Today:
1475 – Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo, famed for the Sistine Chapel frescoes and his sculpture of David, is born in Caprese.
1521 – Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his crew reach Guam during the first circumnavigation of the globe.
1820 – President James Monroe signs the Missouri Compromise into law, an effort to preserve the balance of power between slave and free states.
1836 – The 13-day Siege of the Alamo ends as Mexican forces under General Santa Anna storm the mission, killing all Texian defenders.
1857 – The U.S. Supreme Court issues the Dred Scott decision, ruling that African Americans could not be citizens and that Congress had no power to forbid slavery in U.S. territories.
1869 – Dmitri Mendeleev presents the first periodic table of elements to the Russian Chemical Society.
1899 – The German company Bayer registers aspirin as a trademark following Felix Hoffmann’s successful synthesis of the drug.
1957 – Ghana becomes the first sub-Saharan African nation to gain independence from British colonial rule.
1964 – Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad officially gives boxing champion Cassius Clay the name Muhammad Ali.
1981 – Walter Cronkite, often called the most trusted man in America, signs off for the last time as the anchor of the CBS Evening News.