On this date...

Historical Charleston Museum - this one burned and has been replaced with a plain brick building.

In 1773, the oldest public museum in the United States was established in colonial Charleston, South Carolina. Its original purpose was to promote a better understanding of agriculture and herbal medicine in the area.

In 1776, nearly two weeks after the failed American assault on Quebec, Washington remained unaware of the defeat or of Richard Montgomery’s death. He writes Montgomery, assuming the city has fallen or soon will. Boston’s army lacks arms, blankets, and clothing, and Washington urgently begs that whatever can be spared from Quebec be sent south.

In 1777, Padre Thomas Peña, under the direction of Padre Junípero Serra, officially founded Mission Santa Clara de Asís, the eighth of California’s twenty-one missions. Located along El Camino Real, the Royal Road, these missions stretched up the California coast from San Diego to Sonoma, a distance of about seven hundred miles. When the chain was completed, each mission lay about one day’s journey by horse apart from the next.

In 1777, American Brigadier General Hugh Mercer died from the seven bayonet wounds he received during the Battle of Princeton.

In 1803, US Senate approves Thomas Jefferson's nomination of James Monroe and Robert Livingstone to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans from France

In 1837, after his bank failed in the Panic of 1837, Joseph Smith fled Kirtland, Ohio, to avoid arrest and headed for Missouri to rebuild his religious community.

In 1888, the so-called “Schoolchildren’s Blizzard” killed 235 people, many of whom were children on their way home from school, across the Northwest Plains region of the United States. The storm came with no warning, and some accounts say that the temperature fell nearly 100 degrees in just 24 hours.

In 1904, Henry Ford set a land-speed record of 91.37 mph on the frozen surface of Michigan’s Lake St. Clair.

In 1912, the temperature reached a low of -47°F (-44°C), in Washta, Iowa (state record)

In 1915, the U.S. House of Representatives rejected, 204-174, a proposed constitutional amendment to give women nationwide the right to vote.

In 1919, the day after British Prime Minister David Lloyd George arrived in Paris, he met with representatives from the other Big Four nations—Prime Ministers Georges Clemenceau of France and Vittorio Orlando of Italy and President Woodrow Wilson of the United States—at the French Foreign Ministry on the Quai d’Orsay, for the first of what will be more than 100 meetings.

In 1926, the two-man comedy series “Sam ‘n’ Henry” debuts on Chicago’s WGN radio station. Two years later, after changing its name to “Amos ‘n’ Andy,” the show became one of the most popular radio programs in American history.

In 1932, Hattie Caraway became the first woman elected to the US Senate.

In 1935, aviator Amelia Earhart completed an 18-hour trip from Honolulu to Oakland, California, making her the first person to fly solo across any part of the Pacific Ocean.

In 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Sipuel v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, unanimously ruled that state law schools could not discriminate against applicants on the basis of race.

In 1954, in a speech at a Council on Foreign Relations dinner in his honor, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles announced that the United States would protect its allies through the “deterrent of massive retaliatory power.”

In 1957, Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) was founded with Martin Luther King Jr. as the leader at Ebenezer Church in Atlanta In 1959, Berry Gordy launched Tamla Records. With Smokey Robinson and the Miracles signed as its first act, Tamla soon merged with Gordy's other label, Motown Records, to form one of the most influential music companies in American history.

In 1966, the live-action TV series Batman premiered on ABC. A huge hit, it starred Adam West as the Caped Crusader and Burt Ward as Robin.

In 1967, James Bedford became the first American to have his remains cryogenically frozen, in hopes of a later reanimation. As cryo companies shuttered, his family at one point had to keep his liquid nitrogen chamber in self-storage.

In 1969, Quarterback Joe Namath, having “guaranteed” victory, led the New York Jets to a 16–7 win over the favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.

In 1971, the groundbreaking television series All in the Family debuted on CBS and quickly became known for its frank and satirical treatment of sensitive or important topics.

In 1986, astronaut and physicist Franklin Chang-Diaz became the first Hispanic American to fly in space on the Space Shuttle Columbia, which orbited Earth 96 times, deployed the SATCOM KU satellite used for broadcast television, and conducted experiments in astrophysics. It was a high point in an aeronautical career with plenty of high points.

In 1991, A deeply divided Congress gave President George H.W. Bush the authority to use force to expel Iraq from Kuwait. (The Senate vote was 52-47; the House followed suit 250-183.)

In 1998, Linda Tripp provided Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's office with taped conversations between herself and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

In 2000, The Supreme Court gave police broad authority to stop and question people who run at the sight of an officer.

In 2005, the U.S. space probe Deep Impact was launched. A few months later, it shot a 370-kg (810-pound) mass into the nucleus of the comet Tempel 1 in order to study its cometary structure.