On this date...

Hammon Address

In 1657, First autopsy and coroner's jury verdict are recorded in Maryland

In 1765 : The Braintree Instructions were written by John Adams. In reaction to the passing of the Stamp Act in March 1765, Braintree's town meeting appointed a committee to draft an official protest. It was the first united freedom-from-taxation voice heard in Massachusetts.

In 1786, African American slave and poet Jupiter Hammon delivers his "Address to the Negroes of the State of New York" speech advocating emancipation at a meeting of the African Society in New York

In 1789, President George Washington signed into law the Judiciary Act, which established the Supreme Court. That same day he nominated John Jay to serve as the chief justice, and appointed John Blair, William Cushing, James Iredell, John Rutledge, and James Wilson as associate justices.

In 1853, Cornelius Vanderbilt circumnavigates the world aboard his private yacht North Star

In 1869, Plummeting gold prices led to a panic known as Black Friday, when U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant, after learning of an attempt by Jay Gould and James Fisk to drive up the gold market, ordered $4 million of government gold to be sold on the market.

In 1902, pioneering cookbook author Fannie Farmer, who changed the way Americans prepare food by advocating the use of standardized measurements in recipes, opens Miss Farmer’s School of Cookery in Boston. In addition to teaching women about cooking, Farmer later educated medical professionals about the importance of proper nutrition for the sick.

In 1906, Devils Tower in Wyoming is proclaimed the first American national monument.

In 1924, Boston, Massachusetts, opens its airport.

In 1929, James Doolittle completes the first completely "blind" flight, taking off, flying a set course, and landing solely by instruments aboard a Consolidated NY-2 biplane at Mitchel Field in New York

In 1934, Babe Ruth played in his last baseball game for the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium.

In 1941, the Japanese consul in Hawaii is instructed to divide Pearl Harbor into five zones and calculate the number of battleships in each zone—and report the findings back to Japan.

In 1952, American fast food restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) opens its first franchise in Salt Lake City, Utah, after Colonel Harland Sanders franchises his recipe to friend Pete Harman.

In 1955, US President Eisenhower suffers a heart attack on vacation in Denver.

In 1957, racial desegregation took center stage when federal troops were dispatched to Little Rock, Arkansas, to maintain order and enforce the right of black students to attend the local public high school.

In 1960, The first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Enterprise, was launched by the United States.

In 1963, the U.S. Senate ratified a treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union limiting nuclear testing.

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson receives a special commission’s report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which had occurred on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.

In 1968, the TV news magazine “60 Minutes” premiered on CBS.

In 1969, the trial of the Chicago Eight, later the Chicago Seven, began. (Five were later convicted of crossing state lines to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic convention, but the convictions were ultimately overturned.)

In 1976, Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison for her part in a 1974 bank robbery.

In 1990, South African President F. W. de Klerk meets US President George H. W. Bush in Washington, D.C.

In 1991, American alternative rock group Nirvana released its breakthrough album Nevermind, which helped make grunge an international phenomenon and gave voice to Generation X.

In 1996, US President Bill Clinton signs the "Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty" at the United Nations

In 2007, United Auto Workers walked off the job at GM plants in the first nationwide strike during auto contract negotiations since 1976. (A tentative pact ended the walkout two days later.)

In 2015, Pope Francis becomes the first pope to address the US Congress; names Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Thomas Merton, and Dorothy Day as his American heroes.

In 2016, The National Museum of African American History and Culture opens on the National Mall.