On this day in history:

In 1607, the first British colonists to establish a permanent settlement in America landed at Cape Henry, Va.

In 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, German-made planes destroyed the Basque town of Guernica, Spain.

In 1964, Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged, forming the country of Tanzania.

In 1986, a fire and explosion at the Soviet Union's Chernobyl nuclear reactor north of Kiev, Ukraine, resulted in the world's worst civilian nuclear disaster. About 30 deaths were reported in the days following the accident.(It is believed that hundreds of people eventually died from high doses of radiation from the plant and that thousands of cases of cancer could be linked to the crisis.)

In 1994, South Africans began going to the polls in the country's first election that was open to all. (Four days of voting would elect Nelson Mandela president.)

In 2002, a German youth who had been expelled from the Gutenberg school in Erfurt, Germany, returned to the school and shot 16 people to death.

In 2005, the last of Syria's troops left Lebanon, ending a 29-year military presence.

In 2007, New Hampshire lawmakers approved a measure legalizing civil unions between gay and lesbian couples.

In 2010, longtime Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, sought by the International Criminal Court in connection with reputed crimes against humanity in the Darfur section of western Sudan, was re-elected president in a controversial vote.

In 2011, Mexican authorities announced the discovery of mass graves containing nearly 300 bodies. The dead were believed to be victims of drug wars that had claimed close to 35,000 lives since 2006.

In 2012, a U.N.-backed court convicted former Liberian President Charles Taylor of war crimes, including murder, acts of terrorism, rape, sexual slavery and use of child soldiers, for aiding rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

In 2013, law enforcement officers in Turkey captured accused drug kingpin Cumhur Yakut, the father of godfathers, who had been wanted by Interpol and by the United States for 13 years.

In 2014, Afghan officials said Abdullah Abdullah finished first in recent presidential election voting and would face a runoff against Ashraf Ghani. (Ghani won.)

Copyright 2015 by United Press International