On this date...

In 1675, First American commercial corporation chartered (NY Fishing Co.).

In 1790, George Washington delivers first State of the Union address.

In 1806, Explorer William Clark views skeleton of a 105 ft whale washed up on Cannon Beach, inhabited by the Tillamook Nation (modern Oregon).

In 1815, U.S. General Andrew Jackson defeated Great Britain in the Battle of New Orleans, the final engagement in the War of 1812.

In 1835, US national debt reaches $0 for the first and only time in history.

In 1856, Dr John Veatch discovers large disports of borax at Tuscan Springs, California

In 1867, African American men gain the right to vote in the District of Columbia despite the veto of its most powerful resident, President Andrew Johnson. The Republican-controlled senate overrode Johnson by a vote of 29-10 three years before a constitutional amendment granted the right to vote to all men regardless of race.

In 1877, Crazy Horse and his Sioux warriors fight their last battle with the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain (Montana Territory).

In 1901, The confessed Colorado cannibal Alfred Packer is released from prison on parole after serving 18 years.

In 1902, New York state assemblyman Francis G. ​Landon gets a bill passed to criminalize men turning around on a street and "looking at a woman in that way".

In 1918, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson announced his Fourteen Points, an outline for peace following World War I.

In 1918 Mississippi becomes 1st state to ratify the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution, authorizing the prohibition of alcohol.

In 1963, At the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, is exhibited for the first time in America.

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a war on poverty.

In 1965, Senator Everett Dirksen introduces a bill to make marigold the American natonal flower (it does not pass).

In 1972, the NCAA grants freshmen eligibility in its two biggest team sports, basketball and football. An overwhelming majority of representatives at the annual NCAA convention vote for freshmen participation in basketball; a closer majority vote in favor of freshmen participation in football.

In 1975, Judge John Sirica orders release of Watergate's John Dean III, Herbert W. Kalmbach and Jeb Stuart Magruder from prison

In 1982, AT&T settled the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against it by agreeing to divest itself of the 22 Bell System companies.

In 1987, The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 2,000 for the first time, ending the day at 2,002.25.

In 1992, One of the most widely ridiculed and memorable gaffes in the history of the United States Presidency occurred in Japan in the evening, when President George H.W. Bush vomits on the Prime Minister of Japan.

In 1996, The Baseball Writers’ Association of America fails to elect anyone for the Hall of Fame, since no player garnered the 75% of votes necessary. Knuckleball pitcher Phil Niekro, the closest at 68.3%, makes it in the following year.

In 1998, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, convicted of plotting the 1993 terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, was sentenced to life in prison.

In 2002, President George W. Bush signs the No Child Left Behind Act into law.

In 2011, U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords was shot during an assassination attempt in Arizona. Although she and 12 others who were shot survived, six people were killed.

In 2020, Iran struck back at the United States for killing Iran’s top military commander, firing missiles at two Iraqi military bases housing American troops. More than 100 U.S. service members were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries after the attack. As Iran braced for a counterattack, the country’s Revolutionary Guard shot down a Ukrainian jetliner after apparently mistaking it for a missile; all 176 people on board were killed.

In 2021, Twitter bans US President Donald Trump permanently "due to the risk of further incitement of violence".

In 2021, US Speaker Nancy Pelosi demands President Donald Trump's resignation or he will face a second impeachment, while also calling for Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him in the wake of the January 6 attack of the Capitol.