On this date...

General Westmoreland

In 1620, 41 male passengers on the Mayflower, prior to landing at Plymouth, Massachusetts, signed the Mayflower Compact, by which they agreed to abide by the laws of the new government they would establish.

In 1654, Richard Johnson, a free black, granted 550 acres in Virginia.

In 1775, Two young soldiers have been found guilty of abandoning their posts while on duty—an offense that could have cost them their lives. A court-martial has sentenced them to 15 lashes each, but Washington, noting their youth and inexperience, grants them mercy. He warns, however, that such leniency will not be repeated.

In 1776, In what proved a fateful decision, Continental Commander in Chief General George Washington writes to General Charles Lee in Westchester County, New York, to report the loss of Fort Lee, New Jersey, and to order Lee to bring his forces to New Jersey.

In 1787, Future US president Andrew Jackson admitted to the bar aged 20.

In 1789, North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

In 1817, U.S. troops from Fort Scott attack the small Seminole Indian village of Fowltown, located in southern Georgia, killing about 20 men and igniting the First Seminole War.

In 1824, First Jewish Reform congregation forms, Charleston, South Carolina.

In 1877, Thomas Edison announces phonograph invention.

In 1890, Edison Lab records the first surviving motion picture, "Monkeyshines No. 1," shot by William Kennedy Laurie Dickson and William Heise [date disputed between June 1889 and November 21–27, 1890].

In 1920, Silent film "The Last of the Mohicans" is released, adapted from James Fenimore Cooper's novel, starring Wallace Beery, Barbara Bedford.

In 1922, Rebecca Ann Felton of Georgia was sworn into office, becoming the first woman seated in the U.S. Senate; Felton, who was appointed to the seat, served only two days.

In 1931, The horror classic Frankenstein, based on a stage adaptation of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's 1818 novel, was released in the United States, and it helped make the hulking monster, who was portrayed by Boris Karloff, one of the most recognizable characters in film history.

In 1934, a young and gangly would-be dancer named Ella Fitzgerald takes to the stage of Harlem’s Apollo Theater to participate in a harrowing tradition known as Amateur Night. Finding herself onstage as a result of pure chance after her name was drawn out of a hat, the aspiring dancer spontaneously decided to turn sing instead of dance. This set her on a course toward becoming a musical legend. and led her to victory at Amateur Night at the Apollo.

In 1949, Bill Veeck sells MLB Cleveland Indians for $22 million, to fund his divorce settlement.

In 1959, WABC radio fires influential deejay Alan Freed for refusing to swear that he never received “payola” for playing music on air. Freed, credited with popularizing rock ‘n’ roll and mainstreaming R&B, pled guilty to commercial bribery three years later.

In 1963, US President John F. Kennedy takes a fateful last flight to Texas.

In 1964, The Verrazzano- (originally Verrazano-) Narrows Bridge, spanning New York Harbor from Brooklyn to Staten Island, opened to traffic.

In 1967, 967 Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland tells news reporters: "I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing."

In 1969, The Senate voted down the Supreme Court nomination of Clement F. Haynsworth.

In 1973, President Richard Nixon's attorney, J. Fred Buzhardt, revealed the existence of an 18 1/2-minute gap in one of the White House tape recordings related to Watergate.

In 1974, Amendments to the Freedom of Information Act broadening public access to US government actions passed by Congress over President Gerald Ford's veto.

In 1980, 85 people died, most due to smoke inhalation, after a fire broke out at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In 1980, an estimated 83 million TV viewers tuned in to the CBS prime-time soap opera “Dallas” to find out “who shot J.R.” (The shooter turned out to be J.R. Ewing’s sister-in-law, Kristin Shepard.)

In 1985, U.S. Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard was arrested and accused of spying for Israel. (Pollard later pleaded guilty to espionage and was sentenced to life in prison, but was released in 2015.)

In 1986, National Security Council staff member Oliver North and his secretary, Fawn Hall, begin shredding documents that would have exposed their participation in a range of illegal activities regarding the sale of arms to Iran and the diversion of the proceeds to a rebel Nicaraguan group.

In 1989, Law banning smoking on most domestic flights is signed by US President George H. W. Bush.

In 1990, junk-bond financier Michael R. Milken, who had pleaded guilty to six felony counts, was sentenced by a federal judge in New York to 10 years in prison. (Milken served two.)

In 1995, The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 5,000 for the first time.

In 1995, Balkan leaders meeting in Dayton, Ohio, initialed a peace plan to end 3 1/2 years of ethnic fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In 2000, The Florida Supreme Court granted Democrat Al Gore's request to keep the presidential election recount going.

In 2000, The United Farm Workers (UFW) called off the boycott of California table grapes begun in 1984 by union organizer Cesar Chavez to protest the use of dangerous pesticides. It was part of a series of UFW strikes that had started with the Delano grape strike in 1965–70.

In 2013, The Alabama parole board grants posthumous pardons to three members of the Scottsboro boys.

In 2022, NASA’s Orion capsule reached the moon, whipping around the far side and buzzing the lunar surface on its way to a record-breaking orbit. It was the first time an American capsule visited the moon since NASA’s Apollo program 50 years ago.