1565 - A Spanish expedition established the first permanent European settlement in North America at present-day St. Augustine, Fla.

1664 - The Dutch surrendered New Amsterdam to the British, who renamed it New York.

1900 - Galveston, Texas, was struck by a hurricane that killed about 6,000 people.

1921 - Margaret Gorman of Washington, D.C., was crowned the first Miss America in Atlantic City, N.J.

1935 - Sen. Huey P. Long, ''The Kingfish'' of Louisiana politics, was shot and mortally wounded; he died two days later.

1945 - Bess Myerson of New York became the first Jewish contestant to be crowned Miss America.

1951 - A peace treaty with Japan was signed by 48 nations in San Francisco.

1952 - ''The Old Man and the Sea'' by Ernest Hemingway was published.

1966 - The TV series ''Star Trek'' premiered on NBC.

1974 - President Gerald R. Ford granted an unconditional pardon to former President Richard Nixon.

1975 - Boston's public schools began a court-ordered citywide busing program amid scattered incidents of violence.

1994 - A USAir Boeing 737 crashed as it was approaching Pittsburgh International Airport, killing all 132 people on board.

1998 - Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals broke Roger Maris' record for home runs in a single season, hitting No. 62 off Chicago Cubs pitcher Steve Trachsel.

2000 - The head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs apologized for the federal agency's ''legacy of racism and inhumanity'' that included massacres, forced relocations of tribes and attempts to wipe out Indian cultures.

2003 - The Recording Industry Association of America, the music industry's largest trade group, filed 261 copyright lawsuits across the country against Internet users for trading songs online.