On this date...

Ruby Bridges

In 1775, Learning of the surrender of Fort St. John in Canada, Washington calls on his soldiers to show gratitude to Providence for “thus favouring the Cause of Freedom and America.” Meanwhile, complaints against the commissary general and the unregulated sale of liquor among the ranks draw his sharp attention; he promises investigation and tighter controls.

In 1776, the St. James Chronicle of London carries an item announcing “The very identical Dr. Franklyn [Benjamin Franklin], whom Lord Chatham [former leading parliamentarian and colonial supporter William Pitt] so much caressed, and used to say he was proud in calling his friend, is now at the head of the rebellion in North America.”

In 1832, New York City’s New York and Harlem company premiered the nation's first horse-drawn street car.

In 1851, "Moby-Dick" is first published in the US.

In 1856, American Gail Borden is issued a patent for technology related to his invention of condensed milk.

In 1863, Nathan Bedford Forrest is assigned to command of West Tennessee Confederate Forces.

In 1881, Charles J. Guiteau went on trial for assassinating President James A. Garfield. (He was convicted and hanged.)

In 1882, The gunslinger Frank “Buckskin” Leslie shoots the Billy “The Kid” Claiborne dead in the streets of Tombstone, Arizona.

In 1889, American journalist Nellie Bly began her around-the-world race against the record of Phileas Fogg, hero of Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days. She completed the journey in slightly more than 72 days.

In 1908, Albert Einstein first presents quantum theory of light.

In 1910, Eugene B. Ely became the first aviator to take off from a ship as his Curtiss pusher rolled off a sloping platform on the deck of the scout cruiser USS Birmingham off Hampton Roads, Virginia.

In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed the Philippine Islands a free commonwealth.

In 1960, Six-year-old Ruby Bridges began attending an all-white elementary school in New Orleans on this day in 1960, becoming the youngest of a group of Black students to racially integrate schools in the American South.

In 1965, the U.S. Army’s first major military operation of the Vietnam War began with the start of the five-day Battle of Ia Drang.

In 1969, Apollo 12 was launched, carrying a crew of Charles Conrad, Jr., Richard F. Gordon, Jr., and Alan L. Bean, and five days later the mission made the second landing on the Moon.

In 1970, a chartered jet carrying most of the Marshall University football team clips a stand of trees and crashes into a hillside just two miles from the Tri-State Airport in Kenova, West Virginia, killing everyone onboard.

In 1972, The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 1,000 for the first time.

In 1993, Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula became the NFL’s all-time winningest coach with a victory over the Philadelphia Eagles.

In 1995, The U.S. government instituted a partial shutdown, closing national parks and museums while government offices operated with skeleton crews.

In 2002, Chosen to succeed Richard Gephardt as leader of the Democratic Party in the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi of California became the first woman to be named leader of either party in either house of Congress.

In 2002, The United States House of Representatives votes not to create an independent commission to investigate the September 11 attacks.

In 2013, Boston gangster Whitey Bulger is sentenced to two consecutive life terms plus five years for his crimes.

In 2020, supporters of President Trump unwilling to accept Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory gathered in cities across the country including Washington, D.C., where thousands rallied.