On this date...

AI-generated drawing of the 1760 Great Boston Fire

In 1760, the great fire of Boston destroyed 349 buildings.

In 1775, the Second Virginia Convention met at Richmond in the County of Henrico--in what is now called St. John's Church (instead of the Capitol in Williamsburg) to avoid interference from Lieutenant-Governor Dunmore and his Royal Marines.

In 1776, in Boston, an extensive inventory was completed, detailing the British stores left behind—scuttled ships, thousands of bushels of wheat and salt, blankets, cannon with trunnions broken, even General Thomas Gage’s chariot wrecked and abandoned.

In 1776, Boston was rocked by a thunderous explosion; British engineers destroyed Castle William, blowing up the harbor fort to prevent it from falling intact into American hands.

In 1778, Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee presented themselves to France’s King Louis XVI as official representatives of the United States.

In 1807, President Jefferson sent new instructions to US special envoy William Pinkney and US minister to Great Britain James Monroe, advising them to use the 1806 Monroe-Pinkney Treaty as a basis for reopening negotiations on British interference with US commercial shipping.

In 1816, the Supreme Court affirmed its right to review state court decisions.

In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom's Cabin as a novel; it had previously run as a serial. The novel played a crucial role in shifting those who were ambivalent about slavery (especially Northerners) into abolitionists—a shift in public opinion that helped to bring about the Civil War.

In 1854, A meeting of Whigs, anti-Nebraska Democrats, and Free-Soilers in Ripon, Wisconsin, proposed the formation of what became the Republican Party in the United States.

In 1865, A plan by John Wilkes Booth to abduct U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was ruined when Lincoln changed his plans and did not appear at the Soldiers’ Home near Washington, DC.

In 1868, the Jesse James Gang robbed a bank in Russellville, Kentucky, stealing $14,000.

In 1886, 1st AC power plant in the US began commercial operation in Massachusetts.

In 1916, Albert Einstein published his general theory of relativity.

In 1917, Gideon Sundback, a Swedish-born engineer, patented an all-purpose zipper while working for the Automatic Hook and Eye Co. of Hoboken, New Jersey. The zipper name was coined by B.F. Goodrich in 1923, who used it to fasten rubber galoshes.

In 1917, after the sinking of 3 more American merchant ships, US President Woodrow Wilson met with his cabinet, which agreed that war was inevitable.

In 1918, the Bolsheviks asked for American aid to rebuild their army.

In 1930, the American fast food restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) was founded as Sanders Court & Café by Colonel Harland Sanders in North Corbin, Kentucky.

In 1933, Roosevelt continued his aggressive first month in office, signing the Economy Act into law.

In 1942, General Douglas MacArthur vowed, "I came through, and I shall return" after escaping Japanese-occupied Philippines.

In 1948, the first live televised symphony performances were Eugene Ormandy leading the Philadelphia Orchestra on CBS, followed 90 minutes later by Arturo Toscanini leading the NBC Orchestra on NBC.

In 1965, Civil and Women's Rights Activist Dorothy Height had her first column published in the weekly African-American newspaper called the "New York Amsterdam News."

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered 4,000 troops to protect the Selma-Montgomery civil rights marchers.

In 1968, LBJ signed a bill removing gold backing from US paper money.

In 1969, John Lennon, a leader of the seminal British rock group the Beatles, married Japanese artist and musician Yoko Ono in Gibraltar.

In 1976, kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was convicted of armed robbery for her part in a San Francisco bank holdup carried out by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

In 1985, at 9:00 a.m., Libby Riddles became the first woman to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, the dog-pulling sled race from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. Riddles checked into Safety, the last checkpoint before the finish line, many hours ahead of her nearest competitor. She raced with a thirteen-dog team through debilitating blizzards in 18 days, 20 minutes, and 17 seconds, and won $50,000.

In 1987, AZT (azidothymidine; also called zidovudine) became the first drug to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of AIDS.

In 1989, Major League Baseball announced that Reds manager Pete Rose was under investigation for gambling.

In 1991, the court awarded singer-songwriter Peggy Lee $3 million in a suit against Disney regarding home video royalties.

In 1996, a jury in Los Angeles convicted Erik and Lyle Menendez of first-degree murder in the shotgun slayings of their wealthy parents.

In 1997, Liggett Group settled 22 state lawsuits by admitting the industry markets cigarettes to teenagers and agreeing to warn on every pack that smoking is addictive.

In 2004, the U.S. military charged six soldiers with abusing inmates at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

In 2014, President Barack Obama ordered economic sanctions against nearly two dozen members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle and a major bank that provided them support, raising the stakes in an East-West showdown over Ukraine.

In 2016, Barack Obama became the first U.S. president to visit Cuba since 1928, arriving for a three-day tour with First Lady Michelle.

In 2018, in a phone call to Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump offered congratulations on Putin’s re-election victory; a senior official said Trump had been warned in briefing materials that he should not congratulate Putin.