On this date...

In 1620, Pilgrims depart from England on the Mayflower.

In 1630, The Massachusetts village of Shawmut changed its name to Boston.

In 1857, The song "Jingle Bells" by James Pierpont was copyrighted under its original title, "One Horse Open Sleigh."

In 1893, the largest land run in U.S. history occurred as over 100,000 white settlers rushed to claim over 6 million acres of land in what is now northern Oklahoma.

In 1908, General Motors was founded in Flint, Michigan, by William C. Durant.  

In 1919, The U.S. Congress granted a national charter to the American Legion, an organization of U.S. war veterans.

In 1920, a horse-drawn carriage loaded with explosives was detonated on Wall Street in New York City, killing 38 people and injuring dozens of others. The perpetrators were never discovered, though an anarchist group tied to the labor movement was suspected of orchestrating the attack.

In 1940, Samuel T. Rayburn of Texas was first elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; he would serve as speaker for a record 17 years, spanning three separate terms.  

In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the first peacetime military draft in U.S. history.

In 1993, The sitcom Frasier—a spin-off of Cheers, starring Kelsey Grammer—debuted on NBC and became one of the most popular American television shows of the late 20th century.

In 1966, the Metropolitan Opera officially opened its new opera house at New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts with the world premiere of Samuel Barber’s “Antony and Cleopatra.”

In 1974, President Gerald R. Ford signed a proclamation announcing a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam war deserters and draft evaders.

In 2007, O.J. Simpson was arrested in the alleged armed robbery of sports memorabilia collectors in Las Vegas. (Simpson was later convicted of kidnapping and armed robbery and sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison; he was released in 2017.)  

In 2008, The federal government announced an emergency $85 billion loan to rescue AIG, the world's largest insurance company.