Inventions, firsts, and turning points tied to today’s date — each one sourced and dated.
In 1959 Mattel unveiled an 11-inch adult-figured fashion doll at a New York toy fair, and a billion-doll industry was born.
Off Virginia in 1862, two iron-armored ships dueled to a draw and made every wooden navy on Earth obsolete overnight.
A fleet bound for India swung so far west it bumped into a continent, handing Portugal a claim to Brazil.
