On this date...

In 1746, Princeton University received its charter. It was originally named the College of New Jersey located in Elizabeth. It moved to Princeton, NJ in 1756 and was renamed in 1896.

In 1836, Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first popularly elected president of the Republic of Texas, taking over from interim president David Burnet. 

In 1875, Sons of American Revolution organizes.

In 1879, Thomas Edison perfects the carbonized cotton filament light bulb.

In 1883, Original Metropolitan Opera House opens in New York City.

In 1907, Ringling Brothers Greatest Show on Earth buys Barnum & Bailey circus.

In 1910, In one of the most notorious criminal cases of the 20th century, American physician Hawley Harvey Crippen (widely known as Dr. Crippen) was found guilty of murdering his wife; he was executed in a British prison the following month.

In 1916, Suffragette Inez Milholland collapses during a speech in Los Angeles, California, and dies weeks later; her last words to US President Woodrow Wilson are, “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?”

In 1926, Boxer J. Gordon Whitehead sucker punches magician Harry Houdini in the stomach in his dressing room at the Princess Theater in Montreal. The attack started or helped cause the appendicitis that would take Houdini's life 9 days later.

In 1928, Republican presidential nominee Herbert Hoover spoke of the “American system of rugged individualism” in a speech at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

In 1934, Infamous criminal Charles (“Pretty Boy”) Floyd was fatally shot in a field near East Liverpool, Ohio, by FBI agents.

In 1957, U.S. military personnel suffer their first casualties in the war when 13 Americans are wounded in three terrorist bombings of Military Assistance Advisory Group and U.S. Information Service installations in Saigon.

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy alerted Americans to the Cuban missile crisis, declaring a naval blockade to prevent further missile shipments to the island country 90 miles (145 km) off the coast of the U.S.

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Highway Beautification Act, which attempts to limit billboards and other forms of outdoor advertising, as well as junkyards and other unsightly roadside messes, along America’s interstate highways.

In 1965, In action near Phu Cuong, about 35 miles northwest of Saigon, PFC Milton Lee Olive III of Company B, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, throws himself on an enemy grenade and saves four soldiers, including his platoon leader, 1st Lt. James Sanford.

In 1968, Apollo 7 returned safely from Earth orbit, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1979, The U.S. government allowed the deposed Shah of Iran to travel to New York for medical treatment.

In 1981, The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization was decertified by the federal government for its strike the previous August.

In 1994, Statue of Sam Houston unveiled in Texas

In 2002, A bus driver was shot to death in Aspen Hill, Md., in the 13th and final attack by the Washington-area sniper.

In 2012, Lance Armstrong is formally stripped of the seven Tour de France titles he won from 1999 to 2005 and banned for life from competitive cycling after being charged with systematically using illicit performance-enhancing drugs and blood transfusions as well as demanding that some of his Tour teammates dope in order to help him win races.