1998 - US Senator John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth, now becomes the oldest astronaut (age 77), as the space shuttle Discovery blasts off from Kennedy Space Center, FL.

1994 - Francisco Martin Duran fires a gun 25 times at the White House, hoping to assassinate President Clinton.

1979 - 50 years after the great stock market crash, anti-nuclear protestors attempt to shut down the New York Stock Exchange.

1966 - The National Organization for Women is founded.

1956 - The Huntley-Brinkley Report nightly newscast premieres on NBC TV.

1956 - Israel launches an invasion of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula during the Suez Canal crisis.

1929 - Black Tuesday, where fearful investors crashed the New York Stock Exchange through the panicked selling of stocks, starts the Great Depression in America.

1924 - The ends of the Holland Tunnel meet under the Hudson River in New York City.

1923 - Turkey becomes a republic.

1912 - The size of the US flag is set by presidential order.

1901 - Leon Czolgosz, US President William McKinley's killer, is put to death in the electric chair.

1863 - The International Red Cross is established.

1808 - The last punishment for witchcraft is administered in England.

1682 - William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, lands at modern day Chester, PA.

1618 - Sir Walter Raleigh, explorer and colonizer, is executed for conspiring against King James I.