.