1692 – The Salem witch hunt began in the Massachusetts colony when 3 women were charged with practicing witchcraft.
1781 – The Articles of Confederation were finally ratified when Maryland approved them.
1803 – Ohio became the 17th state to enter the union.
1867 – Nebraska became the 37th state to enter the union.
1869 – Postage stamps depicting scenes were issued for the first time in the U.S.
1872 – President Ulysses S. Grant signed a bill creating Yellowstone, the nation’s first national park.
1873 – E. Remington and Sons of Ilion, NY began the manufacturing of the first practical typewriter. The strong as steel, heavy black clunkers became instant fixtures in offices across the country. It would be another half-century before electric typewriters made their appearance.
1890 – Readers picked up copies of the Literary Digest for the first time.
1912 – Captain Albert Berry of the Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, MO made the first parachute jump from a moving airplane at an altitude of 1,500 feet and a speed of 50 mph.
1932 – The baby of Charles and Anne Lindbergh was kidnapped from the family home in Hopewell, NJ.
1949 – Boxer Joe Louis, ‘The Brown Bomber,’ announced he was retiring from boxing as world heavyweight boxing champion. Louis held the title longer than any other champ – 11 years, eight months and seven days.
1954 – Four members of an extremist Puerto Rican group shot at the floor of the House of Representatives from the visitors’ gallery, injuring 5 Congressmen.
1961 – President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps.
1966 – Venera 3, a Soviet probe launched Kazakhstan the previous year crashed into Venus, becoming the first unmanned spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet.
1969 – Mickey Mantle announced his retirement from baseball.
1971 – The Weather Underground set off a bomb in a restroom in the Senate wing of the Capitol, causing $300,000 in damages, but injuring no one.
1987 – S&H Green Stamps became S&H Green Seals, 90 years after the lick-and-stick stamps were introduced as a way for businesses to bonus their customers – who then used the stamps to buy merchandise from catalog stores. The stamps became peel-and-seal stamps along with the name change.
1999 – Some 130 nations agreed to a United Nations Treaty banning land mines which went into effect this day. The U.S., Russia and China did not sign the treaty.
Chief Writing Wolf 