On Oct. 9, 1002, Leif Ericson, the Norse mariner and adventurer, landed in what is now North America.
In 1635 religious dissident Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
In 1701 the Collegiate School of Connecticut, now known as Yale University, was chartered in New Haven, Conn.
In 1776 a group of Spanish missionaries settled in present-day San Francisco.
In 1930 Laura Ingalls became the first woman to fly across the United States when she completed a nine-stop journey from Roosevelt Field in New York to Glendale, Calif.
In 1934 Yugoslav King Alexander was assassinated in Marseille, France.
In 1936 the first generator at Boulder (now Hoover) Dam began transmitting electricity to Los Angeles.
In 1946 the first electric blanket was manufactured in Petersburg, Va.
In 1975 physicist Andrei Sakharov became the first Russian to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1980 Mary Cunningham, an executive with Bendix Corp., resigned her post amid rumors of a romance with company chairman William Agee.
In 1985 San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock was convicted of illegal campaign funding, requiring his removal from office.
In 1987 author, politician and diplomat Clare Boothe Luce died at age 84.
