1620: A group of 102 Pilgrims, most of them religious dissenters known as Separatists, depart for North America from Plymouth, England, aboard the Mayflower.
Learn more about the Mayflower.

1804: French physicist Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac ascends to a record height of 7,016 m (23,018 ft) in a hydrogen balloon. He measures of the earth's magnetism, temperature, air pressure, and chemical composition.
Learn more about Balloons.

1810: Father Miguel Hidalgo y Castilla begins a revolt for Mexican independence from Spain, which will be formally granted ten years later after a long revolutionary war.
Learn more about Mexico.

1940: Texas congressman Sam Rayburn is elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, a position he will hold during Democratic majorities in the House until his death in 1961.
Learn more about Sam Rayburn.

1966: The new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in New York opens, with the debut performance of Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra, starring Leontyne Price.
Learn more about the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

1976: The Episcopal Church allows the ordination of women as priests and bishops.
Learn more about the Episcopal Church.

Born On This Day

Karen Horney, psychiatrist (1885) B. B. King, blues guitarist and singer (1925) Francis Parkman, historian (1823) James Alan McPherson, writer (1943) Lauren Bacall, film actor (1924) Robin Yount, baseball player (1955)