The Battle of Karánsebes was a friendly fire incident during the Austro-Turkish War of 1787-1791 that began as an argument over schnapps, but escalated by a series of mishaps into a great confusion in which Austrian troops fired at every shadow, thinking the Ottomans were everywhere, but in reality shooting fellow Austrian soldiers. Two days later, the Ottoman army arrived, discovered 10,000 dead and wounded soldiers and easily took Karánsebes.

Space shuttle Challenger launched and landed nine times before breaking apart 73 seconds into its tenth mission, STS-51-L, on January 28, 1986, resulting in the death of all seven crew members, including civilian school teacher Christa McAuliffe.

On August 19, 1981, Ronald Reagan -- who had pledged during his 1980 presidential campaign to appoint the first woman to the nation's highest court -- announced he would nominate Sandra Day O'Connor. She received unanimous Senate approval and served for 24 years.

October 24, 1929, also known as Black Thursday, was the beginning of the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States. This event was the beginning of the Great Depression, which lasted for ten years.

Early in the morning on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States. At least 1,245 people died in the hurricane and subsequent floods, making it the deadliest United States hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane. Total property damage was estimated at $108 billion.

The Roaring Twenties was a period of sustained economic prosperity that saw the large-scale use of automobiles, telephones, motion pictures, radio, and electricity; as well as unprecedented industrial growth. Jazz music blossomed, the flapper redefined modern womanhood, Art Deco peaked, and, in the wake of hyper-emotional patriotism after World War I, normalcy returned to politics.

With a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States in 2008 and re-elected to a second term in 2012.

The first domain name ever registered was Symbolics.com. It was registered March 15, 1985, to Symbolics Inc., a computer systems company in Cambridge, Mass.

Apollo 11 was the first spaceflight that landed humans on the Moon. Mission commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the lunar module Eagle on July 20, 1969. Six hours later, Armstrong became the first person to step onto the lunar surface.

The discovery of the Antarctic "ozone hole" by British Antarctic Survey scientists Farman, Gardiner and Shanklin (first reported in a paper in Nature in May 1985) came as a shock to the scientific community, because the observed decline in polar ozone was far larger than anyone had anticipated.