On This Day: James Dean dies in car crash

Sept. 30 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1630, John Billington, one of the first pilgrims to land in America, was hanged for murder -- the first European criminal executed in the American colonies.

In 1846, a dentist in Charleston, Mass., extracted a tooth with the aid of an anesthetic -- ether. It was the first time an anesthetic had been used.

In 1927, Babe Ruth set a Major League Baseball record with his 60th home run of the season. The mark would stand for 34 years.

In 1938, Germany, France, Britain and Italy met in Munich, Germany, for a conference after which British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain predicted "peace for our time." World War II began less than one year later.

In 1946, verdicts were handed down in the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial. Twelve Nazi leaders were sentenced to death by hanging.

File Photo by U.S. Army

In 1954, the USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear submarine, was commissioned by the U.S. Navy, under the command of Commander Eugene P. Wilkinson.

In 1955, movie idol James Dean died in a car crash at age 24.

In 1962, James H. Meredith, an African American student, was escorted onto the University of Mississippi campus by U.S. marshals, setting off a riot in which two men died before violence was quelled by more than 3,000 soldiers. Meredith enrolled the next day.

In 1992, the United States returned most of the Subic Bay Naval Base to the Philippine government after more than a century of use.

In 1993, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck India's Maharashtra state, killing nearly 10,000 people. The disaster primarily affected the Latur and Osmanabad districts.

In 1993, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Colin Powell announced his retirement from the military. Effective upon his retirement, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II approved his knighthood.

In 2005, Michael Eisner resigned as CEO of the Walt Disney Co. One week later, he departed his position on the board of the company.

File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI

In 2008, thousands of worshipers making their way through a narrow passage to a Hindu temple in India for a religious festival broke into a stampede when a wall collapsed. Police put the death toll at 224 with more than 100 people injured.

In 2011, a missile from a U.S. drone aircraft strike over Yemen killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born Islamic cleric linked to several high-profile terrorist incidents in the United States and subject of a two-year manhunt.

In 2017, in a series of tweets, President Donald Trump blasted San Juan, Puerto Rico, Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz for "poor leadership ability" during recovery efforts after Hurricane Maria. In a televised interview the day before, Cruz begged the public for help and said the government was "killing us with the inefficiency."

File Photo by Erin Schaff/UPI