Today in History in 1960 Mickey Mantle hits what is thought to be the Major League baseball's longest home run, sending the ball an estimated 643 feet.

The on this day in history archives at “Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia” contains over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

September 10 is the 253rd day of the year (254th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 112 days remaining until the end of the year.

EVENTS

1419 – John of Burgundy is assassinated by friends of the Dauphin, the future Charles VII of France.

1509 – A strong earthquake hits Constantinople, referred to by people at the time as the "Lesser Judgement Day".

1515 – Thomas Wolsey becomes a cardinal.

1547 – Battle of Pinkie Cleugh: Last major battle engagement between England and Scotland, which ends in victory for the forces of Edward VI of England.

1608 – John Smith is elected council president of Jamestown, Virginia.

1776 – American Revolutionary War: Nathan Hale volunteers to spy.

1798 – At the Battle of St. George, British Honduras defeats Spain.

1813 – The U.S. defeats the British Fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812.

1823 – Simón Bolívar is named President of Peru.

1846 – Elias Howe gets a patent for the sewing machine.

1858 – George Mary Searle discovers the asteroid 55 Pandora.

1897 – In the Lattimer Massacre, a sheriff's posse kills more than nineteen unarmed immigrant miners in Pennsylvania, United States.

1898 – Empress Elizabeth of Austria is assassinated by Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni, at Lake Geneva, Switzerland.

1913 – The first paved coast-to-coast U.S. highway opens.

1918 – Russian Civil War: The Red Army captures the city of Kazan.

1919 – Austria and the Allies sign the Treaty of Saint-Germain recognizing the independence of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.

1927 – France had its first Davis Cup win, though it had competed since 1905.

1932 – The New York City Subway's third competing subway system, the municipally-owned "IND", is opened.

1933 – Ramon Grau San Martin becomes leader of Cuba.

1936 – The first World Individual Motorcycle Speedway Championship is held at Wembley Stadium

1939 – The submarine HMS Oxley is sunk by mistake by the submarine HMS Triton off the coast of Norway and becomes the Royal Navy's first loss in World War II.

1939 – World War II: Canada declares war on Nazi Germany.

1942 – World War II: The Allies carry out an amphibious landing at Majunga, north-west Madagascar, to re-launch Allied offensive operations in the Madagascar Campaign.

1943 – Tottori, Japan is struck by a magnitude 7.4 earthquake, killing 1,190 people.

1943 – World War II: German forces began their occupation of Rome during World War II.

1944 – World War II: American troops liberate Luxembourg.

1945 – In Norway, Vidkun Quisling is sentenced to death for collaboration with Nazi Germany.

1951 – The United Kingdom began an economic boycott of Iran.

1960 – Mickey Mantle hits what is thought to be the Major League baseball's longest home run, sending the ball an estimated 643 feet.

1960 – At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Ethiopian Abebe Bikila becomes the first person from SubSaharan Africa to win an Olympic gold medal, winning the marathon in bare feet.

1961 – Italian Grand Prix: German racing driver Wolfgang von Trips is killed in a crash. Being crushed under his Ferrari, 13 spectators are also killed.

1963 – 20 African-American students enter public schools in the U.S. state of Alabama.

1967 – The people of Gibraltar vote to remain a British dependency rather than becoming part of Spain.

1972 – The United States loses its first international basketball game in a disputed match versus the Soviet Union at Munich, Germany.

1974 – Guinea-Bissau gains independence from Portugal.

1976 – A British Airways Trident and an Inex-Adria DC-9 collide near Zagreb, Yugoslavia, killing 176.

1977 – Last execution by Guillotine takes place in France. Hamida Djandoubi, convicted for torture and murder, is executed at Baumettes Prison in Marseille.

1988 – Steffi Graf wins the Singles Title at the US Open Tennis, managing to win all four Grand Slams in one year. She later wins the Olympic Gold in the same year in order to achieve a historic "Golden Slam".

1989 – A Bulgarian tug boat collides with Romanian passenger ship Mogasoaia on the Danube, near Galati, Romania, killing 207 people.

1990 – The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire – the largest church in Africa and perhaps the world – is consecrated by Pope John Paul II.

2001 – Charles Ingram cheats his way to winning a million pounds on the British quiz programme Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

2001 – Kjell Magne Bondevik is elected Prime Minister of Norway.

2002 – Switzerland, known for its neutrality, finally joins the United Nations.

2002 – The U.S. Homeland Security Advisory System is set to Orange, or High Condition, for the first time.

2003 – Anna Lindh, the foreign minister of Sweden, is stabbed fatally while shopping, and dies of her wounds on September 11.

2006 – Michael Schumacher announces his first retirement from Formula One. On the same day, in Hungary, Jenson Button wins a Grand Prix for the first time.

2006 – King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV of Tonga dies, aged 88. His son, George Tupou V, takes over, and reigns until his own death in 2012.

2007 – Nawaz Sharif returns to Pakistan after over seven years in exile.

2008 – The Large Hadron Collider at CERN on the French-Swiss border is switched on for the first time.

2011 – Tanzanian ferry MV Spice Islander sinks off Zanzibar, killing 1,573 people.

2013 – German Thomas Bach is chosen to succeed Jacques Rogge as President of the International Olympic Committee.

2014 – The first Invictus Games, for injured military servicemen, take place in London.

2015 – Scientists announce the discovery, in South Africa, of Homo naledi, a species of early human.