Category Archives: History

1801 – Thomas Jefferson is elected 3^rd President of the United States.

1904 – Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly premiered at the La Scala theatre in Milan, Italy.

1924 – Olympic gold medalist swimmer Johnny Weissmuller (who went on to play Tarzan in several films) set a world record in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 57.4 seconds in Miami, FL.

1972 – President Richard M. Nixon departed Washington, DC, for his historic trip to China; the first U.S. president to visit the communist nation.

1848 – Frederic Chopin gave his final concert performance in his adopted Paris, 18 months before he died of tuberculosis.

1857 – The National Deaf Mute College was incorporated in Washington, DC.  It was the first school in the world for advanced education of the deaf.  It was later renamed Gallaudet College.

1878 – The U.S. Congress passed the Bland-Allison Act, which made it legal to mint silver coins.

1923 – English archaeologist Howard Carter opened King Tutankhamen’s tomb.

1932 – James E. Markham received a patent for a peach tree that ripens later than other varieties; the first time a patent was issued for a fruit tree.

1937 – Wallace H. Carothers patented nylon for the DuPont Corporation.

1948 – NBC-TV presented the first daily newsreel telecast.  The program was known as the 20th Century Fox – Movietone News.

1948 – Fidel Castro was officially sworn in as prime minister of Cuba.

1972 – Wilt Chamberlain topped the 30,000-point mark in his career while playing with the Los Angeles Lakers during a game against the Phoenix Suns.

1842 – Adhesive postage stamps were used for the first time by the City Dispatch Post (Office) in New York City.

1898 – The USS Maine exploded on this day in el Puerto De Habana, Cuba, marking the beginning of the Spanish-American War.

1903 – The first Teddy bear went on sale when toy store owner and inventor Morris Michtom placed 2 stuffed bears in his shop window.

1946 – Edith Houghton, age 33, was signed as a baseball scout by the Philadelphia Phillies; the first female scout in the major leagues.

1950 – Walt Disney’s Cinderella opened in theatres across the U.S.

1965 – Canada adopted its new red and white Maple Leaf flag, which replaced the old Red Ensign standard.

1965 – Singer Nat ‘King’ Cole died in Santa Monica, CA, at age 45.

1984 – Broadway legend Ethel Merman died in New York.

1986 – Whitney Houston reached the #1 spot on the music charts with her single, How Will I Know, which replaced a song recorded by her first cousin, Dionne Warwick (That’s What Friends Are For).

1998 – Dale Earnhardt finally won the Daytona 500 on his 20^th try.  The day also marked the 40th Anniversary of the Daytona 500 and the 50th Anniversary of NASCAR.

270 – Valentine, a priest in Rome under Claudius II, was executed for officiating marriages.

1779 – British explorer Captain James Cook was killed in Hawaii on his third visit to the islands.

1849 – Matthew B. Brady – who became known for his photographs of the Civil War – took the first photograph of a U.S. President, James K. Polk, in New York City.

1859 – Oregon entered the union as the 33rd state, exactly ten years and six months to the day since it was organized as a territory.

1899 – The U.S. Congress approved voting machines for use in federal elections.

1912 – Arizona (a name probably derived from the Papago Indian word “arizonac,” a term meaning ‘place of the young spring’) entered the union as the 48^th state.

1932 – The U.S. won its first Olympic bobsled competition (both the two-man and four-man races) at the Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid, NY.

1962 – First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy gave the first televised tour of the White House.

1966 – Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia 76ers set a National Basketball Association record as he reached a career high of 20,884 points after seven seasons as a pro basketball player.

1972 – The musical, Grease, opened at the Eden Theatre in New York City.

1633 – Philosopher, astronomer and mathematician Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome to face charges by the Roman Inquisition of heresy for advocating Copernican theory, which holds that the Earth revolves around the sun.

1635 – The Boston Latin School, the first public school in the United States, was established.

1867 – Johann Strauss’ Blue Danube Waltz was played for the first time at a public concert in Vienna, Austria.

1875 – Mrs. Edna Kanouse of Watertown, WI gave birth to America’s first set of quintuplets.  Sadly, all five of the baby boys died within two weeks.

1914 – The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) was founded in New York City to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.

1920 – The National Negro Baseball League was organized in Kansas City, Missouri.

1920 – The League of Nations (now the United Nations) recognized the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland.

1809 – Abraham Lincoln, the 16^th President of the United States, was born in Hodgenville, KY.

1878 – Frederick W. Thayer, captain of the Harvard University Baseball Club, patented the now-familiar, baseball catcher’s mask.

1912 – The last emperor of China, Hsian-T’ung, was forced to abdicate, ending 267 years of Manchu rule in China and 2,000 years of imperial rule.

1924 – President Calvin Coolidge, known by many as the ‘Silent President,’ made the first presidential political speech on radio. The speech originated from New York City and was broadcast on five radio stations. Some five million people tuned in to hear Coolidge speak.

1973 – The State of Ohio went metric, becoming the first in the U.S. to post metric distance signs along Interstate 71. These new signs showed the distance in both miles and kilometers. The metric system, though standard in many nations around the world, never quite caught on in the United States, except on major-league baseball stadium fences – and on that highway in Ohio.

