On This Day in:

1296 – The Scots were defeated by Edward I at the Battle of Dunbar.

1509 – Pope Julius II excommunicated the Italian state of Venice.

1521 – Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines.

1565 – The first Spanish settlement in Philippines was established.

1805 – A force led by U.S. Marines captured the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli.

1813 – Americans under Gen. Pike capture York (present day Toronto) the seat of government in Ontario.

1861 – West Virginia seceded from Virginia after Virginia seceded from the Union during the American Civil War.

1861 – U.S. President Lincoln issued an order to General Winfield Scott that authorized him to suspend the writ of habeas corpus between Philadelphia and Washington at or near any military line.

1863 – The Army of the Potomac began marching on Chancellorsville.

1865 – In the U.S. the Sultana exploded while carrying 2,300 Union POWs. Between 1,400 – 2,000 were killed.

1880 – Francis Clarke and M.G. Foster patented the electrical hearing aid.

1897 – Grant's Tomb was dedicated.

1899 – The Western Golf Association was founded in Chicago, IL.

1903 – Jamaica Race Track opened in Long Island, NY.

1909 – The sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid II, was overthrown.

1938 – Geraldine Apponyi married King Zog of Albania. She was the first American woman to become a queen.

1938 – A colored baseball was used for the first time in any baseball game. The ball was yellow and was used between Columbia and Fordham Universities in New York City.

1945 – The Second Republic was founded in Austria.

1946 – The SS African Star was placed in service. It was the first commercial ship to be equipped with radar.

1947 – 'Babe Ruth Day' was celebrated at Yankee Stadium.

1950 – South Africa passed the Group Areas Act, which formally segregated races.

1953 – The U.S. offered $50,000 and political asylum to any Communist pilot that delivered a MIG jet.

1953 – Five people were killed and 60 injured when Mt. Aso erupted on the island of Kyushu.

1960 – The submarine Tullibee was launched from Groton, CT. It was the first sub to be equipped with closed-circuit television.

1961 – The United Kingdom granted Sierra Leone independence.

1965 – 'Pampers' were patented by R.C. Duncan.

1967 – In Montreal, Prime Minister Lester Pearson lighted a flame to open Expo 67.

1975 – Saigon was encircled by North Vietnamese troops.

1978 – Pro-Soviet Marxists seized control of Afghanistan.

1982 – The trial of John W. Hinckley Jr. began in Washington. Hinckley was later acquitted by reason of insanity for the shooting of U.S. President Reagan and three others.

1982 – China proposed a new constitution that would radically alter the structure of the national government.

1983 – Nolan Ryan (Houston Astros) broke a 55-year-old major league baseball record when he struck out his 3,509th batter of his career.

1984 – In London, Libyan gunmen left the Libyan Embassy 11 days after killing a policewoman and wounding 10 others.

1986 – Captain Midnight (John R. MacDougall) interrupted HBO.

1989 – Student protestors took over Tiananmen Square in Beijing.