On this date...

Richard Kuklinski

In 1728, Congregation Shearith Israel of New York purchases a lot on Mill Street in Lower Manhattan to build the city's first synagogue

In 1775, Henry Knox writes to report he has successfully moved the captured Ticonderoga artillery across Lake Champlain. He has prepared 42 sleds and secured 80 yoke of oxen. If the snow holds, Knox believes he can present Washington with a “noble train of artillery” within weeks.

In 1777, French foreign minister Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes and King Louis XVI decided to recognize the United States as an independent country, making France one of the first countries to do so. The recognition became official on February 6, 1778, when the two countries signed a treaty of alliance that involved France financially and militarily in the American Revolution.

In 1777, General Washington orders the troops to pause at Gulph Mills in the march to Valley Forge so that they might better observe the day of Thanksgiving and prayer ordered by the Congress.

In 1798, First impeachment trial against a US senator begins (William Blount, Tennessee).

In 1821, Kentucky abolishes debtors' prisons.

In 1852, 1st Hawaiian Cavalry is organized.

In 1862, Union General Ulysses S. Grant lashes out at Jewish cotton speculators, who he believed were the driving force behind the black market for cotton. Grant issued an order expelling all Jewish people from his military district, which encompassed parts of Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky.

In 1872, Already appearing as a well-known figure of the Wild West in popular dime novels, Buffalo Bill Cody makes his first stage appearance in a Chicago-based production of The Scouts of the Prairie.

In 1892, The first issue of Vogue was published. Initially a weekly high-society journal, it became a prominent American fashion magazine, with Diana Vreeland and Anna Wintour among its most notable and influential editors.

In 1895 Anti-Saloon League of America formed, Washington, D.C.

In 1903, Wright brothers make first successful airplane flight.

In 1933, in the inaugural NFL championship football game, the Chicago Bears defeated the New York Giants, 23-21, at Wrigley Field.

In 1941, Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel was relieved of his command of the U.S. Pacific Fleet as part of a shake-up of officers in the wake of the Pearl Harbor disaster.

In 1943, Congress passes the Magnuson Act, allowing Chinese immigrants to become naturalized US citizens and vote. It repealed the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, one of America’s most discriminatory laws, but still imposed strict immigration quotas.

In 1944, During World War II, U.S. Major General Henry C. Pratt issues Public Proclamation No. 21, declaring that, effective January 2, 1945, Japanese American “evacuees” from the West Coast could return to their homes.

In 1957, The United States successfully test-fired the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time.

In 1963, one of the first major pieces of environmental legislation in the United States becomes law. The Clean Air Act empowers federal and state agencies to research and regulate air pollution, marking a major expansion of government efforts to fight back against the damage being done to the climate.

In 1965, the first concert at the Houston Astrodome is held with Judy Garland as the headliner and The Supremes as opening act

In 1969, The secretary of the U.S. Air Force announced the end of Project Blue Book, a controversial program that had investigated UFOs since 1952. The decision followed a report by the University of Colorado that found no evidence any investigated UFO had been a threat to national security or was proof of extraterrestrial existence.

In 1969, An estimated 50 million viewers watched singer Tiny Tim marry Miss Vicky on NBC's "Tonight Show."

In 1975, A federal jury in Sacramento, California, sentences Lynette Alice Fromme, also known as “Squeaky” Fromme, to life in prison for her attempted assassination of President Gerald R. Ford.

In 1979, Hollywood stuntman Stan Barrett blasts across a dry lakebed at California’s Edwards Air Force Base in a rocket- and missile-powered car, becoming, many believe, the first man to travel faster than the speed of sound on land.

In 1979, Arthur McDuffie, a Black insurance broker and former Marine, was beaten by police after leading them on a chase with his motorcycle in Miami. McDuffie died in a hospital four days later. (Four white police officers accused of beating McDuffie were acquitted the following year, sparking riots in the city that led to several deaths and millions of dollars in damages.)

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter walked to Lafayette Square from the White House to participate in the first National Menorah Lighting, in celebration of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Initiated that year by the Washington, D.C. office of the Jewish organization Chabad-Lubavitch, the National Menorah Lighting has since become an annual event.

In 1986, Richard Kuklinski, a suspect in several murders, is arrested by undercover agents at a truck stop off the New Jersey Turnpike, marking the culmination of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms’ “Operation Iceman.”

In 1989, "The Simpsons" series makes television debut.

In 1992, The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed by the leaders of Mexico, Canada, and the United States. It was replaced by the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement in 2020.

In 2005, President George W. Bush acknowledged he'd personally authorized a secret eavesdropping program in the U.S. following Sept. 11.

In 2014, The United States and Cuba reestablished diplomatic relations that had been suspended for more than 50 years.

In 2018, A US poacher is sentenced to watch the film "Bambi" once a month during his year-long sentence in prison for killing hundreds of deer in Missouri