On this date...

First Picture of the moon

In 1713, the capture of the Tuscarora tribe’s stronghold of Fort Nohuke by South Carolinian forces ended the Tuscarora raids. The tribe moves northward and joins the Iroquois Confederacy as the Sixth Indian Nation.

In 1775, Patrick Henry delivered the “Give me liberty or give me death!” speech in Richmond, Virginia.

In 1776, at Cambridge, Washington remains wary. He directs Colonel Henry Knox, the army’s chief of artillery, to lay out a battery at Charlestown Point, fearing the British fleet, anchored off the coast, may attempt a final blow before sailing. Working parties are assigned at sunrise.

In 1776, Brigadier General William Heath, marching troops toward New York, writes from Norwich that the roads are “extreemly mirry,” and wagons are stalled in mud. The men move in fine spirits, yet many complain of unpaid wages, lacking even money for cider.

In 1780, British forces under Banastre Tarleton, moving to Charleston, scattered the Colonial Militia at Bee’s Plantation, SC.

In 1806, having completed the first U.S. overland expedition to the Pacific coast, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark began their return to St. Louis, Missouri, where their journey had begun in May 1804.

In 1810, in France, Napoleon Bonaparte signed the Rambouillet Decree, which mandated the seizure, confiscation, and sale of any US ship in French ports. The Decree is published on 14 May and is to be retroactive to 20 May 1809.

In 1815, USS Hornet captured HMS Penguin in a battle lasting 22 minutes.

In 1829, the Creek Indians received a message from President Jackson ordering them to either conform to the laws of Alabama or to relocate across the Mississippi River.

In 1839, the initials “O.K.” were first published in The Boston Morning Post. Meant as an abbreviation for “oll korrect,” a popular slang misspelling of “all correct” at the time, OK steadily made its way into the everyday speech of Americans.

In 1840, John William Draper took the first successful photo in the US of the Moon (daguerreotype) in New York City.

In 1857, Elisha Otis installed the first passenger elevator in New York City.

In 1867, Congress passes 2nd Reconstruction Act over President Andrew Johnson's veto.

In 1880, a flour rolling mill patent was issued to John Stevens of Wisconsin.

In 1896, the Raines Law was passed by the New York State Legislature, restricting the Sunday sale of alcohol to hotels.

In 1889, President Harrison opened Oklahoma for white colonization.

In 1893, the "Fort Worth Stock Yards" were officially incorporated. Long known as "Cowtown, cattle pens were soon built after the railroad arrived in Fort Worth in 1876. The area was one of the nation's largest livestock markets until the mid-1950s.

In 1936, Physician Joseph G. Hamilton injected a leukemia patient with a sodium radioisotope, the first intravenous injection of a human with a radioisotope

In 1942, the first Japanese Americans incarcerated by the U.S. Army during World War II arrived at the internment camp at Manzanar, California.

In 1957, the last of the U.S. Army's combat pigeons were retired.

In 1965, America’s first two-person space mission took place as Gemini 3 blasted off with astronauts Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom and John W. Young aboard for a nearly 5-hour flight orbiting Earth.

In 1981, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could require, with some exceptions, parental notification when teenage girls seek abortions.

In 1983, in a nationwide television address, U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative, popularly known as Star Wars, a proposed strategic defensive system against potential nuclear attacks.

In 1993, scientists announced they’d identified the gene that causes Huntington’s disease.

In 1998, James Cameron's epic drama Titanic (1997) won 11 Academy Awards, tying the record set by Ben-Hur (1959).

In 2005, the United States 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, refused to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube

In 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, a $938 billion health care overhaul.

In 2021, the first ever tweet by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, "just setting up my twttr" sold for $2.9 million in a digitally autographed version

In 2022, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken formally declared that members of the Russian armed forces had committed war crimes in Ukraine.