On this date
In 1620, Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower went ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Mass. In 1937, Walt Disney’s first animated feature, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” had its world premiere in Los Angeles. In 1940, author F. Scott Fitzgerald died in Hollywood, Calif., at age 44.
In 1945, U.S. Army Gen. George S. Patton, 60, died in Heidelberg, Germany, 12 days after being seriously injured in a car accident.
In 1958, Charles de Gaulle was elected to a seven-year term as the first president of the Fifth Republic of France.
In 1988, 270 people were killed when a terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pam Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
In 1991, 11 of the 12 former Soviet republics proclaimed the birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the death of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Ten years ago: Final results showed opponents of Iran’s ultra-conservative president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, winning nationwide elections for local councils.
Five years ago: Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was selected the 2011 AP Male Athlete of the Year. One year ago: The nation’s three-decade-old ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men was formally lifted, but major restrictions continued to limit who could give blood in the United States.