Today in History

From wikipedia.org:

Events
1614 - Adriaen Block and 12 Amsterdam merchants petition the States General for exclusive trading rights in the New Netherland colony
1890 - In Washington, DC, the Daughters of the American Revolution is founded
1929 - JC Penney open Store #1252 in Milford, Delaware, making it a nationwide company with stores in all 48 states
1950 - The Federal Communications Commission issues the first license to broadcast television in color, to CBS (RCA will successfully dispute and block the license from taking effect, however)
1958 - Pioneer program: NASA launches the lunar probe Pioneer 1 (the probe falls back to Earth and burns up).
1962 - Second Vatican Council: Pope John XXIII convenes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years
1968 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham aboard
1975 - Saturday Night Live is broadcasted for the first time (George Carlin is the guest host)
1984 - Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American women to perform a space walk

Births
1788 - Simon Sechter, music teacher
1961 - Steve Young, American football star
1969 - Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands

Deaths
1809 - Meriwether Lewis, explorer
1896 - Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer