On this date

1st black-owned and run newspaper

In 1621, Samoset, a member of the Abenaki tribe, made contact with the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony. He greeted them in English, having learned the language from fishermen along the coast of Maine, and thereafter established a close relationship with the settlers.

In 1776, Washington’s day was ruled by the weather. Heavy conditions and “mirey” roads force him to countermand earlier marching orders. He directs that the artillery scheduled to move this morning halt until tomorrow.

In 1802, the United States Military Academy at West Point was founded when Thomas Jefferson signed legislation authorizing its creation.

In 1827, "Freedom’s Journal," the first Black-owned and run newspaper in the US, published its first issue in New York City. A mix of news, service, and abolitionist advocacy, the paper reached 11 states, Canada, Haiti, and the UK.

In 1836, the Republic of Texas approved a constitution.

In 1850, American author Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter was published.

In 1861, Edward Clark became Governor of Texas, replacing Sam Houston, who was evicted from the office for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy (US Civil War)

In 1870, Hiram R. Revels makes 1st official speech by an African American in the US Senate

In 1881, Francisco “Chico” Forster was shot to death on a downtown Los Angeles street by his former lover, 18-year-old Lastania Abarta. The 40-year-old Forster was the son of a wealthy Los Angeles land developer with a reputation for womanizing.

In 1894, Infamous gunslinger John Wesley Hardin is pardoned after spending 15 years in a Texas prison for murder. Hardin, who was reputed to have shot and killed a man just for snoring, was 41 years old at the time of his release.

In 1900, the AL met in Chicago. Ban Johnson announced the AL league will be the Chicago White Stockings, Washington Senators, Milwaukee Brewers, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Blues, Boston Americans, Philadelphia Athletics, and Baltimore Orioles

In 1926, the world's first liquid-fueled rocket was launched in Massachusetts.

In 1945, U.S. Marines captured the Japanese island of Iwo Jima during World War II.

In 1955, NHL president Clarence Campbell suspended Montreal Canadiens star Maurice “Rocket” Richard for the remainder of the regular season and playoffs after he attacked an opponent with his stick and slugged a referee in the head.

In 1955, President Eisenhower upheld the use of atomic weapons in case of war.

In 1960, the dedication of the National Observatory at Kitt Peak, in the Quinlan Mountains of the Arizona-Sonoran Desert, on Tohono O'odham Nation lands of Arizona, occurred.

In 1964, LBJ asked Congress to pass the Economic Opportunity Act as part of his War on Poverty.

In 1966, Gemini 8 launched with Neil Armstrong and David R. Scott aboard, conducted the 1st docking of two spacecraft in orbit, flight aborted after a critical system failure, and the crew returned safely to Earth

In 1968, during the Vietnam War, U.S. soldiers dispatched on a search-and-destroy mission killed as many as 500 unarmed civilians in My Lai, which the U.S. military considered a stronghold of the Viet Cong.

In 1968, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy of New York announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.

In 1972, the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, performed two shows for inmates on Rikers Island, the notorious New York City prison complex. Brown pulls out all the stops, taking the show as seriously as any other gig and delivering a message of hope to crowds consisting of young men being held in pre-trial detention.

In 1972, in a nationally broadcast address, President Richard Nixon called for a moratorium on court-ordered school busing to achieve racial desegregation.

In 1974, the Grand Ole Opry radio show was broadcast for the first time from the new Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. Opening night featured country legend Roy Acuff and U.S. President Richard Nixon, among others.

In 1984, William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by Hezbollah militants; he was tortured by his captors and killed in 1985.

In 1985, in Beirut, Lebanon, Islamic militants kidnap American journalist Terry Anderson and take him to the southern suburbs of the war-torn city, where other Western hostages are being held in scattered dungeons under ruined buildings. Before his abduction, Anderson covered the Lebanese Civil War for The Associated Press (AP) and also served as the AP’s Beirut bureau chief

In 1988, as part of his continuing effort to put pressure on the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua, President Ronald Reagan ordered over 3,000 U.S. troops to Honduras, claiming that Nicaraguan soldiers had crossed the border.

In 1994, figure skater Tonya Harding pleaded guilty in Portland, Oregon, to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for covering up an attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan, avoiding jail but drawing a $100,000 fine and three years of probation.

In 1995, Mississippi ratified the Thirteenth Amendment—which abolished slavery—130 years after it was added to the U.S. Constitution. Mississippi's ratification was not made official until 2013, when the state notified the U.S. Archivist.

In 2003, an Israeli-owned bulldozer killed 23-year-old American woman Rachel Corrie as she protested a demolition campaign that destroyed over a thousand homes in the Gaza Strip.

In 2003, Vice President Dick Cheney predicted on NBC's "Meet the Press" that American troops would be "greeted as liberators" by the Iraqi people.

In 2005, after a three-month-long criminal trial in Los Angeles Superior Court, a jury acquitted Robert Blake, star of the 1970s television detective show "Baretta," of the murder of his 44-year-old wife, Bonny Lee Bakley.

In 2005, a judge in Redwood City, Calif., sent Scott Peterson to death row for the slaying of his pregnant wife, Laci.

In 2008, Bear Stearns, the 85-year-old investment bank, narrowly avoided bankruptcy by its sale to J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. at the shockingly low price of $2 per share.

In 2016, President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland to take the seat of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who had died the previous month. Republicans who controlled the Senate would stick to their pledge to leave the seat empty until after the presidential election; they confirmed Trump nominee Neil Gorsuch in April 2017.

In 2020, Dow Jones saw its largest single-day point drop ever at 2,997.