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contained the first recorded use of the term "America," in honor of Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci (vehs-POO'-chee).
• In 1792, highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the first person under French law to be executed by the guillotine.
• In 1859, ground was broken for the Suez Canal.
• In 1862, during the Civil War, a Union fleet commanded by Flag Officer David G. Farragut captured the city of New Orleans.
• In 1898, the United States formally declared war on Spain.
• In 1901, New York Gov. Benjamin Barker Odell Jr. signed an automobile registration bill which imposed a 15 mph speed limit on highways.
• In 1915, during World War I, Allied soldiers invaded the Gallipoli (guh-LIHP'-uh-lee) Peninsula in an unsuccessful attempt to take the Ottoman Empire out of the war.
• In 1944, the United Negro College Fund was founded.
• In 1945, during World War II, U.S. and Soviet forces linked up on the Elbe (EL'-beh) River, a meeting that dramatized the collapse of Nazi Germany's defenses. Delegates from some 50 countries met in San Francisco to organize the United Nations.
• In 1959, the St. Lawrence Seaway opened to shipping.
• In 1972, Polaroid Corp. introduced its SX-70 folding camera, which ejected self-developing photographs. Actor George Sanders was found dead in his hotel room near Barcelona, Spain; he was 65.
• In 1993, hundreds of thousands of gay rights activists and their supporters marched in Washington, D.C., demanding equal rights and freedom from discrimination.
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• Ten years ago: The Pentagon announced that Army Secretary Thomas White, whose tenure as civilian chief of the military's largest service was marked by tensions with his boss, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, was leaving office. Georgia lawmakers voted to scrap the Dixie cross from the state's flag.
• Five years ago: Three New York police detectives were acquitted in the 50-shot killing of Sean Bell, an unarmed groom-to-be, on his wedding day. Triathlete David Martin, 66, was killed by a great white shark in the waters off San Diego County.
• One year ago: The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on Arizona's tough immigration law. (A divided court later threw out major parts of the law.) The Senate offered a lifeline to the nearly bankrupt U.S. Postal Service, voting to give the struggling agency an $11 billion cash infusion while delaying controversial decisions on

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