2012: A series of protests and attacks against diplomatic missions in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe begins with an attack by a heavily armed group on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. A second assault the following morning at the Benghazi compound left four dead, including J. Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya. Here a portrait of Stevens is seen along with a condolence book outside the room of Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 14, 2012.
(Alex Wong/Getty Images)2009: Michael Jordan is enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Also inducted as part of the 2009 Hall of Fame class were Jordan's 1992 Olympics "Dream Team" teammates David Robinson and John Stockton.
(Jim Rogash/Getty Images)2005: Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown resigns three days after losing his onsite command of the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. He's perhaps best known for President George W. Bush's praise of him in the wake of the hurricane, saying "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."
2003: Actor John Ritter, best known for playing Jack Tripper on the sitcom "Three's Company," falls ill while on the set of his sitcom "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter." Ritter died later that evening, at 54 years old, from an aortic dissection caused by a previously undiagnosed congenital heart defect.
2002: Actress Kim Hunter (second from right) dies of a heart attack at age 79 in New York City. She won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, each as Best Supporting Actress, for her performance as Stella Kowalski in the 1951 film "A Streetcar Named Desire," and went on to star opposite Humphrey Bogart in 1952's "Deadline – U.S.A." After being blacklisted from film and television in the 1950s amid suspicions of communism in Hollywood, she went on to portray Zira, the sympathetic chimpanzee scientist in the 1968 film "Planet of the Apes" and two sequels, and earned a Daytime Emmy Award nomination in 1980 for her role on the long-running TV soap opera "The Edge of Night."
2002: Former NFL quarterback Johnny Unitas, who won a Super Bowl and two NFL championships in a 18-year career, dies of a heart attack in Timonium, Maryland, at age 69. Unitas, who's seen here signing an autograph in 1964, was the National Football League's MVP in 1959, 1964 and 1967, the first quarterback to throw for 40,000 career yards, the first to throw 30 touchdowns in a season and still holds the record of throwing a touchdown pass in 47 consecutive games.
2001: Three hijacked aircraft are deliberately crashed into the twin World Trade Center towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, in a coordinated attack that became known as "9/11." Another hijacked airliner in the same attack crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after the passengers fought with hijackers for control of the flight. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks, which were later tied to Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida terrorist organization.
1998: Congress releases Kenneth Starr's report, which offered graphic details of President Bill Clinton's alleged sexual misconduct with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and leveled accusations of perjury and obstruction of justice.
(Mark Wilson/Getty Images)1997: NASA's Mars Global Surveyor reaches Mars.
1996: David Bowie's single "Telling Lies" is released exclusively on the Internet. It was the first time a new single by a major selling artist was released exclusively online.
(Adam Bielawski via Wikimedia Commons)1994: Actress Jessica Tandy, best known for movies such as "The Birds," "Cocoon," "Driving Miss Daisy" and "Fried Green Tomatoes," dies from ovarian cancer at the age of 85 in Easton, Connecticut. Tandy won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1990 for "Driving Miss Daisy" and was also nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for "Fried Green Tomatoes." After starting her career on the stage, she also won three Tony Awards, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA Award and a Primetime Emmy over the course of her career. She is pictured here in 1988 with her husband, fellow actor Hume Cronyn.
1992: Hurricane Iniki, one of the most damaging hurricanes in United States history, devastates the Hawaiian islands of Kauai and Oahu, causing $1.8 billion in damages and killing six people.
1987: Actor Lorne Greene, best known for his role of Ben Cartwright on the western "Bonanza," dies of complications from pneumonia at age 72 in Santa Monica, California. Greene is also known for his other TV roles in "Battlestar Galactica," "Galactica 1980" and "Lorne Greene's New Wilderness."
1987: Jamaican reggae musician Peter Tosh, 42, is murdered at his home during a robbery. Tosh was one of the core members of the band The Wailers along with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer, writing many of the band's hit songs, including "Get Up, Stand Up," "400 Years" and "No Sympathy." He also had a successful solo career after leaving the band in 1974.
1985: Pete Rose breaks Ty Cobb's baseball record for most career hits with his 4,192nd hit, a single to left-center field off San Diego Padres pitcher Eric Show. Rose (seen here in 2004) would end up with 4,256 career hits before his final career at-bat, a strikeout against San Diego's Rich Gossage on Aug. 17, 1986. (Stephen Chernin/Getty Images)
1977: Rapper Ludacris is born under the birth name Christopher Brian Bridges in Champaign, Illinois.
1974: "Little House on the Prairie," starring Michael Landon as Charles Ingalls, makes its television debut.
1973: A coup in Chile headed by Gen. Augusto Pinochet (pictured) topples the democratically elected President Salvador Allende. Pinochet exercised dictatorial power until defeated in a referendum in 1988, staying in power until 1990.
1972: Animator Max Fleischer, who brought such animated characters as Betty Boop, Popeye and Superman to the movie screen, dies from heart failure at the age of 89 in Los Angeles.
