1492: The oldest meteorite with a known date of impact struck a wheat field outside the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France.
1504: Christopher Columbus returned from his fourth and final voyage.
1775: John Murray, the Royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia, started the first mass emancipation of slaves in North America by offering freedom to slaves who abandoned their colonial masters to fight on the British side during the Revolution.
1940: The original Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed in a windstorm a mere four months after completion.