1836

The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, fell as Mexican forces led by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna stormed the fortress after a 13-day siege; the battle claimed the lives of all the Texian defenders, including William Travis, James Bowie and Davy Crockett.

1964

Heavyweight boxing champion Cassius Clay took a new name given to him by Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammed: Muhammad Ali.

2009

NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope was rocketed into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to hunt for Earth-sized planets orbiting distant stars. The spacecraft discovered 2,681 exoplanets outside the solar system before it ran low on fuel and was retired in 2018 after 9 1/2 years of scouring space for alien worlds.

— from wire reports