On this date...

Saturday Night Fever

In 1775, In the day’s General Orders, Washington announces the appointment of Henry Knox, a 25-year-old Boston bookseller with a passion for artillery, as colonel of the new regiment of artillery. Washington’s respect for Knox’s knowledge of gunnery, self-taught from European manuals, is evident.

In 1787, Pennsylvania becomes the second state to ratify the Constitution, by a vote of 46 to 23. Pennsylvania was the first large state to ratify, as well as the first state to endure a serious Anti-Federalist challenge to ratification.

In 1846, New Granada (now Colombia and Panama) signed the Bidlack Treaty with the United States, granting U.S. right-of-way across the Isthmus of Panama in exchange for a guarantee of neutrality for the isthmus and the sovereignty of New Granada.

In 1868, An angry group of vigilantes yank the brothers Frank, William, and Simeon Reno from their Indiana jail cell and hang them, after a guard they had shot during an earlier train robbery died of his wounds.

In 1870, Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina became the first Black lawmaker sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives.

In 1878, Joseph Pulitzer begins publishing the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch".

In 1897, "The Katzenjammer Kids," the pioneering comic strip by Rudolph Dirks, debuted in the New York Journal.

In 1899, George F. Grant, an African American dentist from Boston, receives US Patent number 638,920 for the world’s first golf tee. Neither a marketer nor an inventor, Grant gives away a few copies of his creation but makes no money from it before he dies.

In 1914, The New York Stock Exchange re-opened for the first time since July 30. The market had shut down when World War I broke out.

In 1917, Boys Town, an orphanage for boys, is founded by Father Edward Flanagan in Omaha, Nebraska.

In 1925, The world's first motel opened on this day in 1925. Located in San Luis Obispo, the Milestone Mo-Tel gave motorists a place to stop as they drove between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

In 1937, During the battle for Nanking in the Sino-Japanese War, the U.S. gunboat Panay was sunk by Japanese warplanes in Chinese waters.

In 1939, First commercial manufacture of nylon yarn in Seaford, Delaware.

In 1947, The United Mine Workers union withdrew from the American Federation of Labor.

In 1953, Chuck Yeager reaches Mach 2.43 in Bell X-1A rocket plane.

In 1957, Willem J. Kolff and his team at Ohio's Cleveland Clinic remove the heart from a dog and replace it with a pneumatic pump, which keeps the dog alive for 90 minutes, proving the feasibility of the artificial heart

In 1963, a vinyl long-playing record (“LP”) called John Fitzgerald Kennedy: A Memorial Album sets a record for album sales. A total of 4 million copies sold in the first six days of its release.

In 1968, Arthur Ashe becomes the first African American tennis player to be ranked No. 1.

In 1974, 50‐year‐old Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter announces his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President.

In 1975, Sara Jane Moore pleaded guilty to trying to kill President Gerald R. Ford.

In 1977, Saturday Night Fever, starring John Travolta, had its world premiere; the film was a huge hit, as was the accompanying disco sound track by the Bee Gees.

In 1989, Leona Helmsley, nicknamed the “Queen of Mean” by the press, receives a four-year prison sentence, 750 hours of community service, and a $7.1 million tax fraud fine in New York.

In 1997, Fourteen-year-old Michael Carneal is indicted as an adult on three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder for the shooting of his classmates at Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky.

In 1997, Fed judge sentences Autumn Jackson, who claims to be Bill Cosby's daughter, to 26 months for trying to extort $40 million from him

In 1998, The House Judiciary Committee approved a fourth article of impeachment against President Bill Clinton and submitted the case to the full House.

In 2000, Supreme Court decides Bush v. Gore, confirming George W. Bush as president.

In 2009, With the victory of Democratic politician Annise Parker, Houston became the then largest city in the United States to elect an openly gay mayor.

In 2010, the inflatable roof of the Minneapolis Metrodome collapsed following a snowstorm that had dumped 17 inches on the city. (The NFL was forced to shift an already rescheduled game between the Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants to Detroit’s Ford Field.)

In 2018, Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s one-time fixer, was sentenced to three years in prison for crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money to conceal Trump’s alleged sexual affairs.

In 2020, thousands of Trump supporters gathered in Washington for rallies to back his efforts to subvert the election he lost to Joe Biden.