On this date...

Tom Horn

In 1767,  The Townshend Acts go into effect. These were a series of laws created to bring in revenue and gain more control over the Colonies.

In 1775, From Cambridge, Washington writes Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Reed, his trusted secretary and confidant. He updates Reed on pressing matters: the army’s dire lack of pay, Congress’s slow response, and his appeal for one month’s advanced wages to encourage soldiers to reenlist. Washington mentions Henry Knox’s mission to fetch artillery from Ticonderoga, noting the army’s shortage of guns and flints.

In 1789, New Jersey became the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights.

In 1820, The American whaling ship Essex was rammed by a sperm whale and later sank, inspiring the climactic scene in Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick (1851).

In 1835, David Ruggles, a Black abolitionist living in New York City, founds the New York Committee of Vigilance, an interracial collective working to protect free Black New Yorkers and fugitive former slaves from kidnappers and police.

In 1861, Secession ordinance is filed by Kentucky's Confederate government

In 1866, a Frenchman named Pierre Lallement receives a U.S. patent for the nation's first pedal bicycle.

In 1903, the infamous hired killer Tom Horn is hanged for having allegedly murdered Willie Nickell, the 14-year-old son of a southern Wyoming sheep rancher.

In 1919, 1st municipally owned airport in US opens in Tucson, Arizona

In 1923, the U.S. Patent Office grants Patent No. 1,475,074 to 46-year-old inventor and newspaperman Garrett Morgan for his three-position traffic signal.

In 1934, 17-year-old pitcher Eiji Sawamura gives up just one hit, a Lou Gehrig home run, as US All-Stars beat Japan 1-0.

In 1942, The Alaska Highway 2,451km long from Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Fairbanks, Alaska, first opens to military traffic.

In 1958, American puppeteers Jim Henson and his future wife Jane Nebel establish Muppets, Inc. (now known as The Jim Henson Company).

In 1969, The Nixon administration announced a halt to residential use of the pesticide DDT as part of a total phase-out.

In 1969, Native activists, including members of the American Indian Movement, began an occupation of Alcatraz Island, protesting what they saw as the U.S. government's mistreatment of Native peoples. They were forced off the island in June 1971.

In 1975, Ronald Reagan announces candidacy for Republican nomination for US President.

In 1979, First artificial blood transfusion occurs at the University of Minnesota Hospital in the US when a patient refuses a conventional blood transfusion due to religious beliefs and receives the blood substitute Fluosol.

In 1982, the UC Berkeley football team, referred to as Cal, wins an improbable last-second victory over Stanford when they complete five lateral passes around members of the Cardinal marching band, who had wandered onto the field a bit early to celebrate the upset they were sure their team had won, and score a touchdown.

In 1983, With Cold War tensions peaking, more than 100 million people watch "The Day After" on ABC, a controversial made-for-TV film about a nuclear bomb being dropped on Kansas. President Reagan wrote that it left him "greatly depressed."

In 1985, Microsoft Windows 1.0 released.

In 1993, Savings and Loan scandal: The United States Senate Ethics Committee issues a stern censure of California senator Alan Cranston for his "dealings" with savings-and-loan executive Charles Keating.

In 1998, American tobacco companies signed an agreement with the governments of 46 U.S. states to settle the states' claims for reimbursement of Medicaid funds they had spent to treat smoking-related illnesses. The settlement cost the tobacco manufacturers $206 billion beyond the $40 billion they had agreed to pay four other states in 1997.

In 2001, US President George W. Bush dedicates the US Department of Justice headquarters the Robert F. Kennedy Justice Building, on what would have been his 76th birthday

In 2003, Singer Michael Jackson was booked on suspicion of child molestation in Santa Barbara, Calif. (He was later acquited.)

In 2013, US President Barack Obama awards retired Washington Post journalist Ben Bradlee and posthumously civil rights activist Bayard Rustin the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In 2014, Nearly five million undocumented immigrants in the US have the threat of deportation deferred after President Barack Obama announces sweeping immigration reforms

In 2015, American civil defense analyst Jonathan Pollard was released from prison, having served 30 years for selling classified information to Israel.

In 2024, Geno Auriemma, head coach of the University of Connecticut women's basketball team, won his 1,217th game, making him the coach with the most wins across all of NCAA basketball history.