1254 - Marco Polo, Venice, Italian explorer, was born
1821 - Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras & Nicaragua gain independence
1835 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin reaches Galapagos Islands
1904 - Wilbur Wright makes his 1st airplane flight
1945 - A hurricane in southern Florida and the Bahamas destroys 366 planes and 25 blimps at NAS Richmond.
1961 - Hurricane Carla strikes Texas with winds of 175 mph
1972 - A magnitude 4.5 earthquake shakes Northern Illinois.
1976 - Soyuz 22 carries 2 cosmonauts into Earth orbit for 8 days
