TODAY IN HISTORY

1520

Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American strait that now bears his name.

1919

American-born Lady Astor was elected the first female member of the British Parliament.

1942

Fire engulfed the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, killing 492people in the deadliest nightclub blaze ever.

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 on a course toward Mars, which it flew past in July 1965, sending back pictures of the red planet.