On This Day in History

Willie Mays (pictured) of the New York Giants made The Catch, one of the most famous defensive plays in the history of Major League Baseball.

The first Indonesian legislative election resulted in an unexpectedly poor result for the Masyumi Party of incumbent prime minister Burhanuddin Harahap (pictured).

An explosion at the Soviet nuclear reprocessing plant Mayak released 74 to 1,850 PBq of radioactive material.

The University of East Anglia (coat of arms featured) was founded in Norwich, England, after talk of establishing a university in the city began as early as the 19th century.

Mafalda, a popular comic strip by Quino, was first published in newspapers in Argentina.

The Lockheed YF-22, the prototype for the F-22 Raptor, made its first flight.

The award-winning Disney animated film Beauty and the Beast premiered while unfinished at the New York Film Festival.

Archaeologists and volunteers began excavation of the remains of Fort Tanjong Katong in Singapore.

John Roberts became the 17th Chief Justice of the United States; he would be the first Chief Justice to serve for twenty years since Melville Fuller in 1908.

Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 collided in mid-air with an Embraer Legacy business jet near Peixoto de Azevedo, Brazil, killing 154 people and triggering a national aviation crisis.