1492: Christopher Columbus sights Cuba and claims it for Spain under the name “Juana”

1538: The first university in the Americas, the Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino, is established in Santo Domingo

1746: The Peruvian cities of Lima and Callao are demolished by an earthquake, killing 18,000

1831: Michael Faraday demonstrates his dynamo invention, an electric generator

1886: Statue of Liberty is dedicated by President Grover Cleveland and is celebrated with the first confetti (ticker tape) parade in New York City

1919: The Volstead Act is passed by Congress, establishing a nationwide ban on alcohol, despite President Woodrow Wilson’s veto

1924: Miner M. de Bruin discovers the infant fossil skull, “Taung child,” in a lime quarry in Taung, South Africa; paleoanthropologist Raymond Dart identifies the fossil as a new hominin species, Australopithecus africanus

Source: Onthisday.com