1971: Soviet politician and leader Nikita Khrushchev dies of a heart attack in a hospital near his home in Moscow at the age of 77.
1970: Actress and singer Taraji P. Henson, best known for movies like "Hustle & Flow," "The Karate Kid" remake and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons," is born in Washington, D.C. She received an Oscar nomination for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons" and also starred in the TV drama "Person of Interest."
1967: "The Carol Burnett Show" premieres. The show, which starred Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner and Tim Conway, would go on to win 25 prime time Emmy Awards over its 11 seasons.
1967: Singer and actor Harry Connick Jr. is born in New Orleans.
1965: DJ and musician Moby is born Richard Melville Hall in Harlem, New York.
(Kevin Winter/Getty Images)1962: The Beatles record the version of "Love Me Do" that would become the band's first single. Newly hired drummer Ringo Starr was relegated to tambourine in favor of session drummer Andy White that day at EMI Studios on London's Abbey Road. He also played the maracas on the song's B-side, "P.S. I Love You." The song would eventually top out at No. 17 on the British pop charts and top the American charts.
1961: Hurricane Carla strikes the Texas coast as a Category 4 hurricane, one of the strongest storm ever to hit the state. The storm would cause more than $325 million in damages, but, due to the evacuation of more than 500,000 residents, the death toll was limited to 43.
1961: Actress Virginia Madsen, best known for movies like "Candyman," "The Rainmaker," "Sideways" and "A Prairie Home Companion," is born in Chicago, Illinois. Her role in "Sideways" earned her nominations for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award.
1957: Film director and animator Brad Bird, best known for directing the movies "The Iron Giant," "The Incredibles," "Ratatouille" and "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol," is born in Kalispell, Montana. He's seen here in 2008 with the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature he won for "Ratatouille." He also won an Oscar in the same category in 2005 for "The Incredibles."
(Vince Bucci/Getty Images)1952: The first artificial aortic valve is successfully fitted in the heart of a 30-year-old patient. The valve was made by Dr. Charles A. Hufnagel of the Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
1950: Actress Amy Madigan, best known for movies like "Field of Dreams," "Uncle Buck" and "Gone Baby Gone," is born in Chicago. Madigan was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1985 film "Twice in a Lifetime."
1944: U.S. Army troops enter Germany, near Trier, for the first time during World War II.
1941: Ground is broken for the construction of The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The building is seen here under construction in July 1942.
1941: Charles A. Lindbergh sparks charges of anti-Semitism with a speech in which he blamed "the British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt administration" for trying to draw the United States into World War II.
1940: Film director and screenwriter Brian De Palma, best known for directing movies such as "Carrie," "Scarface" and "The Untouchables," is born in Newark, New Jersey.
1924: Football coach Tom Landry, who won two Super Bowl titles (VI, XII), five NFC titles, 13 Divisional titles, and compiled a 270-178-6 record as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys between 1960 and 1988, is born in Mission, Texas. Landry's victories as a head coach ranks him third all time for an NFL coach and he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990. He died of leukemia at the age of 75 on Feb. 12, 2000.
(Stephen Dunn /Allsport)1917: Ferdinand Marcos, whose 20-year rule as the president of the Philippines was marred by massive corruption, political repression, and human rights violations, is born in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte, Philippines. Following Marcos' removal from power in 1986, it was discovered that he and his wife Imelda Marcos had moved billions of dollars of embezzled public funds to accounts and investments in the United States, Switzerland, and other countries. He died in exile in Hawaii on Sept. 28, 1989.
1913: College football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, who amassed six national championships and 13 conference championships during his 25-year tenure as head coach at the University of Alabama, is born in Fordyce, Arkansas. Upon his retirement in 1982, he held the record for most wins as head coach in collegiate football history with 323 wins. A member of the College Football Hall of Fame, Bryant played collegiately at Alabama and also served as a head coach at Maryland (pictured here in 1945), Kentucky and Texas A&M prior to his tenure as the Crimson Tide's coach. He died at age 69 of a massive heart attack on Jan. 26, 1983.
1903: The first race at The Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wisconsin, is held. The racetrack, which is the oldest major speedway in the world, is seen here during a 1998 race.
1862: Author William Sidney Porter, better known by his pen name O. Henry, is born in Greensboro, North Carolina. He was best known for short stories such as "The Gift of the Magi," "The Ransom of Red Chief" and "The Cop and the Anthem."
1847: Stephen Foster's well-known song, "Oh! Susanna," is first performed by a local quintet at Andrews' Eagle Ice Cream Saloon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1792: The French Blue diamond, which would eventually become the Hope Diamond, is stolen along with other French crown jewels when six men break into the house used to store them during the early days of the French Revolution. The diamond disappeared and didn't resurface until the 1810s, by then recut into the Hope Diamond.
1789: Alexander Hamilton is appointed to be the first secretary of the United States Department of the Treasury.
1776: A British-American peace conference on Staten Island fails to stop the American Revolutionary War, which was still in its early stages.
1609: Henry Hudson discovers Manhattan Island and the indigenous people living there.