Today:
1504 – Michelangelo’s David was unveiled to the public in Florence, Italy. The 17-foot marble sculpture became one of the most celebrated works of the Renaissance.
1565 – Spanish forces established St. Augustine, Florida. It became the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in what is now the continental United States.
1664 – The Dutch surrendered New Amsterdam to the English. The settlement was renamed New York in honor of the Duke of York.
1900 – The Galveston hurricane struck Texas, killing an estimated 6,000 to 12,000 people. It remains the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
1921 – Margaret Gorman of Washington, D.C., won the Atlantic City beauty competition that evolved into the Miss America pageant. She was later recognized as the first Miss America.
1930 – 3M employee Richard Drew received a patent for transparent adhesive tape. The product became widely known as Scotch tape.
1941 – German forces began the Siege of Leningrad during World War II. The siege lasted nearly 900 days and caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians.
1966 – Star Trek premiered on American television with the episode “The Man Trap.” The original series ran for only three seasons but eventually grew into one of the most successful science-fiction franchises in history.
1974 – President Gerald Ford granted former President Richard Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any federal crimes he might have committed while president, a month after Nixon resigned because of the Watergate scandal.
1986 – The Oprah Winfrey Show made its national television debut. It ran for 25 seasons and became one of the most successful and influential daytime talk shows in American television history.