| On this date in: |
| 1778 |
English navigator Captain James Cook became the first European to reach the Hawaiian Islands. |
| 1782 |
Lawyer and statesman Daniel Webster was born in Salisbury, N.H. |
| 1788 |
The first English settlers arrived in Australia’s Botany Bay to establish a penal colony. |
| 1862 |
John Tyler, the 10th president of the United States, died in Richmond, Va., at age 71. |
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| AP Photo/Library of Congress |
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| 1871 |
William I of Prussia was proclaimed German emperor in Versailles, France. |
| 1892 |
Oliver Hardy of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy was born Norvell Hardy in Harlem, Ga. |
| 1904 |
Actor Cary Grant was born Archibald Leach in Bristol, England. |
| 1911 |
The first landing of an aircraft on a ship took place as pilot Eugene B. Ely flew onto the deck of the USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco harbor. |
| 1943 |
The Soviets announced that they had broken the long Nazi siege of Leningrad. |
| 1990 |
Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry was arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting. |
| 1991 |
Financially strapped Eastern Airlines shut down after more than six decades in business. |
| 1993 |
The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was observed in all 50 states for the first time. |
| 2005 |
The world’s largest commercial jet, an Airbus A380 that can carry 800 passengers, was unveiled in Toulouse, France. |
| 2011 |
The first director of the Peace Corps, R. Sargent Shriver, died at age 95. |
