Written By SCOTT TAYLOR

1492 — Columbus sailed the ocean blue. No, really, he was departing to cross the Atlantic for the first time.

1620 — The Pilgrims sail from Plymouth, England to settle in Massachusetts, where they become better known as the New England Patriots.

1628 — Puritans settle Salem — and find the odd witch here and there, or so they thought.

1939 — South Africa declares war on Nazi Germany. Good luck with that.

1972 — Nine Israeli athletes and a German police officer are murdered by Palestinian terrorists known as Black September at the Munich Olympics.

1983 — The Soviet Union admits to shooting down Korean passenger flight 007, a 747 aircraft, saying it wrongly identified the jet when it crossed into Soviet airspace. All 269 people on board were killed.

1995 — Baltimore's Cal Ripkin, Jr. plays in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking a 56-year-old record. For those scoring at home, that equals more than 13 seasons without missing a game.

1997 — The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, takes place in London. More than one million people lined the streets and 2.5 billion watched on TV. The shock of it all had still not worn off, and wouldn't for some time.

Born on This Day

1943 — Roger Waters, bassist, musician, songwriter. By the way, which one is Pink?

1947 — Jane Curtain, comedian, actress, who was not ready for prime time for a few years.

1958 — Jeff Foxworthy, comedian. If you know who he is, you might be a redneck.

1964 — Rosie Perez, actress who we loved in White Men Can't Jump.

1971 — Dolores O'Riordan, singer, Cranberry, still sadly missed.

1972 — Idris Elba, British actor, sometimes mistaken for James Bond.

1983 — Braun Strowman, American wrestler who has lately been making some noise with the WWE.

This Day in Music History

1967 — Engelbert Humperdinck is No. 1 on the UK charts with The Last Waltz, which had nothing whatsoever to do with The Band. Thank goodness.

1968 — At Abby Road Studios, The Beatles record While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Eric Clapton plays the solo (nope, it wasn't George) and became the first famous outside musician to play on a Beatles record.

1970 — Jimi Hendrix makes his final live performance. He would be dead 12 days later.

1975 — Glen Campbell hits the top of the charts with Rhinestone Cowboy, his first No. 1 hit.

1976 — Fleetwood Mac gets their first No. 1 album with the imaginatively titled record Fleetwood Mac. They would end up doing pretty well.

1997 — Elton John records a new version of Candle In The Wind after performing it at the funeral for Diana, Princess of Wales. It would become the biggest selling single of all time.

2006 — Victor Willis, who performed as the policeman in The Village People, was given probation after being convicted of drug charges. He co-wrote some of the band's songs including YMCA.

This Day in Film and TV

1971 — Jerry Lewis's eighth Muscular Dystrophy telethon raises more than $8 million. From 1966 to 2010 (most of those years the show was televised for 24 consecutive hours), Lewis raised about $2.5 billion. Yes, that's billion with a b.

1984 — Amadeus wins the Academy Award for Best Picture.

1986 — Three-hundred people pay $300 each to attend a benefit concert by Barbra Streisand. For those still scoring at home, that's a total of $90,000.

1994 — Jackson Pinckney is awarded almost $500,000 after being partially blinded by Jean-Claude Van Damme during filming of Cyborg.

2010 — The King's Speech premieres. It, too, would win Best Picture.

2015 — Martin Milner, who co-starred in Adam 12 and Route 66, dies at the age of 83.