On this date...

U.S. Flag Designs

In 1776, after nine days on the road from Cambridge, Washington enters northern Manhattan at King’s Bridge. He finds a city tense with expectation. He dines at the popular tavern of Samuel Fraunces, on the corner of Pearl and Broad streets. New York’s importance weighs heavily: Its deep harbor can receive the British fleet, and control of the Hudson River could divide New England from the other colonies. The city is exposed, surrounded by navigable waters, and filled with uncertain loyalties.

In 1796, New York City welcomed America's first elephant: a two-year-old Asian elephant from Bengal. Ten days later, she was put on display, with people paying 25 cents to see her.

In 1818, although it did not become official until July 4, a new flag was flown over the U.S. Capitol for the first time. The flag’s thirteen stripes represented the original colonies; its twenty stars symbolized the number of states in the Union at that time.

In 1860, the First Pony Express rider reached Sacramento, California.

In 1861, Fort Sumter in South Carolina fell to Confederate forces in the first battle of the Civil War.

In 1863, the Society for the Relief of the Ruptured and Crippled was incorporated in the State of New York.

In 1869, the steam power brake was patented by American engineer George Westinghouse.

In 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded.

In 1873, members of the pro-white, paramilitary White League attacked Black state militia members defending a courthouse in Colfax, Louisiana; three white men and as many as 150 Black men were killed in what is known as the Colfax Massacre, one of the worst acts of Reconstruction-era violence.

In 1904, the US Congress authorized the Lewis and Clark Exposition $1 gold coin

In 1943, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial was dedicated in East Potomac Park on the south bank of the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C.

In 1954, Robert Oppenheimer was accused of being a communist.

In 1964, for his performance in Lilies of the Field (1963), Sidney Poitier became the first African American to win the Academy Award for Best Actor.

In 1970, an oxygen tank on Apollo 13 exploded. A voyage that should have been the third manned landing instead came to define NASA's resilience as the crew and ground staff worked to overcome challenges and return the men safely to Earth.

In 1997, Tiger Woods won the Masters Tournament, becoming the first golfer of African American descent and the youngest player to win the event.

In 1999, right-to-die advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian was sentenced in Pontiac, Michigan, to 10 to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder for administering a lethal injection to a patient with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. (Kevorkian ultimately served eight years before being paroled.)

In 2005, a defiant Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty to carrying out the deadly bombing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and three other attacks in back-to-back court appearances in Birmingham, Alabama, and Atlanta.

In 2009, at his second trial, music producer Phil Spector was found guilty by a Los Angeles jury of second-degree murder in the shooting of actor Lana Clarkson. (Later sentenced to 19 years to life, Spector died in prison in January 2021.)

In 2011, A federal jury in San Francisco convicted baseball slugger Barry Bonds of a single charge of obstruction of justice. Still, it failed to reach a verdict on the three counts at the heart of allegations that he knowingly used steroids and human growth hormone and lied to a grand jury about it. (Bonds’ conviction for obstruction was overturned in 2015.)

In 2020, NY Governor Andrew Cuomo said, “I believe the worst is over if we continue to be smart,” about the COVID-19 pandemic in New York as the death toll passed 10,000

In 2021, the US, South Africa, and the EU authorities temporarily stopped administering Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines after six women developed blood clots (out of 6.8 million)