On this day...

1452 1st book published, Johann Guttenberg's Bible
1630 1st execution in America-J Billington hanged in Plymouth, MA
1659 Robinson Crusoe is shipwrecked (according to Defoe)
1659 Peter Stuyvesant of New Netherlands forbids tennis playing during Creligious services
1777 Congress, flees to York Pa, as British forces advance
1791 Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute" premiers in Vienna
1846 Anesthetic ether used for 1st time (Dr Wm Morton extracts a tooth)
1857 US occupies Sand, Baker, Howland & Jarvis Is. south of Hawaii
1867 Midway Islands formally declared a US possession
1877 1st US amateur swim meet (NY Athletic Club)
1878 1st Portuguese immigrants arrive in Hawaii
1880 Henry Draper takes that 1st photograph of the Orion Nebula
1885 Bechuanaland becomes a British protectorate
1887 Start of the Sherlock Holmes Adventure "The Five Orange Pips" (BG)
1887 Volunteer (US) beats Thistle (Scotland) in 8th America's Cup
1895 France proclaims a protectorate over Madagascar
1898 City of NY established
1916 Giants lose to Braves 8-3, ends 26 consecutive win streak
1922 Yanks clinch pennant #2
1927 Babe Ruth hits record setting 60th HR (off Tom Zachary)
1928 Leon Vanderstuyft of Belgium cycles record 76 mi 604 yds in 1 hr
1929 1st manned rocket plane flight (by auto maker Fritz von Opel)
1934 Babe Ruth's final game as a Yankee, goes 0 for 3
1934 FDR dedicates Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam)
1935 Gershwin's "Porgy & Bess" premiers in Boston
1936 Intl Commission of the Straits (Dardanelles & Bosphorus) ends
1938 Munich Agreement-forced Czechoslovakia to give territory to Germany
1939 1st televised college football game (Fordham vs Waynesburg at NYC)
1939 Germany & Russia agree to partition Poland
1941 3,721 Jews are buried alive at Babi Yar ravine (near Kiev) Ukraine
1944 Calais reoccupied by Allies
1945 Hank Greenberg's final day HR wins the pennant for the Tigers
1946 22 Nazi leaders found guilty of war crimes at Nuremberg, Von Ribbentrop & Goering sentenced to death by Nuremberg trial
1947 Yanks beat Dodgers 5-3-largest WS crowd 73,365-1st WS televised
1949 Berlin Airlift ends after 277,000 flights
1950 1st congress of Internat'l Astronautical Federation opens in Paris
1954 1st atomic-powered vessel, submarine Nautilus launched
1956 Phillies Robin Roberts gives up a major league record 46th HR
1960 Flintstones premiers (1st prime time animation show)
1960 On Howdy Doody's last show Clarabelle finally talks "Goodbye Kids"
1962 James Meredith registers for classes at University of Mississippi
1966 Botswana (Bechuanaland) gains independence from Britain (Nat'l Day)
1967 BBC starts their own popular music radio station
1967 Palace of Fine Arts reopens (1st time during 1915 exposition)
1967 USSR's Kosmos 186 & 188 complete the 1st automatic docking
1968 1st Boeing 747 rolls out
1968 Supremes release "Love Child"
1971 Last Wash Senator home game, Yanks win career 5th forfeit Yanks trailing 4-2 in the 9th with 2 outs, fans rush the field
1972 Passenger train derails killing 48 (Rust Stasie South Africa)
1973 Yanks close 50th year at Yankee Stadium losing 8-5
1975 5 drown in flash flood of sewer & water tunnel (Niagara Falls NY)
1977 Ringo releases "Ringo the 4th" album
1978 Major Indoor Soccer League grants 1st 6 franchises to Cincinnati, Cleveland, Houston, New York, Philadelphia & Pittsburgh Phillies win 3rd consecutive NL East Division title
1980 1,754 turn out to see the Phillies play the NY Mets at Shea Stadium
1980 Iran rejects a truce call from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
1981 Seoul, South Korea is selected to host 1988 Summer Olympics
1984 Bowie Kuhn ends career as Baseball Commissioner
1984 Calif Angel Mike Witt, pitches a perfect game over Texas Rangers, 1-0
1984 NY Yankee Don Mattingly wins AL batting crown with .343 avg
1986 US releases soviet spy Gennadiy Zakharov
1988 Andrei A Gromyko retires
1988 IBM announces shipment of 3 millionth PS/2 personal computer
1988 Louise Ritter, US, jumps 6'8" to win the Olympic gold medal
1988 Robin Givens & Mike Tyson appear on the Barbara Walters Show
1988 LA Dodger Orel Herschiser breaks former Dodger Don Drysdale mark by pitching 59 consecutive scoreless innings
1989 NASA closes down tracking stations in Hawaii & Ascension
1989 Nolan Ryan's perfect game is broken with 1 out in the 8th, but he strikes-out his 300th of the year
1991 Haitian President Jean-Bertand Aristide is ousted