On this date...

Kitty Genovese

In 1639, New College was renamed Harvard College after clergyman John Harvard.

In 1677, Massachusetts gained title to Maine for $6,000

In 1776, smallpox weighed heavily on Washington’s mind. In his General Orders, he forbids officers or soldiers from entering Boston without permission, warning that the enemy has “with a malicious assiduity” spread smallpox throughout the town. He also threatens severe punishment for any American caught pillaging; Boston’s inhabitants have already suffered under British oppression.

In 1776, in a letter to John Hancock, Washington reports the likely evacuation and outlines plans to detach troops toward strategically vital New York.

In 1781, at Bull Run Creek, North Carolina, British Lt. General Charles, Lord Cornwallis, marched his forces towards the Deep River Quaker Meeting House, all the while being watched by Colonel Otho Williams's Light Corps.

In 1783, at Newburgh, New York, Continental Officers gathered over their belief that Congress was not going to pay them for their service as they disbanded.

The Officers had not been paid for some time, and they began to fear their pensions would also go unpaid. Congress, which had almost no money, rejected their petitions.

The Officers began to meet and talk of an armed march on Congress and the States.

In 1789, someone carefully wrote “Enoch Brooks’ Book, Princeton, March 13th, 1789,” in ink, with a flourish. The inscription likely refers to Enoch Brooks, Jr., of Princeton, Massachusetts, born in 1785, who would have been too young to write it himself. Now a rare artifact of Americana, Brooks’ book is one of only a few known copies of A Curious Hieroglyphick Bible, printed in 1788 by Isaiah Thomas in nearby Worcester, Massachusetts. This book was the first American version of a novelty Bible that replaced some words with pictures to encourage children’s interest as well as their reading skills. It is currently in the Library of Congress's collection.

In 1852, the first popular and widespread image of Uncle Sam appeared in an American publication. The cartoon is credited to Frank Bellew, an illustrator for The Lantern, who made “Raising the Wind,” the political cartoon in which Uncle Sam first appeared.

In 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis signed a bill authorizing the use of slaves as soldiers during the last weeks of the US Civil War

In 1868, the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson began in the U.S. Senate.

In 1877, American Chester Greenwood patented earmuffs after inventing them at age 15

In 1884, Standard Time was adopted throughout the United States.

In 1925, the Tennessee legislature passed a bill that banned the teaching of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in the state's public schools; in a highly publicized trial, high-school teacher John T. Scopes was later convicted of breaking the law.

In 1933, American banks were allowed to reopen after a government-imposed bank holiday

In 1946, U.S. Army Pfc. Sadao Munemori was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for sacrificing himself to save fellow soldiers from a grenade explosion in Seravezza, Italy; he was the only Japanese American service member so recognized in the immediate aftermath of World War II.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy set up the Alliance for Progress

In 1964, Kitty Genovese, 28, was stabbed to death near her Queens, New York, home. The case came to be a symbol of urban apathy, though initial reports that 38 neighbors ignored Genovese's calls for help have been disputed.

In 1969, Apollo 9 returned to Earth after a mission to test the lunar module.

In 1987, John Gotti, boss of the Gambino crime family, was acquitted of racketeering.

In 2004, Luciano Pavarotti performed in his final opera, "Tosca," at New York's Metropolitan Opera.

In 2019, the home of civil rights activists Medgar and Myrlie Evers was established as a national monument in Jackson, Mississippi, by President Donald Trump

In 2020, Breonna Taylor, an African American EMT, was killed by Louisville, Kentucky, police officers as they burst into her apartment during a botched raid; her death led to massive protests by Black Lives Matter activists and others who called for police reform.