On this date...

Ethel Hedgeman

In 1639, in Hartford, Connecticut, the first constitution in the American colonies, the “Fundamental Orders,” was adopted by representatives of Wethersfield, Windsor, and Hartford.

In 1776, Washington writes a frank letter to Joseph Reed, his former secretary and a trusted confidant, responding to Reed’s private criticisms. He thanks Reed for speaking plainly and insists that the unguarded truth is the only remedy for error.

In 1777, the people of New Connecticut (Vermont) declared independence from England.

In 1780, the American Continental Congress established a court of appeals.

In 1782, Robert Morris, Superintendent of Finance, recommended to the U.S. Congress the establishment of decimal coinage and a national mint.

In 1794, A physician named Dr. Jesse Bennett is recorded as the first doctor to successfully perform a C-section in the US after it was requested during a difficult labor. The patient? His wife.

In 1870, the donkey was first used to symbolize the nation's Democrats. The cartoon in Harper’s Weekly by Thomas Nash was titled "A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion."

In 1844, the University of Notre Dame, founded in Indiana by the Congregation of the Holy Cross, was officially chartered.

In 1861, the steam elevator was patented by Elisha Otis

In 1908,was Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the first for African-American women, established by Ethel Hedgeman and 15 other students at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

In 1919, A storage tank collapsed in Boston, sending more than two million gallons (eight million liters) of molasses flowing through the city's North End; the Great Molasses Flood, as it became known, caused extensive damage and killed 21 people.

In 1927, the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned (on a technicality) John T. Scopes' guilty verdict for teaching evolution in the “Scopes monkey trial”, but the law itself remains in force.

In 1936, 1st all-glass windowless structure in the US was completed in Toledo, Ohio.

In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Presidential Proclamation No. 2537, requiring non-U.S. citizens from World War II-enemy countries—Italy, Germany, and Japan—to register with the United States Department of Justice.

In 1943, work was completed on the Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. Department of War.

In 1947, the mutilated remains of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short, who came to be known as the "Black Dahlia," were found in a vacant Los Angeles lot; her slaying remains unsolved.

In 1953, Harry Truman became the first U.S. president to deliver a farewell address via radio and television.

In 1953, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio wed and barely got past the honeymoon before cracks began to show in their brilliant veneer.

In 1963, George Wallace was inaugurated as the governor of Alabama, promising his followers, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!”

In 1967, the first Super Bowl was played.

In 1967, the Human Be-In was held in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park on January 14, 1967, launching the "Summer of Love." The event draws more than 20,000 people to enjoy peace, love, music, and psychedelics.

In 1969, an explosion aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise killed 27 people in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. A rocket accidentally detonated, destroying 15 planes and injuring more than 300 people.

In 1973, President Richard Nixon announced the suspension of all U.S. offensive action in North Vietnam, citing progress in peace negotiations.

In 1974, the American television series Happy Days, a nostalgic comedy set during the 1950s and '60s, premiered on ABC.

In 1978, serial killer Ted Bundy murdered two students in a sorority house at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

In 1980, after being released from government control, gold reached a new record price exceeding $800 an ounce.

In 2005, a military court sentenced Army Specialist Charles Graner Jr. to 10 years behind bars for physically and sexually mistreating Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison.

In 2009, US Airways flight 1549, piloted by Captain Chesley (“Sully”) Sullenberger III, landed in the Hudson River after the plane flew into a flock of Canada geese shortly after takeoff, resulting in severe damage to the plane's engines; there were no fatalities.

In 2016, the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan unveiled its newest exhibit, a replica skeleton of a Titanosaur dinosaur (found in 2010 in Argentina), the largest known dinosaur at 70 tons, 37m