On this day in 1519, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan set sail from Seville, Spain, with a fleet of five small ships in an attempt to circumnavigate the globe.
On this day in 1932, Mahatma Gandhi, India’s spiritual and political leader, who preached nonviolence in his long campaign for freedom and social reform, began his prison hunger-strike to protest the caste-segregated election system drafted by the British for India.
On this day in 1946, the first Cannes Film Festival opened.
On this day in 1965, the National Palace Museum was formally inaugurated in Taipei.
And on this day in 2011, the United States ended its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy allowing gay men and women to openly serve in the military for the first time.