TODAY IN HISTORY

1520: Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific after passing through the South American strait that now bears his name. 1907: Future movie producer Louis B. Mayer

opened his first movie theater, in Haverhill, Mass. 1922: Cyril Turner of the Royal Air Force gave the first public skywriting exhibition, spelling out, “Hello USA. Call Vanderbilt 7200” over New York’s Times Square; about 47,000 calls in less than three hours resulted.

1942: Fire engulfed the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, killing 492 people in the deadliest nightclub blaze ever. (The cause of the rapidly-spreading fire, which began in the basement, is in dispute; one theory is that a busboy accidentally ignited an artificial palm tree while using a lighted match to fix a lightbulb.)

1943: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began conferring in Tehran during World War II.

1961: Ernie Davis of Syracuse University became the first African-American to be named winner of the Heisman Trophy.

1964: The United States launched the space probe Mariner 4 toward Mars, which it flew past in July 1965, sending back pictures of the red planet. 1975: President Gerald Ford nominated federal judge John Paul Stevens to the U.S. Supreme Court seat vacated by William O. Douglas.

1979: An Air New Zealand DC-10 en route to the South Pole crashed into a mountain in Antarctica, killing all 257 people aboard.

1994: Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was slain in a Wisconsin prison by a fellow inmate. 1960s war protester Jerry Rubin died in Los Angeles, two weeks after being hit by a car; he was 56.

2001: Enron Corp., once the world’s largest energy trader, collapsed after would-be rescuer Dynegy Inc. backed out of an $8.4 billion takeover deal. (Enron filed for bankruptcy protection four days later.)

2012: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said his state would need nearly $37 billion to recover and rebuild from Superstorm Sandy and that the state would seek federal aid to cover most of the expenses.

2018: Democrats overwhelmingly nominated Nancy Pelosi to become House speaker when Democrats took control of the House in January.