On this date...

In 1659, William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson, two Quakers who came from England in 1656 to escape religious persecution, are executed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony for their religious beliefs. The two had violated a law passed by the Massachusetts General Court the year before, banning Quakers from the colony under penalty of death.

In 1682, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is founded by Englishman William Penn.

In 1775, In the Canadian wilderness, Benedict Arnold writes Washington. Exhausted, soaked by weeks of rain, and nearly starving, he reports that provisions are dangerously low. Yet Arnold remains hopeful: If the British at Quebec remain unaware of his advance, he may attempt a surprise assault.

In 1787, First of the Federalist Papers published.

In 1795, Pinckney's Treaty, an agreement between the United States and Spain, was signed, giving the United States navigation rights on the Mississippi River.

In 1810, United States annexes West Florida from Spain.

In 1838, Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issues the Extermination Order, which orders all Mormons to leave the state or be exterminated.

In 1864, Confederate ship CSS Albemarle torpedoed and sunk by a spar torpedo mounted on a steam launch commanded by William B. Cushing.

In 1871, Democratic leader of Tammany Hall NY, Boss Tweed is arrested after the NY Times exposes his corruption.

In 1873, a DeKalb, Illinois, farmer named Joseph Glidden submits an application to the U.S. Patent Office for his clever new design for a fencing wire with sharp barbs, an invention that will forever change the face of the American West.

In 1880, Theodore Roosevelt married Alice Lee.

In 1904, New York City's first underground subway line opens.

In 1913, In a speech in Mobile, Alabama, President Woodrow Wilson vows the US will "will never again seek one additional foot of territory by conquest".

In 1954, Benjamin O. Davis Jr. becomes the first African-American general in the United States Air Force.

In 1961, The first Saturn rocket was successfully launched, and years later the Saturn V was the launch vehicle used in the Apollo Moon-landing flights.

In 1961, a U.S. appeals court affirms rock 'n' roller Chuck Berry's second conviction for transporting a minor across state lines for immoral purposes in violation of the Mann Act. After an earlier conviction in the case had been thrown out a year earlier, Berry was retried—and this time, the charges stuck. He was sentenced to three years in prison.

In 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down while flying over Cuba, killing the pilot, U.S. Air Force Maj. Rudolf Anderson Jr.

In 1994, The U.S. Justice Department announces that the U.S. prison population has topped one million for the first time in American history.

In 1997, The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 554.26 points, forcing the stock market to shut down for the first time since the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.

In 2004, The Boston Red Sox ended the “Curse of the Bambino”—an alleged hex that began in 1920 when the team's owner sent Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in exchange for $125,000 and a personal loan—by defeating the St. Louis Cardinals to win the World Series title. It was the Red Sox's first MLB championship in 86 years.

In 2005, White House counsel Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to the Supreme Court after three weeks of criticism from fellow conservatives.

In 2006, the last Ford Taurus rolls off the assembly line in Hapeville, Georgia. The keys to the silver car went to 85-year-old Truett Cathy, the founder of the Chick-fil-A fast-food franchise, who took it straight to his company’s headquarters in Atlanta and added it to an elaborate display that included 19 other cars, including one of the earliest Fords.

In 2008, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, was convicted of seven corruption charges for lying about free home renovations and other gifts from a wealthy oil contractor. (A judge later dismissed the case, saying prosecutors had withheld evidence.)

In 2022, Elon Musk takes ownership and control of Twitter, immediately fires 4 executives.