Category Archives: History

1766 – After 4 months of widespread protest in America, the British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, a taxation measure enacted to raise revenue for a standing British army in America.

1813 – David Melville of Newport, Rhode Island patented the gas streetlight. 

1837 – Grover Cleveland, the 22^nd and 24^th U.S. President, the only president to serve 2 non-consecutive terms, only president to be married in the White House and the first president to have a child born in the White House, was born in Caldwell, New Jersey.

1852 – In New York City, Henry Wells and William G. Fargo joined with several other investors to start a shipping and banking company to take advantage of the demand for gold shipments across the nation from California.

1902 – Enrico Caruso recorded 10 arias for the Gramophone Company.  The recording session took place in Milan, Italy and earned Caruso $500.

1910 – The Pipe of Desire became the first opera by an American composer, Frederick Shepherd Converse, performed at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.

1918 – Faith, the first seagoing ship made of concrete, launched from Redwood City, CA.

1925 – The worst tornado in U.S. history passed through eastern Missouri, southern Illinois and southern Indiana, killing 695 people and injuring some 13,000 others, in what became known as the “Tri-State Tornado.”

1931 – Schick, Inc. displayed the first electric shaver in Stamford, CT.

1937 – A natural gas explosion at Consolidated School of New London, Texas killed nearly 300 of the school’s children.

1954 – RKO Pictures became the first motion picture studio to be owned by an individual, when it was sold to Howard Hughes for $23,489,478.

1959 – Bill Sharman of the Boston Celtics began what was to be the longest string of successful consecutive free throws (56 in a row) to set a new National Basketball Association record.

1962 – France and Algeria sign a truce to end 7 years of war and 130 years of French colonial rule.

1969 – The U.S. began a bombing campaign in Cambodia.

1985 – The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) announced plans to merge with Capital Cities Communications to form Cap Cities/ABC.  The $3.5 billion merger was the 11^th largest corporate merger in U.S. history.

1986 – The U.S. Treasury Department announced that a clear, polyester thread was to be woven into bills in an effort to thwart counterfeiters.

461 – St. Patrick died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland.

1762 – New York City hosted the first St. Patrick’s Day parade in the United States.

1776 – British forces evacuated Boston, chased out by troops under Gen. George Washington.

1897 – Motion pictures of a championship prize fight were taken for the first time as ‘Sunny’ Bob Fitzsimmons knocked out ‘Gentleman’ Jim Corbett for the world heavyweight title.

1906 – President Theodore Roosevelt coined the word ‘muckrake’ in a speech that he delivered to the Gridiron Club in Washington, D.C.

1907 – America’s first bowling tournament for women began in St. Louis, MO, with almost 100 women participating in the event.

1910 – The Camp Fire Girls organization was founded at Lake Sebago, ME by Luther and Charlotte Gulick.

1941 – The National Gallery of Art was officially opened by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, D.C.

1969 – Golda Meir, a Milwaukee high school teacher, was sworn in as Prime Minister of Israel.

1985 – William Schroeder set a record for heart transplant patients as he reached his 113th day of life with the artificial organ.

1751 – James Madison, the 4^th president of the United States, was born in Virginia.

1802 – The U.S. Military Academy, the first military school in the United States, is established by Congress in West Point, NY.

1850 – The novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was published for the first time.

1871 – The state of Delaware, the first state to enter the union, enacted the first fertilizer law.

1882 – The U.S. Senate approved a treaty allowing the United States to join the Red Cross.

1926 – American Robert H. Goddard launched the world first liquid-fueled rocket at Auburn, MA.

1945 – Fighting on Iwo Jima ended, as U.S. forces secured the Pacific island.

1968 – The My Lai massacre occurred in Vietnam, as American soldiers killed between 200 and 500 unarmed civilians.

44 B.C. – In the ancient Roman calendar, Emperor Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in the Roman senate by 60 conspirators.

1767 – Andrew Jackson, a first generation Irish-American and the nation’s 7^th president, was born in South Carolina.

1820 – Maine entered the union as the 22^nd state.

1913 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson held the first open presidential news conference just 11 days after his inauguration.

1917 – Czar Nicholas II, who had ruled Russia since 1894, abdicates the throne under pressure from Petrograd insurgents.

This is actual film footage from Nicholas’ coronation; one of the oldest moving films in existence.

1937 – The first blood bank was established in Chicago, IL at the Cook County Hospital.

1939 – Adolf Hitler’s Nazi army invaded Czechoslovakia.

1965 – President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress to urge passage of the Voting Rights Act.

1968 – Construction began on the Eisenhower / Johnson Memorial Tunnel on I-70 in Colorado, some 60 miles west of Denver.  At an altitude of more than 11,000 feet, it was the highest vehicular tunnel in the world.

1794 – Eli Whitney patented his cotton gin, making it possible to clean 50 pounds of cotton a day, compared to a pound a day before Whitney’s invention.

1879 – Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany.

1812 – The United States government authorized War Bonds for the first time, presumably in support of the War of 1812.

1923 – President Warren G. Harding became the first Chief Executive to pay taxes and account for his income.  His tax bill amounted to nearly $18,000.

1936 – The U.S. government began publishing The Federal Register.

1950 – The FBI debuted its “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list.

1958 – The Recording Industry Association of America awards its first “Gold Record” to Perry Como for “Catch a Falling Star.”

1964 – Jack Ruby was sentenced to death for killing Lee Harvey Oswald.

1967 – President John F. Kennedy’s body is moved to a permanent grave site at Arlington National Cemetery.

1969 – Less than one month after winning her first horse race, Barbara Jo Rubin became the first female jockey to win at Aqueduct Race Course in New York.

1990 – Mikhail Gorbachev was elected president of the Soviet Union.

1781 – English astronomer William Hershel identified Uranus, the first planet to be discovered with a telescope.

1865 – In a desperate measure against battle losses during the Civil War, the Confederacy approved the use of Negro troops.

1868 – The impeachment trial of President Andrew B. Johnson began. 

1877 – Chester Greenwood of Farmington, ME received a patent for the earmuff. 

1881 – Czar Alexander II of Russia was killed in St. Petersburg by a bomb thrown by a member of the revolutionary “People’s Will.”

1930 – Clyde W. Tombaugh discovered Pluto while looking for another planet in the solar system from the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ.

1942 – The Quartermaster Corps of the U.S. Army began training dogs for the newly established War Dog Program, or “K-9 Corps.”

1987 – Jack Morris, pitcher with Sparky Anderson’s Detroit Tigers, received the largest arbitration settlement in professional baseball.  He was awarded $1.85 million to play for the Tigers in 1988.

1755 – The first reported use of the steam engine was made in North Arlington, NJ.

1884 – The state of Mississippi authorized the first state-supported college for women called the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College.

1889 – Almon B. Strowger received a patent for the automatic telephone system, which was installed in Laporte, IN, in 1892.

1930 – Mohandas Gandhi began a defiant march to the sea in protest of the British monopoly on salt, in his first public act of civil disobedience.

1933 – Eight days after he was inaugurated, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented his first presidential address to the nation, more commonly called Fireside Chats.

1935 – Parimutuel betting became a reality as Nebraska legalized horse race bets.

1938 – Germany annexed Austria.

1947 – President Harry S. Truman asked for U.S. assistance to prevent Greece and Turkey from falling to communist domination in what became known as the “Truman Doctrine.”

1951 – The comic strip, Dennis the Menace, appeared for the first time in 16 newspapers across the U.S.

1966 – Bobby Hull of the Chicago Blackhawks became the first player in the National Hockey League to score 51 points in a single season.