On this day in 1927, Charles Lindbergh touched down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
On this day in 1961, during the American civil rights movement, Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declared martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots broke out.
On this day in 1972, Michelangelo's Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome was damaged by a vandal.
And on this day in 2001, French Taubira law was enacted, officially recognizing the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.