Today's Historical Events

1492 Christopher Columbus notes 1st recorded reference to tobacco

1533 Francisco Pizarro arrives at Cuzco

1577 Sir Francis Drake aboard Pelican travels from Chile to Washington

1620 Myles Standish leads 16 men in a foot exploration of the northern portion of Cape Cod

1720 Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and John Rackham are captured by Capt. Jonathan Barnet and brought to Spanish Town, Jamaica, for trial

1832 Felix Mendelssohn's "Symphony No. 5 (Reformation)" premieres

1835 Charles Darwin reaches Tahiti on board HMS Beagle, the location where he would formulate his ideas later written in The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs

1864 Union Major General Sherman leaves Atlanta on his "March to the Sea"

1898 David Beatty is promoted to commander

1899 Morning Post reporter Winston Churchill captured by Boers in Natal

1901 James J. Jeffries TKOs Gus Ruhlin in 6 for heavyweight boxing title in San Francisco

1904 King C. Gillette patents the Gillette razor blade

1916 Canadian pilot William George Barker flying over Ancre River, spots concentration of German troops massing for counter-attack on Beaumont Hamel, sends emergency Zone Call to break up German infantry apart. Barker later receives Military Cross

1922 British General Election: Conservative party wins a majority under Andrew Bonar Law

1939 FDR lays cornerstone of Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.

1946 Ted Williams is picked as AL MVP

1947 Bradman scores his 100th 100, 172 v Indians at the SCG

1948 Mackenzie King retires after 22 years as Prime Minister of Canada

1948 Louis St. Laurent is sworn in as the 12th Prime Minister of Canada

1956 "Love Me Tender" (The Reno Brothers) film with Elvis Presley in his debut premieres in the US

1959 Richard "Dick" Hickock and Perry Smith murder four members of the Clutter Family at their farm outside Holcomb, Kansas (subject of Truman Capote book In Cold Blood)

1960 Elgin Baylor of NBA LA Lakers scores 71 points vs NY Knicks

1961 Roger Maris is voted AL MVP

1964 Mickey Wright shoots a 62, lowest golf score for a woman pro at the Tall City Open, Midland, Texas

1967 Boston's Carl Yastrzemski wins AL MVP

1969 Janis Joplin, accused of vulgar & indicent language in Tampa, Florida

1970 Paul Brown, as head coach of the expansion Cincinnati Bengals, defeats his former team the Cleveland Browns, a moment he calls his "greatest victory"

1971 Intel advertises 4004-processor

1974 Ringo Starr releases "Goodnight Vienna" & "Only You" in UK

1977 US President Jimmy Carter welcomes Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

1979 A package from the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski begins smoking in the cargo hold of a flight from Chicago to Washington, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing

1980 Pope John Paul II began 5 day visit to West Germany

1982 Funeral service held in Moscow's Red Square for Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev

1983 75th hat trick in Islander history-Mike Bossy

1986 2nd time "Saturday Night Live" uses a time delay (Sam Knison hosts)

1986 Beastie Boys release their debut album "Licensed to Ill" - 1st No. 1 rap album on Billboard charts

1989 Test Cricket debut of Waqar Younis & Sachin Tendulkar at Karachi

1990 US President George H. W. Bush signs Clear Air Act of 1990

1994 German Bundestag officially elects Helmut Kohl as Chancellor by a single vote (341-340)

2002 Hu Jintao becomes the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

2004 Maria Sharapova becomes the first Russian to win the tennis season-ending WTA Tour Championship; beats American Serena Williams 4–6, 6–2, 6–4 at the Staples Center, Los Angeles

2005 Carrie Underwood releases her debut album “Some Hearts” (2006 Billboard Album of the Year, Grammy Award Best New Artist 2007)

2011 "Take Care" 2nd studio album by Drake is released (Grammy Award Best Rap Album 2013)

2014 Vladimir Putin's press secretary says media reports that the Russian president plans to leave the G20 Summit in Brisbane early are nonsense

2017 3 UCLA basketball players suspended after admitting shoplifting in China, only released at President Trump's request

2017 Leonardo da Vinci's painting "Salvator Mundi" sells for $450.3 million at auction in New York, world record price for any artwork

2018 Africa's fastest train between Casablanca and Tangier in Morocco at 320km (198 miles) inaugurated by King Mohammed VI and French President Emmanuel Macron

2018 David Hockney's "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)" sells for $90.3 million in New York, record for a living artist

2018 Art experts in England authenticate two bronzes of men riding panthers as Michelangelo's only surviving bronze works

2018 LeBron James passes Wilt Chamberlain for 5th on the NBA's career scoring list with 44 points for the LA Lakers in 126-117 victory over Portland Trail Blazers at the Staples Center, Los Angeles