1497: Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope on the first voyage from Europe to reach India

1926: Imperial Conference ends, granting autonomy within the British Commonwealth

1935: Flying boat “China Clipper” takes off from Alameda, California, carrying 100,000 pieces of mail on the first trans-Pacific airmail flight

1963: US President John F. Kennedy is assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald while riding in an open-topped motorcade in Dallas, Texas

1969: Isolation of a single gene is announced by scientists at Harvard University

2005: Angela Merkel becomes the first female Chancellor of Germany

Source: Onthisday.com