Category Archives: History

1795 – The 11^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, dealing with states’ sovereign immunity, was ratified.

1812 – The most violent of a series of earthquakes near Missouri – along the New Madrid Fault Line – caused a “fluvial tsunami” in the Mississippi River.

1936 – A U.S. Vice President’s flag was established by executive order.

1940 –Walt Disney’s Pinocchio premiered at the Center Theatre in Manhattan.

1962 – President John F. Kennedy imposed a full trade embargo on Cuba.

1964 – The “British Invasion” began, as The Beatles – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – arrived at JFK International Airport in New York City for their first U.S. visit.

1984 – Space shuttle Challenger astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart went on the first untethered spacewalk, which lasted nearly 6 hours.

1998 – The XVIII^th Winter Olympic Games opened at Nagano, Japan.

1999 – Jordan’s King Hussein bin Talal who died at age 63 after a long battle with cancer. His eldest son, Abdullah, was sworn in as king hours after his father’s death.

1788 – Massachusetts became the sixth state to enter the United States of America.

1932 – In a joint effort between the United States and Canada, dog sled racing was demonstrated at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY.

1933 – The 20^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which established when the terms of the President, Vice-President and members of both Houses of Congress shall began and end.

1937 – K. Elizabeth Ohi became the first Japanese woman lawyer as she received her degree from John Marshall Law School in Chicago, IL.

1943 – Frank Sinatra made his debut as a vocalist on radio’s Your Hit Parade.

1952 – Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was crowned Queen Elizabeth II.  She was officially crowned June 2, 1953.

1967 – Muhammad Ali retained his world heavyweight title and won the WBA heavyweight title with a 15-round decision over Ernest Terrell in the Houston Astrodome.

1968 – The 10^th Winter Olympic Games opened in Grenoble, France.

1971 – NASA Astronaut Alan B. Shepard took a six-iron golf club that he had stashed away inside his spacecraft and swung at three golf balls on the surface of the moon.

1981 – Former Beatles, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison teamed up to record a musical tribute to John Lennon. The result of that session became All Those Years Ago. The song went to #2 on the pop music charts for three weeks.

1985 – The noted French mineral water company, Perrier, debuted its first new product in 123 years.

1998 – Washington National Airport was renamed Ronald Reagan National Airport, for U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

1846 – The Oregon Spectator became the first newspaper published in American territory west of the Rocky Mountains.

1861 – Samuel Goodale of Cincinnati, OH patented the “Stereoscope,” a moving picture viewing device, where pictures of scenes would flip from one to another “instantaneously.”

1916 – Enrico Caruso recorded O Solo Mio for the Victor Talking Machine Company, which eventually became Victor Records, then RCA Victor.

1928 – Singer Jessica Dragonette appeared on one of the first television shows; an experiment in which her image was transmitted some 20 miles away.

1937 – Modern Times, the first Charlie Chaplin talkie in which he actually just sang, was released.

1953 – Walt Disney’s film, Peter Pan, opened at the Roxy Theatre in New York City.

1958 – A year after its founding, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), which presents the annual Grammy Awards, formed a New York chapter.

1972 – Bob Douglas became the first black man elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA.

1987 – The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 2,200-point mark for the first time, when the market closed at 2201.49.

1783 – Britain’s King George III proclaimed a formal cessation of hostilities in the American Revolutionary War.

1789 – Electors chose George Washington to be the first president of the United States.

1895 – The first rolling lift bridge opened over the Chicago River at Van Buren Street, Chicago. The bridge used steel trusses or girders across the navigable channel supported by, and rigidly connected to, large steel rollers as curved steel bases, like rocking chair rockers, weighted in the rear to counterbalance the span. To open, the bridge rolled back on its rockers until upright, like a jackknife.

1901 – Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines opened in New York City, marking the first time that Ethel Barrymore received billing as a star.

1913 – Louis Perlman of New York City received a patent for his famous, demountable tire-carrying rims – better known as wheels.

1926 – John Giola of New York City became famous as the Charleston endurance dance champion, by dancing, non-stop, for 22 hours and 30 minutes.

1932 – The first Winter Olympics in the United States were held at Lake Placid, NY.

1937 – Glen Gray and his Casa Loma Orchestra recorded A Study in Brown, on Decca Records.

1938 – The play, Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, opened in New York City at the Henry Miller Theatre.

1941 – The United Service Organizations (USO) came into existence.

1952 – Baseball great Jackie Robinson signed a contract with New York’s WNBC and WNBT (TV) to serve as Director of Community Activities.

1953 – Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis appeared in the film, The Stooge, which premiered this day at the Paramount Theatre in New York City.

1957 – Smith-Corona Manufacturing Inc. of New York began selling portable electric typewriters. The first machine weighed 19 pounds.

1969 – Bowie Kuhn took office as Commissioner of Baseball and served for 16 seasons, until September 30, 1984.

1969 – 33-year-old John Madden became head coach of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders and went on to become the youngest head coach in the modern NFL era to win 100 games in his first ten seasons.

1972 – Mariner 9 took pictures of Mars as it orbited the red planet.

1974 – Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was kidnapped from her home in Berkeley, CA, by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA).

1976 – More than 23,000 people died when a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Guatemala.

1983 – Singer Karen Carpenter died at her parent’s home in Los Angeles of heart failure caused by chronic anorexia nervosa.

1987 – Yachtsmen Dennis Conner, Tom Whidden and Peter Isler brought the America’s Cup back home, defeating Australia’s Kookaburra III with Stars and Stripes ’87.

1987 – Piano maestro Liberace died of AIDS at his Palm Springs, CA estate at the age of 67.

1993 – The “Family and Medical Leave Act” was passed by the U.S. Congress, which gives employees unpaid leave in the event of a birth or a medical emergency in their family.

1997 – A civil jury in Santa Monica, California found O.J. Simpson liable for the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman. The jury awarded $8.5 million in compensatory damages to Goldman’s parents and $25 million in punitive damages to Nicole Brown Simpson’s estate and Goldman’s father.

1998 – An earthquake, measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale, hit Takhar, near Tajikikstan’s border with Northeastern Afghanistan, leaving over 5,000 dead, over 30,000 homeless, and thousands more were missing.