1618 – Sir Walter Raleigh, English adventurer, writer and favorite courtier of Queen Elizabeth, is beheaded in London, under a sentence brought against him 15 years earlier for conspiracy against King James I.
1901 – Pres. William McKinley’s assassin, Leon Czolgosz, is executed in the electric chair at Auburn Prison in New York. He had shot McKinley on Sept. 6, 1901.
1956 – Israeli forces invade Egypt, initiating the Suez Crisis, after Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal. The Israelis were soon joined by French and British forces.
1998 – At age 77, Sen. John Glenn is returns to space as a payload specialist aboard space shuttle Discovery. He was the oldest human ever to travel to space. He first went to space in 1962 as one of America’s first astronauts.
