On this date...

Second Bank of the United States

In 1608, Jamestown, VA is destroyed by fire.

In 1776, In a letter to Connecticut governor Jonathan Trumbull, Washington warns that British ships fitting out in Boston are likely bound for New York. If the enemy seizes the city and the North River, he writes, they will command the country and open communication with Canada. He resolves to send Charles Lee ahead, gathering winter volunteers and disarming suspected loyalists.

In 1789, the first US Presidential Electors are chosen.

In 1817, Second Bank of US opens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In 1822, 1st printing in Hawaii of a ceremonial broadside for King Kamehameha II by Elisha Loomis.

In 1822, Free American Blacks establish a settlement on Providence Island, off the coast of West Africa; later becomes the city of Monrovia, Liberia.

In 1822, Liberia colonized by the American Colonization Society.

In 1839, the Congress of the Republic of Texas established the city of Austin as the capital of the newly formed state of Texas.

In 1892, A massive mine explosion leaves nearly 100 dead in Krebs, Oklahoma. The disaster, the worst mining catastrophe in Oklahoma’s history, was mainly due to the mine owner’s emphasis on profits over safety.

In 1894, William Kennedy Dickson captures "Fred Ott's Sneeze" as a motion picture at Thomas Edison's Black Maria Studio in West Orange, New Jersey.

In 1896, Fannie Farmer’s first cookbook appears, one of the first to replace "handfuls" and "pinches" with precise measurements. The publisher made her personally pay to print the first 3,000 copies. It went on to sell millions.

In 1916, In response to pressure from President Woodrow Wilson, Germany notifies the US State Department that it will abide by strict international rules of maritime warfare.

In 1927, the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team travels 48 miles west from Chicago to play their first game in Hinckley, Illinois.

In 1927, Commercial transatlantic telephone service was inaugurated between New York and London.

In 1929, One of the first adventure comic strips "Tarzan" is first published.

In 1948, US President Harry Truman raises taxes for the Marshall Plan to assist in rebuilding Europe after WWII.

In 1953, In his final State of the Union address before Congress, President Harry S. Truman tells the world that that the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb.

In 1955, American contralto Marian Anderson first performed with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

In 1959, Just six days after the fall of the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship in Cuba, U.S. officials recognize the new provisional government of the island nation. Despite fears that Fidel Castro, whose rebel army helped to overthrow Batista, might have communist leanings, the U.S. government believed that it could work with the new regime and protect American interests in Cuba.

In 1968, Uncrewed U.S. space probe Surveyor 7 was launched and, a few days later, made a soft landing on the Moon.

In 1972, Lewis F. Powell Jr. and William H. Rehnquist were sworn in as the 99th and 100th members of the Supreme Court.

In 1980, US President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation to bail out the Chrysler Corporation with a 1.5 billion dollar loan.

In 1997, Newt Gingrich became the first Republican re-elected House speaker in 68 years.

In 1998, Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky signs affidavit denying she had an affair with President Bill Clinton.

In 1999, the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton, formally charged with lying under oath and obstructing justice, begins in the Senate. As instructed in Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist was sworn in to preside, and the senators were sworn in as jurors.

In 2022, three white men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery were sentenced to life in prison; a judge in Georgia denied any chance of parole for the father and son who armed themselves and initiated the deadly pursuit of the 25-year-old Black man after spotting him running in their neighborhood.

In 2023, Republican Kevin McCarthy was elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives on a historic post-midnight 15th ballot, overcoming holdouts from his own ranks after a chaotic week that tested the new GOP majority’s ability to govern