Today in History....September 20

On this day in …

1519, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan set out from Spain on a voyage to find a western passage to the Spice Islands in Indonesia. (Magellan was killed en route, but one of his ships eventually circled the world.)

1565, Spanish forces under Pedro Menéndez de Avilés capture the French Huguenot settlement of Fort Caroline, near present-day Jacksonville, Florida. The French, commanded by Rene Goulaine de Laudonniere, lost 135 men in the first instance of colonial warfare between European powers in America. Most of those killed were massacred on the order of Aviles, who allegedly had the slain hung on trees beside the inscription "Not as Frenchmen, but as heretics." Laudonniere and some 40 other Huguenots escaped
1806, after nearly two-and-a-half years spent exploring the western wilderness, the Corps of Discovery arrived at the frontier village of La Charette, the first white settlement they had seen since leaving behind the outposts of eastern civilization in 1804

1870, Italian troops took control of the Papal States, leading to the unification of Italy

1873, panic swept the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in the wake of railroad bond defaults and bank failures

1881, Chester A. Arthur was sworn in as the 21st president of the United States, succeeding the assassinated James A. Garfield

1976, Playboy magazine released an interview in which Democratic presidential nominee Jimmy Carter admitted he'd "looked on a lot of women with lust."

1984, a suicide car bomber, a practitioner of that "religion of peace", attacked the U.S. Embassy annex in north Beirut, killing a dozen people

1995, AT&T announced that it was going to split itself into three smaller companies

2001, President Bush announced a new Cabinet-level office to fortify homeland security and named Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge its director