- 1788: The first U.S. steamboat patent was issued by Georgia to
Briggs & Longstreet.
- 1790: The Supreme Court met for the first time, one year after it
was established under the Judiciary Act.
- 1840: The world's first dental college opened in Baltimore.
- 1861: Texas seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy.
- 1862: Julia Ward Howe's poem "Battle Hymn of the Republic" was
first published in Atlantic Monthly.
- 1884: The first volume of the Oxford English Dictionary was
published.
- 1887: Harvey Wilcox of Kansas subdivided 120 acres he owned in
Southern California and started selling it off as a real estate
development. His wife, Daeida, christened it Hollywood after the
summer home of a woman she had met on a train.
- 1893: Thomas Edison opened the world's first film studio in West
Orange, N.J.
- 1896: Giacomo Puccini's opera, "La Boheme," was first staged in
Turin.
- 1898: The first automobile insurance policy was issued by Travelers
Insurance Co. of Connecticut to Dr. Truman J. Martin for $11.05.
- 1906: The first federal penitentiary building was completed in
Leavenworth, Kan.
- 1908: King Carlos I of Portugal was assassinated along with his
son in Lisbon.
- 1914: The first motion picture censorship board was appointed in
Pennsylvania.
- 1920: The first commercial armored car was introduced in St. Paul,
Minn. Also: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police came into existence
when the Royal Northwest Mounted Police merged with the Dominion
Police.
- 1929: The first recorded "clean and jerk" in weightlifting was
performed by Charles Rigoulet of France. He lifted 402 1/2 pounds.
- 1935: The first "March of Time" newsreel premiered at the Capitol.
- 1953: "You Are There," a new CBS series anchored by Walter Cronkite
and featuring re-enactments of famous historical events, aired for
the first time.
- 1960: In the first of many such protests throughout the United
States, four black college students began a sit-in at an all-white
Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., after they were
refused service.
- 1964: Indiana Gov. Matthew Welsh declared The Kingsmen's version
of "Louie, Louie" to be "pornographic" and called for its ban.
- 1965: Peter Jennings became the anchor of ABC's nightly news report
at the age of 26.
- 1966: U.S. silent film comedian and director Buster Keaton died.
- 1968: Saigon's police chief, Nguyen Ngoc Loan, executed a Viet Cong
officer with a pistol shot to the head in a scene captured in a
photo that would become one of the most famous images of the
Vietnam War.
- 1978: Harriet Tubman became the first African American woman
honored with a U.S. postage stamp. Also: director Roman Polanski
skipped bail and fled to France after pleading guilty to charges of
engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl.
- 1982: "Late Night With David Letterman" debuted on NBC, where it
stayed for 11 years.
*Happy Birthday*
----------------
- Gabrielle Carteris, 38, actress, "Beverly Hills 90210"
- Don Everly, 62, singer/musician, the Everly Brothers
- Sherilyn Fenn, 34, actress, "Twin Peaks"
- Sherman Hemsley, 61, actor, "The Jeffersons"
- Rick James, 47, singer/musician
- Terry Jones, 57, actor/director, Monty Python troupe
- Garrett Morris, 62, actor/comedian, "Saturday Night Live"
- Bill Mumy, 45, actor, "Lost in Space's" Will Robinson
- Lisa Marie Presley, 31
- Princess Stephanie Grimaldi of Monaco, 34
- Pauly Shore, 31, comedian
- Boris Yeltsin, 68, Russian president