On this date...

Andrew Ellicott

In 1775, Upon hearing of England’s rejection of the so-called Olive Branch Petition Abigail Adams writes to her husband, John, “Let us separate, they are unworthy to be our Brethren. Let us renounce them and instead of supplications as formerly for their prosperity and happiness, Let us beseech the almighty to blast their councils and bring to Nought all their devices.”

In 1775, Washington issues orders to organize the Continental Army for a new year. He directs each colonel to collect printed enlistment forms for their officers, and he specifies pay rates, clothing deductions, and incentives—two dollars for any soldier who brings his own blanket.

In 1799, Andrew Ellicott makes the first known record of a meteor shower observation in the U.S, from a ship off the coast of Florida Keys.

In 1833, The great Leonid meteor shower, in which hundreds of thousands of meteors were observed in one night, was seen all over North America, initiating the first serious study of meteor showers.

In 1890, Mabel Loomis Todd publishes the first edition of "Poems by Emily Dickinson".

In 1915, Theodore W. Richards is 1st American to win Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

In 1926, The first recorded aerial bombing on US soil took place in Williamson County, Illinois, during a feud between rival liquor gangs, the Sheltons and the Birgers.

In 1928, British steamer "Vestris", sailing from NYC to Uruguay, capsizes and sinks off Hampton Roads, Virginia, kills 111, including many women and children.

In 1936, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened as President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key in Washington, D.C., and gave the green light to traffic.

In 1936, Nobel Prize for literature awarded to American playwright Eugene O'Neill.

In 1941, Alma Heflin becomes the first female test pilot for commercial aircraft at Piper Corporation, Lock Haven, Pennsylvania.

In 1948, former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and several other World War II Japanese leaders were sentenced to death by a war crimes tribunal.

In 1948, The first mobile betatron (particle accelerator) begins operation at the U.S. Naval Ordnance Laboratory, White Oak, Maryland.

In 1954, The immigration reception center at Ellis Island, New York, which processed more than 12 million immigrants, was closed.

In 1966, Buzz Aldrin takes the first "space selfie," a photo of himself performing extravehicular activity in space during the Gemini 12 mission.

In 1968, US Supreme Court: Epperson v. Arkansas declares unconstitutional the Arkansas law banning the teaching of evolution in public schools.

In 1971, Arches National Park—a desert area of sandstone formations in eastern Utah—was established; the region had been designated a national monument in 1929.

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter responds to a potential threat to national security by stopping the importation of petroleum from Iran.

In 1980, The U.S. space probe Voyager 1 reached the planet Saturn.

In 1990, computer scientists Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau at CERN proposed the creation of "a HyperText Project" connecting computer servers "as a web of nodes in which the user can browse ... large classes of information." Hence, the World Wide Web was born.

In 1998, Vice President of the United States, Al Gore, symbolically signs the Kyoto Protocol, but the US never ratifies it.

In 1999, President Bill Clinton signed a sweeping measure knocking down Depression-era barriers and allowing banks, investment firms and insurance companies to sell each other's products.

In 2021, a judge in Los Angeles ended the conservatorship that had controlled the life and money of pop star Britney Spears for nearly 14 years.