On this date...

Jackie Mitchell

In 1681, King Charles II of England officially proclaimed the charter he had granted in March to William Penn for the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania in North America.

In 1776, Washington oversaw an army beginning to move after nearly a year fixed around Boston. From headquarters, he issues orders shifting regiments and relieving those on Dorchester Heights as units prepare to march south toward New York. 

In 1776, George Mason writes to congratulate Washington and to speculate about where General Howe might strike next.

In 1776, Martha Washington writes to Mercy Otis Warren, the Massachusetts patriot writer, declining a dinner invitation because the headquarters is consumed with preparations for departure.

In 1792, the U.S. Congress passed the Coinage Act, creating the U.S. Mint. The measure also created the dollar as the standard unit of currency. 

In 1819, the first successful agricultural journal ("American Farmer") was published.

In 1827, the construction of the First Naval Hospital began at Portsmouth, VA.

In 1827, US inventor Joseph Dixon of Salem, Massachusetts, began manufacturing lead pencils.

In 1863, residents of Richmond, Virginia, rioted to protest a dire food shortage in the city.

In 1865, General Robert E. Lee sent a telegram to Confederate President Jefferson Davis stating that the Union forces were advancing to Richmond after pushing Confederate forces out of Petersburg. Davis was attending church services but followed Lee's advice and prepared to leave Richmond. Upon exiting the city, Confederates burned the city to keep supplies out of the hands of the Union Army.

In 1866, US President Andrew Johnson ended the Civil War in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee & Virginia

In 1877, the 1st Easter egg roll was held on White House lawn. President Rutherford B. Hayes and his wife Lucy, made it an official event the following year. The egg roll has been held every year except during the war years of WWI and WWII until 1953, when Ike revived the egg roll tradition.

In 1902, the Electric Theatre, the first full-time movie theater in the United States, opened in Los Angeles, California

In 1917, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany.

In 1917, Jeannette Pickering Rankin, the first woman ever elected to Congress, took her seat in the U.S. Capitol as a representative from Montana.

In 1931, a 17-year-old girl, Jackie Mitchell, struck out New York Yankees stars Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition baseball game at Engel Stadium in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

In 1932, Charles Lindbergh turned over $50,000 as ransom for his kidnapped son.

In 1942, USS Hornet with Jimmy Doolittle's B-25 departed from San Francisco, CA.

In 1956, the soap opera "As the World Turns" debuted on TV. It will run for the next 54 years and introduce such future stars as Julianne Moore and Marisa Tomei.

In 1978, the soap opera Dallas debuted as a five-part miniseries on American television; it became a popular prime-time series and revolutionized prime-time dramas.

In 1986, NYC Mayor Ed Koch signed and brought the Gay Rights Bill into effect.

In 1992, American organized-crime boss John Gotti was convicted on 13 criminal counts—including the murder of Paul Castellano and others, racketeering, and obstruction of justice—and was sentenced to life in prison.

In 2003, on the 15th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom, American forces crossed the Tigris River in the drive toward the Iraqi capital and destroyed the Baghdad Division of Iraq’s Republican Guard

In 2007, in its first case on climate change, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, ruled 5-4 that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases were air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

In 2009, a 19-count federal racketeering indictment was returned against former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who denied doing anything illegal.

In 2012, a gunman killed seven people at Oikos University, a Christian school in Oakland, California. (The gunman, One Goh, died in 2019 while serving a life prison sentence.)

In 2020, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide surpassed 1 million, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.