On this date...

USS Shenadoah

In 1528, The Spanish conquistador Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca runs aground on a low sandy island off the coast of Texas. Starving, dehydrated and desperate, he is the first European to set foot on the soil of the future Lone Star state.

In 1775, In today’s orders, Washington addresses a troubling trend: soldiers cutting down trees for firewood without permission. Though the “disagreeableness of the weather” and a scarcity of wood tempt leniency, Washington reaffirms the need for discipline.

1789 Pope Pius VI appoints Father John Carroll as the first Catholic bishop in the United States. He is also related to Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a Mayland Signer of the Declaration of Independence.

In 1860, Americans elected as their president Abraham Lincoln, whose victory led to the secession of Southern states and the long and bloody Civil War that lasted until 1865 and ended slavery in the U.S.

In 1861, Jefferson Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America. He ran without opposition, and the election simply confirmed the decision that had been made by the Confederate Congress earlier in the year.

In 1865, CSS Shenandoah is the last Confederate combat unit to surrender in the American Civil War after circumnavigating the globe on a cruise that sinks or captures 38 vessels.

In 1869, Rutgers beats Princeton, 6-4, in the first college football game. The game, played with a soccer ball before roughly 100 fans in New Brunswick, New Jersey, resembles rugby instead of today's football.

In 1888, Benjamin Harrison of the Republican Party was elected U.S. president by an electoral majority despite losing the popular vote by more than 90,000 to his Democratic opponent, Grover Cleveland.

In 1906, Charles Evans Hughes (R) is elected Governor of New York, beating newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst.

In 1917, New York State adopts a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote in state elections.

In 1945, House Committee on Un-American Activities begins investigation of 7 radio commentators.

In 1947, “Meet the Press,” the longest-running television show in America, made its debut on NBC; the host was the show’s co-creator, Martha Rountree.

In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower won reelection, defeating Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson II for the second time.

In 1977, the Toccoa Falls Dam in Georgia gives way and 39 people die in the resulting flood.

In 1984, U.S. President Ronald Reagan won reelection in a landslide victory over Democratic candidate Walter F. Mondale.

In 1986, President Reagan signs landmark immigration reform bill.

In 2009, President Barack Obama signs congressional resolution conferring honorary U.S. citizenship to Revolutionary War hero Casimir Pulaski

In 2012, President Barack Obama won reelection, vanquishing Republican former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 332 electoral votes to Romney’s 206.