On September 10, 2008, scientists successfully flip the switch for the first time on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) lab in Geneva, kicking off what many called history’s biggest science experiment.

On September 10, 1991, Seattle rock band Nirvana releases its breakout single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Spanish artist Pablo Picasso’s monumental anti-war mural Guernica is received by Spain after four decades of refugee existence on September 10, 1981.

On September 10, 1977, at Baumetes Prison in Marseille, France, Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian immigrant convicted of murder, becomes the last person executed by guillotine.

In light of the destruction and terror inflicted on Londoners by a succession of German bombing raids, called “the Blitz,” the British War Cabinet seeks retaliation, instructing British bombers over Germany to drop their bombs “anywhere” if unable to reach their targets.

Weeks behind schedule and the massive Sierra Nevada mountains still to be crossed, on what was likely September 10, 1846, the members of the ill-fated Donner Party realize they are running short of supplies and send two men ahead to California to bring back food.

In the first unqualified defeat of a British naval squadron in history, U.

Admiral Lord Nelson sailed into the life of Lady Emma Hamilton for the first time on this day. It would be the start of one of history’s great love affairs.

English adventurer John Smith is elected council president of Jamestown, Virginia—the first permanent English settlement in North America.