On this date...

1925 - Noem, Alaska Sled Dogs

In 1571, all eight members of a Jesuit mission in Virginia were murdered by Indians who pretended to be their friends.

In 1653, New Amsterdam, later New York City, was incorporated.

In 1776, across the lines in Boston, General William Howe writes Washington, refusing the General’s request for James Lovell’s release. Howe writes that he has discovered James Lovell carrying on a “prohibited Correspondence” and therefore revokes the liberty he had previously intended to grant him.

In 1781, at Steele’s Tavern in Salisbury, North Carolina, General Nathanael Greene is overheard telling Army surgeon Joseph Read he was "'Wretched beyond measure, fatigued, hungry, alone, penniless and without a friend”.

In 1790, in the Royal Exchange Building on New York City’s Broad Street, the Supreme Court of the United States met for the first time, with Chief Justice John Jay of New York presiding.

In 1800, USS Constellation (CAPT Thomas Truxtun) defeats La Vengeance.

In 1827, in the case Martin v. Mott, the Supreme Court found that, constitutionally, the President alone has the final power to determine whether the state militia should be mobilized in the national interest.

In 1836, Samuel Clemens published for the first time under the name "Mark Twain" for an article in a Nevada publication called the Territorial Enterprise. He had previously penned articles for the magazine under the name "Josh."

In 1848, the US and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in the Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo (now a neighborhood of Mexico City), which ended the Mexican–American War (1846–48).

In 1864, early in the morning, a Confederate boat expedition, planned and boldly led by Commander John Taylor Wood, CSN, captured and destroyed 4-gun sidewheel steamer U.S.S. Underwriter, Acting Master Jacob Westervelt, anchored in the Neuse River near New Bern, North Carolina.

In 1876, the National League, the oldest existing major league professional baseball organization in the United States, began play as the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs.

In 1887, the First Groundhog Day was celebrated.

In 1887, Harvey Wilcox officially registered Hollywood with the Los Angeles County recorder’s office.

In 1912, Frederick Rodman Law performed what was considered the first motion-picture stunt, parachuting from the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.

In 1913, NYC's Grand Central Terminal opened.

In 1913, 25-year-old multi-sport star Jim Thorpe—who won two gold medals at the 1912 Olympics—signed a Major League Baseball contract with the New York Giants.

In 1922, James Joyce's "Ulysses" was published.

In 1925, the legendary Alaska Serum Run ended as the last of a series of dog mushers brought life-saving medication to Nome, the scene of a diphtheria epidemic, travelling 674 miles (1,085 km) in just six days.

In 1942, A Los Angeles Times column urged security measures against Japanese-Americans, arguing that a Japanese-American “almost inevitably … grows up to be a Japanese, not an American.”

In 1943, on Guadalcanal, the American coastal advance crossed the Bonegi River.

In 1951, Los Angeles TV station KTLA transmitted the first live images of an atomic bomb detonation from atop a mountain 250 miles from the blast zone. The only thing local TV viewers could see: white light.

In 1962, the first U.S. Air Force plane was lost in South Vietnam.

In 1968, Richard M. Nixon announced his candidacy for the presidency. Most observers had written off Nixon’s political career eight years earlier, when he had lost to John F. Kennedy in the 1960 election.

In 1978, Antislavery crusader and Civil War veteran Harriet Tubman became the first African American woman to appear on a U.S. postage stamp, the first in the Post Office's Black Heritage Series.

In 1980, the FBI's undercover criminal investigation known as Abscam was revealed to the public; it resulted in the convictions of various elected officials on an assortment of bribery and corruption charges.

In 1988, in a speech that three major television networks declined to broadcast live, President Reagan pressed his case for aid to the Nicaraguan Contras.

In 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke up while entering the atmosphere over Texas, killing all seven crew members on board.

In 2004, A white powder containing Ricin, a deadly poison, was discovered in a mail room near the office of US Senate majority leader Bill Frist.

In 2007, the world's leading climate scientists said global warming had begun, was "very likely" caused by humans, and would be unstoppable for centuries.

In 2009, Hillary Rodham Clinton was sworn in as U.S. secretary of state.

In 2021, the Senate approved Pete Buttigieg as transportation secretary, making him the first openly gay person confirmed to a Cabinet post.

In 2022, four men were charged with being part of the drug distribution crew that supplied a deadly mix of narcotics to actor Michael K. Williams of “The Wire,” who had overdosed five months earlier.