1973 – The release of U.S. prisoners-of-war (POW’s) began in Hanoi, Vietnam as part of the Paris peace settlement.

1994 – The XVII^th Winter Olympic Games opened in Lillehammer, Norway.  The games proceeded, despite the infamous Nancy Kerrigan – Tanya Harding clubbing fiasco.

1999 – The 5-week impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton ended with the Senate voting to acquit him on perjury and obstruction of justice charges.

2000 – Hall-of-Fame football coach Tom Landry, who led the Dallas Cowboys to five Super Bowls in 20 consecutive winning seasons, died.

1752 – Through the efforts of Benjamin Franklin, the Pennsylvania Hospital opened. It was the very first hospital in America.

1861 – President-elect Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary, left Springfield, IL by train for Washington, D.C.

1916 – The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presented its first concert. The symphony was the first by a municipal orchestra to be supported by taxes.

1916 – Birth control pioneer Emma Goldman was arrested in New York City for lecturing and distributing materials about birth control.

1958 – Ruth Carol Taylor was the first black woman to become a stewardess (flight attendant) by making her initial flight this day on Mohawk Airlines from Ithaca, NY to New York City.

1966 – Willie Mays became the highest-paid baseball player in either league as he signed a two-year contract with the San Francisco Giants for a salary of about $130,000 a year.

1968 – The new 20,000 seat Madison Square Garden officially opened in New York City. It was the fourth arena to be named Madison Square Garden.

1970 – Japan launches its first satellite from the Kagoshima Space Center, becoming the world’s fourth space power.

1989 – The Rev. Barbara C. Harris of Boston was consecrated as the first female bishop in the 450-year history of the Anglican Church.

1990 – Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s leading antiapartheid figure, was freed after 27 years in prison.

1763 – The “Seven Years’ War,” also known as the “French – Indian War,” ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris by France, Great Britain and Spain.

1846 – Mormons begin their exodus from Illinois to Utah. 

1863 – Two of the world’s most famous little people, General Tom Thumb (real name Charles S. Stratton, 3’, 4”) and, Lavinia Warren, (2’, 8”), exchanged vows before a small gathering of 2,000 of their closest friends in New York City – most of them standing on the church pews to catch a glimpse of the couple.

1863 – Alanson Crane received a patent for the fire extinguisher.

1933 – The singing telegram was introduced by the Postal Telegraph Company of New York City.

1934 – The first imperforated, ungummed sheets of postage stamps were issued by the U.S. Postal Service in New York City.  One had to cut the stamps out of the sheet and then put some glue on the back to get them to stick on an envelope.  Fortunately, the Postal Service changed this idea after many complaints.

1935 – The Pennsylvania Railroad began passenger service with its new ‘streamlined’ electric locomotive. This engine was 79-1/2 feet long and weighed in at a hefty 230 tons.

1962 – The Soviet Union released Francis Gary Powers, an American pilot who was shot down two years earlier while flying a CIA spy plane over Russia.

1967 – The 25th Amendment to the Constitution, dealing with presidential disability and succession, was ratified by the U.S. Congress.

1825 – The U.S. House of Representatives decided the 1824 presidential elections, when it selected John Quincy Adams to be president over Andrew Jackson who had won more popular votes.

1870 – Congress authorized the United States Weather Bureau, later renamed the National Weather Service (NWS).

1942 – Congress instituted daylight savings time, then called “war time.”

1963 – The first Boeing 727  took off from Renton Field in Renton, Washington.

1969 – The Boeing 747 made its first test flight at the Boeing plant in Everett, Washington, ushering in the age of the jumbo jet.

1987 – Twenty years after the first woman was admitted to the New York Stock Exchange, the Exchange Luncheon Club decided to install a women’s restroom!  Before then, women had to walk down a flight of stairs.

2001 – The U.S.S. Greeneville, a Pearl Harbor-based nuclear-powered, fast-attack submarine, collided with the Japanese fishing vessel Ehime Maru, sinking the fishing boat and killing 9 of the 35 persons aboard. The Greeneville was surfacing when it struck the Japanese ship.

1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots, was beheaded.

1910 – The Boy Scouts of America was incorporated.

1918 – The Stars and Stripes, the weekly newspaper of the American Expeditionary Forces, was published for the first time.

1924 – John Joseph Carty of the Bell Telephone System gave a speech in Chicago, IL, that was carried across the nation on the first coast-to-coast radio hookup. An estimated 50-million people heard the speech.

1960 – U.S. Congressional investigators began exploring the influence of payola in the radio and record industries. Alan Freed and American Bandstand host, Dick Clark, among others, were called to testify.

1963 – Lamar Hunt, owner of the American Football League franchise in Dallas, TX, moved the operation to Kansas City. He named the new team the Chiefs. Dallas got possession of an NFL franchise known as the Cowboys.

1971 – NASDAQ, the world’s first electronic stock exchange, conducted its initial trading day.

1984 – The XIV Winter Olympics opened in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia (now Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina).  The Olympic facilities have since been all but destroyed by the war in Bosnia.

1992 – The XVI Winter Olympic Games opened in Albertville, France.