On this date...

In 1750, Jonathan Mayhew, a Unitarian-leaning minister of Boston’s West Church, preached a sermon entitled “Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers.”

In 1776, from Cambridge, Washington writes to Major General William Howe under explicit orders from Congress proposing a formal prisoner exchange. He offers Philip Skene, a royal governor, in return for prominent Boston patriot James Lovell, imprisoned by the British. 

In 1779. At Fort Henderson, Georgia, Colonel Samuel Elbert was commanding his Georgia militia when they were attacked by Lt. Colonel Archibald Campbell's British force.

In 1797, the US Congress refused to accept 1st petition from African Americans.

In 1800, the US population was 5,308,483; the African American population was 1,002,037 (18.9%).

In 1806, the original Lower Trenton Toll Bridge, which spans the Delaware River between Morrisville, Pennsylvania, and Trenton, New Jersey, was opened.

In 1815, President James Madison approved an act of Congress appropriating $23,950 to purchase Thomas Jefferson’s library of 6,487 volumes.

In 1835, Andrew Jackson became the first American president to experience an assassination attempt.

In 1847, previously known as Yerba Buena (the name of a plant, meaning “good herb”), San Francisco was given its current name.

In 1854, the 1st election in Washington Territory, 1,682 votes were cast.

In 1883, James Ritty and John Birch received a U.S. patent for the first cash register.

In 1931, the silent romantic-comedy film City Lights had its world premiere, and it is considered by many to be Charlie Chaplin's crowning achievement in cinema.

In 1933, The Lone Ranger was introduced by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker on radio station WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan.

In 1956, an unidentified suspected white supremacist terrorist bombed the Montgomery home of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. No one was harmed, but the explosion outraged the community and was a major test of King’s steadfast commitment to non-violence.

In 1957, the US Congress accepted the "Eisenhower Doctrine" - a US offer of aid to Arab countries threatened with communist aggression.

In 1961, JFK asked for an Alliance for Progress & Peace Corps, a $20 billion US Aid program for Latin America.

In 1968, in coordinated attacks all across South Vietnam, communist forces launched their largest offensive of the Vietnam War against South Vietnamese and U.S. troops.

In 1978, Mutual Broadcasting Network began airing the late-night "Larry King Show" on the radio, from Miami, Florida

In 1989, the American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, closed.

In 2011, California became the first state to celebrate Fred Korematsu Day, which honors the Japanese American activist who was convicted in 1942 of violating an exclusion order requiring him to relocate. His subsequent legal appeals were denied, though the ruling was eventually overturned in 2018.

In 2017, President Donald Trump fired Acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates after she publicly questioned the constitutionality of his controversial refugee and immigration ban and refused to defend it in court.

In 2020, health officials reported the first known case in which the new coronavirus spread from one person to another in the United States.