1492 Christopher Columbus sets sail from Spain on a voyage that would take him to the present-day Americas.
1492 Columbus sets sail from Palos, Spain for "Indies"
1678 Robert LaSalle builds first ship in America, Griffon
1852 First intercollegiate rowing race, Harvard beats Yale by 4 lengths
1860 American Canoe Association founded at Lake George NY
1860 Second Maori War begins
1861 First manned balloon from a ship used to observe Confederate artillery position at Hampton Roads, VA
1882 Congress passes first law restricting immigration
1914 Australian government offers to place the vessels of the Royal Australian Navy under control of the British Admiralty and to raise a force of 20,000 troops in event of war
1914 Germany declares war on France in what would later be called World War I.
1916 Australian Light Horse in battle of Romani, Egypt
1921 First aerial cropdusting in Troy Ohio to kill caterpillars
1923 Calvin Coolidge is sworn in as the 30th president of the United States, following the death of Warren G. Harding.
1934 Three days of anti-Jewish rioting in Constantine, Algeria leave 23 Jews killed and 35 wounded. The pogroms are traced to Radio-Berlin and Radio-Stuttgart Nazi broadcasts.
1936 SS Calyx, built at Eems, Germany in 1929 and renamed in 1936, she sank at the entrance to Ipswich dock. Declared a total loss and later broken up at Ipswich.
1936 The U.S. State Department urges Americans living in Spain to leave because of the Spanish civil war.
1940 Lithuanian is accepted into the USSR
1943 A private in an army hospital in Sicily is slapped by U.S. General George S. Patton, who accused the soldier of cowardice. Patton later apologized for the incident, at the request of General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
1949 The National Basketball Association was formed.
1950 Elements of Marine Corps Observation Squadron, VMO-6, equipped with HO3S helicopters and OY observation planes, began operations in Korea
1952 15th Olympic games close in Helsinki Finland
1954 First VTOL (Vertical Take-off & Land) airplane flown
1955 Automobile Association of America ends support of auto racing
1955 Hurricane Connie begins pounding US for 11 days
1956 Willie Williams of the US sets 100 meter record at 10.1
