1719 – Daniel Defoe published The Life and Strange Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.
1831 – The New York and Harlem Railway was incorporated in New York City.
1859 – At Port Said, Egypt, ground is broken for the Suez Canal.
1874 – Guglielmo Marconi, inventor who helped propel wireless communications, was born in Bologna, Italy.
1908 – Journalist Edward R. Murrow was born in Greensboro, NC.
1917 – Singer Ella Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, VA.
1928 – The Seeing Eye foundation presented its first dog, Buddy, to Morris S. Frank.
1954 – The prototype manufacture of a new solar battery was announced by the Bell Laboratories in New York City.
1959 – The St. Lawrence Seaway opened to traffic, saving shippers millions of dollars in transportation costs.
1967 – Colorado Governor John Love signed the first law legalizing abortion in the United States. The law was limited to therapeutic abortions when agreed to, unanimously, by a panel of three physicians.
Chief Writing Wolf 