On this date
In 1492,
Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, on a voyage that took him to the present-day Americas.
In 1914,
Germany declared war on France at the onset of World War I.
In 1921,
baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis refused to reinstate the former Chicago White Sox players implicated in the “Black Sox” scandal, despite their acquittals in a jury trial.
In 1943,
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. George S. Patton slapped a private at an Army hospital in Sicily, accusing him of cowardice. (Patton was later ordered by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to apologize for this and a second, similar episode.)
In 1958,
the nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater.
In 1966,
comedian Lenny Bruce, whose raunchy brand of satire and dark humor landed him in trouble with the law, was found dead in his Los Angeles home. He was 40.
In 1981,
U.S. air traffic controllers went on strike, despite a warning from President Ronald Reagan they would be fired, which they were.
Ten years ago:
Nobel Prize-winning Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn died near Moscow at age 89.
Five years ago:
President Barack Obama’s trade representative, Michael Froman, vetoed a yet-tobe-enacted ban on imports of Chinese-made Apple iPads and iPhones, overruling the U.S. International Trade Commission and dealing a setback to rival South Korean electronics company Samsung.
One year ago:
Senators introduced two bipartisan bills aimed at protecting Special Counsel Robert Mueller from being fired by President Donald Trump. (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the effort was unnecessary, and that he wouldn’t let the legislation reach the floor.)