On this date...

In 1776, in his General Orders, Washington warns his colonels to clothe and equip their men immediately, so they can "march, or embark, upon the shortest notice." The army must be prepared to move at once. Nicholas Cooke, Rhode Island's governor, reports that his colony has renounced allegiance to King George III—the first colony to do so. Unbeknownst to Washington, British warships HMS Surprise and HMS Isis reach Quebec with reinforcements, threatening the American siege.

In 1787, Prince Hall established the first African American Masonic lodge, African Lodge No. 459, in Boston.

In 1835, James Gordon Bennett Sr. published the first issue of the New York Herald for 1 cent.

In 1837, US blacksmith John Deere created the first commercially successful self-scouring steel plow in Grand Detour, Illinois.

In 1840, A tornado that touched down in eastern Louisiana and crossed the Mississippi River into Natchez, Miss., killed 317 people - most of them on boats in the river.

In 1851, Linus Yale Jr. patented the Yale cylinder lock.

In 1853, the first major US rail disaster killed 46 in Norwalk, Connecticut.

In 1861, Arkansas and Tennessee seceded from the Union.

In 1864, Confederate General James E. Longstreet was seriously wounded, caught in the fire of his own troops during the second day of fighting at the Battle of the Wilderness, eighteen miles west of Fredericksburg, Virginia.

In 1864, during the US Civil War, Union Army General Sherman began an advance on Atlanta, Georgia, in the Atlanta Campaign.

In 1877, Crazy Horse—a chief of the Oglala band of Lakota who was a determined warrior in the Sioux resistance to European Americans' invasion of the northern Great Plains—surrendered to the US government. Federal forces in Nebraska

In 188US.S., President Chester A. Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first major federal legislation to suspend immigration for a specific nationality explicitly.

In 1904, the American Lung Association held its first meeting.

In 1915, Babe Ruth hit his first major league home run. He finished his baseball career with 714 homers, a record that stood until 1974.

In 1935, the Works Progress Administration was established under an executive order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1937, while attempting to land in New Jersey, the Hindenburg burst into flames and was destroyed, killing 36 people. The disaster marked the end of rigid airships' use in commercial air transportation.

In 1940, John Steinbeck was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.

In 1941, at California's March Field, Bob Hope performed his first USO show.

In 1942, the American garrison on Corregidor Island, under the command of General Jonathan M. Wainwright, surrendered to Japanese invaders after a 27-day standoff during World War II, marking the fall of the Philippines to the Empire of Japan.

In 1946, the Pulitzer Prize for History was awarded to Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. for his novel "The Age of Jack.son"

In 1957, the last episode of I Love Lucy aired. The hugely popular show, which starred Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, is considered one of TV's landmark sitcoms.

In 1957, the Pulitzer Prize for Biography was awarded to John F. Kennedy for "Profiles in Courage."

In 1960, US President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960.

In 1986, Donald E. Pelotte became the first Native American Catholic bishop.

In 1987, American televangelist Jim Bakker and Rich Dortch were dismissed from the Assemblies of God after revelations of an alleged rape of a church secretary.

In 1994, former Arkansas state worker Paula Jones filed a suit against President Bill Clinton, alleging he'd sexually harassed her in 1991. (Jones settled with Clinton in November 1998.)

In 1998, Steve Jobs introduced Apple's first iMac, a personal computer that became hugely successful and helped revive the struggling company.

In 2002, Elon Musk founded the aerospace company SpaceX, which helped usher in the era of commercial spaceflight.

In 2004, President George W. Bush apologized for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison, calling it "a stain on our country's honor and reputation," but rejected calls for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation.

In 2004, the final episode of the television sitcom Friends aired, some 10 years after its debut. It was watched by more than 52 million viewers.

In 2013, three women were rescued from a Cleveland, Ohio, house where they had been imprisoned for many years by their abductor, 52-year-old Ariel Castro, an unemployed bus driver. The women—Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus—went missing separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 21, 16, and 14 years old, respectively. Also rescued from the house was a 6-year-old girl born to Berry while she was being held captive and fathered by Castro.