1519 – Ferdinand Magellan sets sail on his expedition to circumnavigate the globe.
1881 – President Chester A. Arthur is sworn in, the morning after becoming President upon James A. Garfield’s death.
1962 – James Meredith, a black man, was blocked from enrolling at the University of Mississippi by Gov. Ross R. Barnett.
1973 – Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in the “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match at the Houston Astrodome.
1977 – The first wave of Southeast Asian “boat people” arrived in San Francisco under a resettlement program.
2001 – In an address to a joint session of Congress, President George W. Bush declares a “War on Terror.”
2011 – The U.S. military ends its “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly for the first time.
