On this date...

David Dunbar Buick

In 1623, Virginia enacted the first American temperance law.

In 1750, the first American Shakespearean production, an altered Richard III, was performed in New York City.

In 1770, five American colonists were shot by British troops in the Boston Massacre. The colonists killed included Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, James Caldwell, and Patrick Carr. This event galvanized anti-British feelings in the lead-up to the American Revolution.

In 1774, John Hancock delivered the fourth annual Massacre Day oration, a commemoration of the Boston Massacre, and denounced the presence of British troops in Boston, enhancing Hancock's stature as a leading Patriot

In 1776, at daybreak, British commanders in Boston could scarcely believe their eyes. The Americans have achieved total surprise by occupying Dorchester Heights overnight. A stunned General William Howe is said to exclaim, “My God, these fellows have done more work in one night than I could make my army do in three months."

In 1836, Samuel Colt's Patent Arms Manufacturing Company manufactures first pistol, a 36-caliber "Texas" model, in Paterson, New Jersey

In 1842, the Mexican army struck into the Republic of Texas and captured San Antonio. The troops returned south of the border several days later, with the expedition meant to prove Mexico could inflict harm at will on a province it did not truly consider to be independent.

In 1856, Georgia becomes 1st state to regulate railroads.

In 1858, Abolitionists established "Crispus Attucks Day" in Boston.

In 1868, for the first time in U.S. history, the impeachment trial of an American president got underway in the U.S. Senate. President Andrew Johnson, reviled by the Republican-dominated Congress for his views on Reconstruction, stood accused of having violated the controversial Tenure of Office Act, passed by Congress over his veto in 1867.

In 1872, American engineer George Westinghouse patented a triple air brake for trains.

In 1923, Montana & Nevada become 1st states to enact old-age pension laws

In 1929, David Dunbar Buick, the founder of the Buick Motor Company, died in relative obscurity and meager circumstances at the age of 74. In 1908, Buick’s company became the foundation for the General Motors Corporation; however, by that time, David Buick had sold his interest in the company.

In 1933, FDR proclaimed a 10-day bank holiday in the US in an attempt stem bank failures and restore confidence.

In 1955, Elvis Presley made his 1st TV appearance on a local video broadcast of the popular radio program "Louisiana Hayride" from the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana.

In 1960, Elvis Presley ended his two years of service in the US Army

In 1963, the Hula Hoop, a hip-swiveling toy that became a huge fad across America when it was first marketed by Wham-O in 1958, was patented by the company’s co-founder, Arthur “Spud” Melin. An estimated 25 million Hula Hoops were sold in their first four months of production alone.

In 1966, near the very height of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, American popular-music fans made a #1 hit out of a song called “The Ballad Of The Green Berets” by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler.

In 1970, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty went into effect.

In 1979, the U.S. space probe Voyager 1 flew by Io, the innermost of Jupiter's moons, and observed nine active volcanoes on its surface. Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system.

In 1989, Michael Anderson Godwin, sentenced to death by electric chair for a 1980 murder, accidentally electrocutes himself on his jail cell’s steel toilet. The 28-year-old died biting into a wire while trying to fix some earphones.

In 2004, Martha Stewart was convicted in New York of conspiracy, obstructing justice and lying to the government about why she’d sold her Imclone Systems stock just before the stock’s price plummeted; her ex-stockbroker, Peter Bacanovic, also was found guilty in the scandal. (Each later received a five-month prison sentence.)