2008 … SpaceX successfully launched Falcon 1, becoming the first privately owned company to send a liquid-fueled rocket into orbit.
1972 … It’s a historic moment in Canadian sport: Team Canada wins the Summit Series against the U.S.S.R.! Paul Henderson scores with 34 seconds left in the third period of the eighth and deciding game. Henderson also scored the winning goals in games six and seven. An estimated 15 million out of 20 million Canadians watched the series.
1542 … Explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, known as the “discoverer” of California, landed this day in 1542 near what is now San Diego and became the first European to set foot on the west coast of what would become the United States.