On this date...

Kansas Election 1855

In 1775, Hoping to keep the New England colonies dependent on the British, King George III formally endorsed the New England Restraining Act.

In 1776, Washington continued organizing the army’s next move. He directs that a detachment from the artillery regiment commanded by Colonel Henry Knox be ready to march on Monday, the same artillery Knox had delivered to Boston from Fort Ticonderoga, whose cannon helped force the British evacuation.

In 1822, the Florida Territory was incorporated into the US.

In 1842, physician C.W. Long used ether for the first time as surgical anesthesia.

In 1855, in territorial Kansas’ first election, some 5,000 so-called “Border Ruffians” invaded the territory from western Missouri and forced the election of a pro-slavery legislature.

In 1858, Hyman L. Lipman of Philadelphia received a U.S. patent for a pencil with an attached eraser. Years later, the US Supreme Court erased the patent, ruling that combining two existing devices made Lipman’s invention unworthy of a patent.

In 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward struck a deal to purchase Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. The decision was mocked as “Seward's folly,” not least because it was a well known fact that Russia had been attempting to sell Alaska since before the American Civil War.

In 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed a resolution declaring an end to "reconstruction" in Texas, making it the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union. That action, under federal law, ended military rule over the state and allowed the full restoration of civil state government.

In 1870, following its ratification by the requisite three-fourths of the states, the 15th Amendment, granting African American men the right to vote, was formally adopted into the U.S. Constitution.

In 1909, New York's Queensboro Bridge opened, linking Manhattan & Queens

In 1939, Detective Comics No. 27 appeared on the nation’s newsstands, introducing the world to a new superhero, Batman.

In 1948, Henry Wallace, former vice president and Progressive Party presidential candidate, lashed out at the Cold War policies of President Harry S. Truman. Wallace and his supporters were among the few Americans who actively voiced criticisms of America’s Cold War mindset during the late 1940s and 1950s.

In 1949, Actor Robert Mitchum was released from a Los Angeles County prison farm after spending the final week of his two-month sentence for marijuana possession there.

In 1950, Bell Telephone Laboratories announced the invention of the phototransistor in Murray Hill, New Jersey.

In 1953, Albert Einstein announced a revised unified field theory.

In 1961, NASA civilian pilot Joseph A. Walker took the X-15 to 169,600 feet (51,690 meters), becoming the first person to surpass the stratopause, entering the mesosphere

In 1964, the TV game show "Jeopardy!" premiered on NBC.

In 1965, A bomb exploded in a car parked in front of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, virtually destroying the building and killing 19 Vietnamese, two Americans, and one Filipino; 183 others were injured.

In 1971, Starbucks opened its first store in Seattle's iconic Pike Place Market with a single employee. The store sells high-quality roasted coffee beans, freshly brewed hot coffee, and not much else.

In 1981, in Washington, D.C., barely two months after his inauguration as the 40th president of the United States, Ronald Reagan was shot and seriously wounded by would-be assassin John W. Hinckley, Jr.

In 1984, the world's most valuable tip - New York police detective Robert Cunningham offers waitress Phyllis Penzo half of a $1 lottery ticket; the next day, they win $6 million.

In 1999, a jury in Portland, Ore., ordered Philip Morris to pay $81 million to the family of a man who died of lung cancer after smoking Marlboros for four decades.

In 2003, A law banning cigarette smoking in all places of employment, including restaurants and bars, went into effect in New York City.

In 2006, American reporter Jill Carroll, a freelancer for The Christian Science Monitor, was released after 82 days as a hostage in Iraq.

In 2009, President Barack Obama issued an ultimatum to struggling American automakers General Motors (GM) and Chrysler: In order to receive additional bailout loans from the government, he said, the companies needed to make dramatic changes in the way they run their businesses.

In 2023, Key figures in Artificial Intelligence, including Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak, signed an open letter warning that the race to develop AI systems is out of control and asking for a suspension of at least six months.

In 2023, a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Donald Trump on charges involving payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter, the first-ever criminal case against a former U.S. president.