1782: On this day in 1782, Martin Van Buren, America’s 8th president, is born in Kinderhook, New York, to Dutch parents. He left grammar school with his sights set on studying law and pursuing a career in politics.
1791: Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies in Vienna.
1839: Union General George Armstrong Custer is born in Harrison County, Ohio.
1848: President Polk triggered the Gold Rush of 1848 by confirming that gold had been discovered in California.
1933: Prohibition ends. The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, repealing the 18th Amendment and bringing an end to the era of national prohibition of alcohol in America.
1955: A bus boycott begins under the leadership of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Montgomery, Alabama.
1959: Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev is refused entry to Disneyland due to security concerns.
1991: Two German tourists discover the body of a 5000 year old man frozen, named "Ötzi", in a glacier in the Ötztal Alps, hence the nickname "Ötzi", near the Similaun mountain and Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy.
2010: The Deep Water Horizon oil leak (aka the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico) is finally sealed. The accident happened on April 20 and ended on July 15 spilling more than 200 million gallons making this the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
