On this date...

In 1775, Americans dragged cannon up hill to fight the British at Gun Hill Road, Bronx. When the British navy landed on Staten Island in 1775, New York City Patriots feared an imminent invasion. They did not want the precious cannon at the Battery to fall into enemy hands. In December 1775, they took the cannon to the mainland and scattered them roughly along present-day Gun Hill Road from today’s Jerome Avenue across the Bronx River to modern White Plains Road.

In 1776, from Providence, Governor Nicholas Cooke informs Washington that Rhode Island cannot supply muskets. Long accustomed to feeling secure, the colony had neglected military preparation and entered the war largely disarmed. Arms are now scarce and expensive.

In 1776, the first national memorial was ordered by Congress in honor of Brigadier General Richard Montgomery, who had been killed during an assault on Quebec on December 31, 1775.

In 1787, Shays' Rebellion suffered a setback when debt-ridden farmers led by Capt. Daniel Shays failed to capture an arsenal at Springfield, Mass.

In 1799, the 1st US patent for a seeding machine was granted to Eliakim Spooner of Vermont.

In 1799, having existed, essentially nameless, for 8-1/2 years, Alexander Hamilton’s “system of cutters” was referred to in legislation as “Revenue Cutters.” Some decades later, the name evolved to Revenue Cutter Service and Revenue Marine.

In 1806, Secretary of State James Madison delivered a report to Congress on the continuing British interference with the commercial shipping of neutral nations, including the US, and on British policy of impressing US seamen, in the context of the Napoleonic Wars.

In 1814, Congress modified the embargo against Britain when the embargo led to famine on Nantucket Island, off the Massachusetts coast.

In 1819, the University of Virginia was chartered by the Commonwealth of Virginia, with Thomas Jefferson one of its founders.

In 1840, an American naval expedition under Charles Wilkes was the first to identify Antarctica as a new continent

In 1856, Marines and seamen from the U.S. sloop DECATUR went ashore at the village of Seattle, Washington, to protect settlers from Indian raids.

In 1877, Congress established the Electoral Commission to determine the disputed presidential election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden.

In 1881, Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell formed the Oriental Telephone Company.

In 1882, Charles J. Guiteau was found guilty of the murder of U.S. President James A. Garfield.

In 1890, the United Mine Workers of America was founded in Columbus, Ohio.

In 1890, the National Afro-American League was founded in Chicago by Timothy Thomas Fortune, one of the earliest civil rights organizations in America

In 1890, police cleared a path through a cheering crowd for reporter Nellie Bly as she stepped off a train in New York just 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes, and 14 seconds after setting sail east to prove she could circle the globe in less than 80 days.

In 1915, the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, inaugurated transcontinental telephone service in the United States.

In 1919, in Paris, delegates to the peace conference formally approved the establishment of a commission on the League of Nations. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson insisted on chairing the commission—for him, the establishment of the League lay squarely at the center of the peace negotiations.

In 1919, The Hotel Pennsylvania, at the time the world's largest, opened in Manhattan, across Seventh from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden; it closed in 2020, demolished in 2022-23

In 1928, Marines participated in the Battle of El Chipote during the occupation of Nicaragua.

In 1939, the 1st nuclear fission experiment (splitting of a uranium atom) in the US, in the basement of Pupin Hall, Columbia University, by a team including Enrico Fermi.

In 1941, Pope Pius XII elevated the Apostolic Vicariate of the Hawaiian Islands to the dignity of a diocese. It becomes the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu.

In 1945, in an effort to prevent tooth decay, Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the first U.S. city to add fluoride to its water system.

In 1949, the first Emmy Awards were presented; there were only six categories, and nominated shows were limited to those that aired in the Los Angeles area.

In 1959, American Airlines opened the jet age in the United States with the first scheduled transcontinental flight of a Boeing 707.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy became the first U.S. president to hold a live televised news conference.

In 1961, the animated film One Hundred and One Dalmatians was released in the United States and became a Disney classic, especially noted for its villainous character, Cruella De Vil.

In 1971, the Philadelphia Mint's first trial strike of the Eisenhower dollar occurred.

In 1971, Charles Manson and three of his followers were convicted of a series of notorious murders; their crimes inspired the best-selling book Helter Skelter (1974) as well as many films and documentaries.

In 1972, Shirley Chisholm announced her candidacy for President of the United States, becoming the first African American to seek a major party’s nomination for President.

In 1979, On this day in 1979, a factory worker was killed by a robot. Robert Nicholas Williams climbed into a shelving unit to investigate an assembly-line malfunction, where he was struck in the head by an industrial robot and killed. The incident was the first recorded instance of a person being killed by a robot, and it broke science-fiction author Isaac Asimov's first law of robotics: “a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”

In 1988, Vice President George Bush and Dan Rather clashed on "The CBS Evening News" as the anchorman attempted to question the Republican presidential candidate about his role in the Iran-Contra affair.

In 1993, a gunman shot and killed two CIA employees outside agency headquarters in Virginia. (A Pakistani national was later convicted and executed in 2002.)

In 2004, NASA’s Opportunity rover landed on Mars and sent its first pictures of the planet to Earth; originally planned as a 90-day mission, the rover remained operational for over 15 years, travelling a total of 28 miles across the planet’s surface.

In 2019, the longest-ever US government shutdown ended after 35 days when President Donald Trump agreed to three weeks of negotiations on border security by a House-Senate conference committee.

In 2019, Roger Stone, a political lobbyist for Donald Trump, was arrested as part ofthe Mueller investigation for obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and making false statements.

In 2021, President Joe Biden signed an order reversing a Pentagon policy that largely barred transgender people from military service.

In 2021, Janet Yellen was confirmed as the first female Treasury Secretary by the US Senate.

In 2022, the Navy said it had discharged 23 active-duty sailors for refusing the coronavirus vaccine; it marked the first time the Navy had thrown currently-serving sailors out of the military over the mandatory shots.