On this date...

Original Oreo Cookie Ad from 1912

In 1646, Joseph Jenkes received the 1st patent in North America for making scythes from the General Court of Massachusetts.

In 1731, Augustine Washington and Mary Ball were married, though the exact location of their wedding is unknown. What is known, however, is that their union laid the foundation for one of the most influential families in American history.

In 1770, an estimated 5000 angry citizens of Boston gathered the day after the "Massacre" and resolved "that nothing could be expected to restore peace and prevent carnage, but an immediate removal of the troops."

In 1776, A committee of the New York Provincial Congress instructed Major William Malcolm to dismantle the Sandy Hook lighthouse in the then-disputed territory of Sandy Hook, now in New Jersey, telling him to “use your best discretion to render the light-house entirely useless.”

In 1776, British General William Howe called off the planned attack on Dorchester Heights. Instead, he gives orders to prepare to evacuate Boston. “I could promise myself little success by attacking them under all the disadvantages I had to encounter,” Howe later writes, “wherefore I judged it most advisable to prepare for evacuation of the town.”

In 1810, Illinois passed the first state vaccination legislation in the US

In 1820, U.S. President James Monroe signed the Missouri Compromise, which allowed Missouri to be admitted to the union as the 24th state (1821); the legislation marked the beginning of the sectional conflict over the extension of slavery that led to the American Civil War.

In 1829, President Andrew Jackson nominated John McLean to become an associate justice of the US Supreme Court.

In 1831, Edgar Allan Poe was court-martialed and dismissed from West Point Military Academy for gross neglect of duty and disobedience of orders.

In 1836, It was 190 years ago this morning, just before sunrise in San Antonio, that the sounds of "El Degüello" were sounded by Mexican army buglers. It signaled that the Alamo was about to be overrun with no quarter given. Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and William B. Travis, along with approximately 200 others, are killed at the Battle of the Alamo. It was memorialized by the popular phrase, “Remember the Alamo!”

In 1857, U.S. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney announced the Dred Scott decision, which ruled that an enslaved man (Dred Scott), who had resided in a state where slavery was prohibited, was not entitled to his freedom; that African Americans could never be U.S. citizens; and that the Missouri Compromise (1820) was unconstitutional. The decision is widely regarded, particularly among constitutional scholars, as one of the worst ever rendered by the Supreme Court.

In 1886, the first US alternating current power plant started in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

In 1906, Nora Blatch is 1st woman elected to the American Society of Civil Engineers.

In 1912, Oreo cookies were first introduced by the National Biscuit Company (later known as Nabisco).

In 1921, Police in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, issued an edict requiring women to wear skirts at least four inches below the knee

In 1933, A nationwide bank holiday declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt went into effect.

In 1933, Eleanor Roosevelt was the first First Lady to hold an official press conference at the White House.

In 1944, Heavy bombers staged the first American raid on Berlin during World War II.

In 1951, the trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg began in the Southern District of New York federal court. Judge Irving R. Kaufman presides over the espionage prosecution of the couple accused of selling nuclear secrets to the Russians (treason could not be charged because the United States was not at war with the Soviet Union).

In 1957, the centenary of the Dred Scott slavery court decision was marked by the rediscovery of Scott's grave

In 1964, Boxer Cassius Clay took the name Muhammad Ali, which was given to him by his spiritual mentor, Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam.

In 1970, a bomb being built inside a townhouse in New York’s Greenwich Village by members of the Weather Underground militant leftist group accidentally exploded, destroying the house and killing three group members.

In 1974, Journalist Helen Thomas was named United Press International's White House Bureau Chief on March 6, 1974. At a press conference that day, President Nixon personally congratulated her on becoming the first woman to serve in the distinguished role.

In 1978, Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and his lawyer were shot by a militant white supremacist sniper in Georgia, leaving Flynt crippled and wheelchair bound.

In 1981, Journalist Walter Cronkite, who was known as “the most trusted man in America,” signed off as the longtime anchor of the CBS Evening News. That same year, Pres. Jimmy Carter awarded Cronkite the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In 1990, Ed Yeilding and Joseph T. Vida flew a Lockheed SR-71 “Blackbird” spy plane east across the U.S. from coast to coast in a record 67 minutes, 54 seconds. (The since-retired U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane played an outsized role in American military and intelligence gathering since 1968.)

In 1991, following Iraq's capitulation in the Persian Gulf conflict, US President George H. W. Bush told Congress that "aggression is defeated. The war is over."

In 1998, Matt Beck, an angry lottery accountant, kills 4 atthe Connecticut state lottery

In 2001, after a string of adverse legal decisions, Napster, Inc. began its death spiral on March 6, 2001, when it started to comply with a Federal court order to block the transfer of copyrighted material over its peer-to-peer music-sharing network.

In 2007, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was convicted of lying and obstructing an investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.

In 2017, US President Donald Trump signed his second executive order barring travelers from 6 mostly-Muslim countries for 90 days, but it leaves out Iraq.

In 2018, Forbes named Amazon founder Jeff Bezos the world's richest person for the first time at $112 billion, with Bill Gates no. 2.

In 2019, Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg revealed plans to turn the social media platform into a more "privacy-focused platform."