Today:
1227 – Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire, died during a military campaign against the Western Xia. The exact cause of his death remains uncertain.
1587 – Virginia Dare was born at the Roanoke Colony in present-day North Carolina. She is traditionally recognized as the first child of English parents born in an English colony in the Americas.
1612 – The trial of the Pendle witches began in England. The proceedings became one of the most famous witch trials in English history and resulted in the execution of ten people.
1868 – French astronomer Pierre Janssen observed a previously unknown spectral line while studying a solar eclipse in India. The observation helped lead to the discovery of helium, an element identified in the Sun before it was found on Earth.
1920 – The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified when Tennessee became the 36th state to approve it, guaranteeing that voting rights could not be denied on the basis of sex.
1938 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Thousand Islands Bridge connecting the United States and Canada across the St. Lawrence River.
1960 – The first commercially successful oral contraceptive, Enovid, went on sale in the United States following FDA approval earlier that year. “The Pill” would have an enormous social and cultural impact.
1963 – James Meredith became the first African American to graduate from the University of Mississippi, less than a year after his enrollment under federal protection sparked riots on the campus.
1992 – Larry Bird announced his retirement from the Boston Celtics after 13 NBA seasons. The three-time NBA champion and three-time league MVP became one of the most celebrated players in basketball history.
2008 – Pakistan’s president Pervez Musharraf resigned after nearly nine years in power, rather than face impeachment proceedings by the country’s parliament.