This Day in History

1520: Portuguese mariner Ferdinand Magellan finds the westward route to Asia from Europe by rounding South America and entering the Pacific.
1912: Albanian patriots led by Ismail Qemal proclaim the country's independence.
1916: During World War I, the first German airplane raid on London takes place.
1943: The Tehran Conference begins in Iran, with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin discussing plans for the Allied invasion of Europe.
1960: Mauritania becomes independent.
1964: The unmanned Mariner 4 mission to Mars is launched from Cape Kennedy.
1995: Pres. Bill Clinton signs a measure repealing the federal 55-mph speed limit.
1995: British Prime Min. John Major and Irish Prime Min. John Bruton announce an agreement aimed at restarting talks on the future of Northern Ireland.
2000: After three months of the latest Palestinian intifada, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak dissolves the government and calls for new elections.
2001: Enron Corp., the largest U.S. energy trading company, collapses after smaller rival Dynegy backs out of a planned merger; employees and investors will lose billions of dollars as a result. The collapse is the first in a series of huge corporate scandals.
2002: 10 Kenyans and 3 Israelis are killed as three suicide bombers attack an Israeli-owned hotel near Mombasa, minutes after assailants with shoulder-fired missiles narrowly miss an Israeli jumbo-jet leaving the Mombasa airport.
2005: The government of Canadian Prime Min. Paul Martin is ousted by a no-confidence vote in the House of Commons.