On This Day, Sept. 6: First Battle of the Marne begins

Sept. 6 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1522, one of Ferdinand Magellan's five ships -- the Vittoria -- arrived at Sanlucar de Barrameda in Spain, completing the first circumnavigation of the world.

In 1620, 149 Pilgrims set sail from England aboard the Mayflower, bound for the New World.

In 1901, U.S. President William McKinley was shot by an anarchist at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y. McKinley died eight days later.

In 1909, word was received that U.S. Navy Adm. Robert Peary had reached the North Pole five months earlier, on April 6, 1909.

In 1914, World War I's first Battle of the Marne took place outside Paris, France. The allied forces of France and Britain defeated Germany, resulting in the deaths of some 150,000 people.

In 1916, the United States' first supermarket, Piggly Wiggly, opened its doors in Memphis.

In 1966, South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, an architect of his nation's apartheid policies, was stabbed to death by a deranged messenger during a parliamentary meeting in Cape Town.

In 1995, Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr., played his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking the record set in 1939 by Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees. Ripken voluntarily ended his streak at 2,362 games in 1998.

The numbers on the Camden warehouse wall, pictured September 6, 2007, are the same ones used when Ripken broke Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played on September 5, 1995. File Photo by Mark Goldman/UPI

In 1997, Britain bid an emotional farewell to Princess Diana -- killed in a car accident a week earlier -- in a funeral at London's Westminster Abbey that was broadcast worldwide.

In 2004, former U.S. President Bill Clinton underwent a 4-hour quadruple heart bypass operation at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

In 2007, Luciano Pavarotti, one of opera's foremost tenors, died of cancer at his home in Modena, Italy. He was 71.

File Photo by Ezio Petersen/UPI

In 2010, officials said they feared up to 270 people died in two weekend riverboat accidents in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In 2017, Hurricane Irma made landfall in the Caribbean's easternmost islands, tearing roofs off homes and buildings. The storm later passed over Florida and into the southeastern United States, and caused 52 deaths.

In 2018, India's Supreme Court decriminalized same-sex relationships, a colonial-era law.