Today:
1513 – Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and became the first European known to have seen the Pacific Ocean from the Americas. He called it the “South Sea.”
1789 – The First Congress of the United States approved 12 amendments to the Constitution and sent them to the states for ratification. Ten were eventually ratified in 1791 and became the Bill of Rights.
1890 – Sequoia National Park was established in California, becoming the second national park in the United States after Yellowstone.
1911 – Ground was broken in Boston for Fenway Park, which would become the longtime home of the Boston Red Sox. The ballpark opened the following April.
1956 – The first transatlantic telephone cable, TAT-1, officially began service, allowing reliable telephone conversations between North America and Europe.
1957 – The Little Rock Nine entered Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, under the protection of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division, a landmark event in the desegregation of American public schools.
1962 – Sonny Liston defeated Floyd Patterson by a first-round knockout in Chicago to become the world heavyweight boxing champion.
1974 – Scientists published evidence linking chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), widely used in aerosol sprays and refrigeration, to the destruction of the Earth’s protective ozone layer.
1981 – Sandra Day O’Connor was sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the first woman to serve on the nation’s highest court.
1992 – NASA launched the Mars Observer aboard a Titan III rocket from Cape Canaveral. The spacecraft was intended to study the Martian surface and atmosphere but contact was lost shortly before it was scheduled to enter orbit around Mars in 1993.