1727 – Artist Thomas Gainsborough (The Blue Boy, The Watering Place) was born in Suffolk, England.
1804 – One year after the United States doubled its territory with the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark expedition left St. Louis, MO, on a mission to explore the Northwest from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.
1878 – The trademarked name Vaseline, for a brand of petroleum jelly, was registered by Robert A. Chesebrough.
1897 – A statue of George Washington was unveiled in Philadelphia, PA.
1904 – The Olympic Games opened in St. Louis, MO, the first time the games were held in the United States.
1913 – John D. Rockefeller made the largest gift of money at the time by establishing the Rockefeller Foundation for $100,000,000. The foundation promotes “the well-being of mankind throughout the world.”
1948 – In Tel Aviv, Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel.
1955 – The Soviet Union and 7 of its European satellites signed a treaty establishing the Warsaw Pact, a mutual defense organization that put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states.
1973 – The U.S. successfully launched Skylab, the first American space station.
Chief Writing Wolf 