Today in history

1607: English colonists arrived by ship near what became the Jamestown settlement in Virginia (they went ashore the next day).

1918: The first U.S. airmail stamps, featuring a picture of a Curtiss JN-4 biplane, were issued to the public. (On a few of the stamps, the biplane was inadvertently printed upside-down, making them collector's items.)

1940: In his first speech as British prime minister, Winston Churchill told Parliament, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

1973: In tennis' first so-called "Battle of the Sexes," Bobby Riggs beat Margaret Court 6-2, 6-1 in Ramona, Calif.

1981: Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter's Square by assailant Mehmet Ali Agca.

1985: A confrontation between Philadelphia authorities and the radical group MOVE ended with police dropping a bomb onto the group's row house; 11 people died in the resulting fire that destroyed 61 homes.

10 years ago: Tulane University in New Orleans celebrated its "miracle" commencement, nine months after Hurricane Katrina.

Five years ago: Two suicide bombers attacked paramilitary police recruits in northwest Pakistan, killing 87 people in what the Pakistan Taliban called revenge for the U.S. slaying of Osama bin Laden.

Associated Press