On this date in 1983, a suicide bomber at Beirut International Airport in Lebanon killed 220 U.S. Marines, 18 U.S. Navy sailors, and 3 U.S. Army soldiers.

A near-simultaneous attack on French forces killed 58 paratroopers.

On this date in 1879, Thomas Edison invented a workable electric light bulb in a laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

On this date in 1066, William the Conqueror and his fleet of approximately 600 ships arrived at Pevensey, Sussex, England, thus beginning the “Norman conquest.”

On this date in 1928, Scottish biologist and pharmacologist Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin when he noticed that a bacteria-killing mold was growing in his laboratory.