On this date in

1066 The Battle of Stamford Bridge ended the Viking invasion of England.

1513 Standing on a peak in what is now Panama, Vasco Nunez de Balboa became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the New World.

1789 Congress passed 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution. However, only 10 of them (the Bill of Rights) were ratified. The other two were the Congressional Apportionment Amendment and Congressional Compensation Amendment, which was eventually ratified as the 27th amendment 202 years later.

1906 Leonardo Torres Quevedo demonstrated a device that is credited with being the birth of remote control.

1911 Ground was broken for Boston's Fenway Park.

1912 The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism was founded.

1957 Central High School in Little Rock was integrated.

1978 144 people were killed when a Pacific Southwest Airlines Boeing 727 collided with a private plane over San Diego, Calif.

1981 Sandra Day O'Connor is sworn in as the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court.

2003 Writer George Plimpton died.

Born on this date

Mutineer Fletcher Christian (1764-1793)

Author William Faulkner (1897-1962)

Director Robert Bresson (1901-1999)

Sports columnist Red Smith (1905-1982)

Composer Dimitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

Ethel Rosenberg, executed after being found guilty of espionage (1918-1953)

Baseball player and sportscaster Phil Rizzuto (1917-2007)

Baseball player Johnny Sain (1917-2006)

Actor Aldo Ray (1926-1991)

Humorist Shel Silverstein (1930-1999)

Pianist Glenn Gould (1932-1982)

Dancer-actress Juliet Prowse (1936-1996)

Actor Christopher Reeve (1952-2004)