On this date...

Seattle Slew

In 1776, Washington sharpens the army’s readiness; he directs every regiment in the line to mount a picquet every night at sunset. These detachments are to lie on their arms, ready to turn out at a moment’s notice. The tone is unmistakable: The enemy is expected in New York.

In 1776, in the evening, after receiving fresh intelligence by express, Washington writes to Congress and raises a political as well as a military question: If the expected British peace commissioners arrive, how are they to be received?

In 1789, the first US presidential inaugural ball was held for George Washington in New York City.

In 1800, the Indiana territory was organized.

In 1843, a 14-year-old fisherman named Manjiro, who is considered America's first Japanese immigrant, arrived in the country aboard a whaling ship.

In 1847, the American Medical Association was founded in Philadelphia

In 1896, H.H. Holmes, who is considered the first known serial killer in the United States, was hanged; he confessed to 130 murders, though some believe the real number exceeded 200.

In 1912, Columbia University approved plans to award the Pulitzer Prize in several categories, after its establishment by Joseph Pulitzer.

In 1943, the Liberty Ship George Washington Carver, named after the scientist, was launched.

In 1945, Branch Rickey announced the formation of the US Negro Baseball League.

In 1946, William H. Hastie was inaugurated as the first Black governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

In 1960, the Soviet Union announced that Francis Gary Powers had confessed to being a CIA spy.

In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford formally declared an end to the “Vietnam era.” In Ho Chi Minh City — formerly Saigon — the Viet Cong celebrated its takeover.

In 1977, Seattle Slew won the Kentucky Derby, the first of his Triple Crown victories.

In 1982, a California federal jury ruled the NFL violates antitrust laws in preventing the Oakland Raiders' move to the Los Angeles Coliseum

In 1984, seven chemical companies, including Dow and Monsanto, agreed to pay $180 million to thousands of Vietnam veterans exposed to the chemical herbicide Agent Orange during the war. Lawyers for the two sides announced the surprise out-of-court settlement on the day jury selection was to begin in the case.

In 1992, More than 200 years after it was first proposed, the Twenty-seventh Amendment was ratified. Any change to the rate of compensation for members of the U.S. Congress must take effect only after the subsequent election in the House of Representatives.

In 2002, on the 25th anniversary of his Kentucky Derby win, Seattle Slew, the first undefeated racehorse ever to win the U.S. Triple Crown, died.

In 2013, Delaware became the 11th US State to legalize same-sex marriage.

In 2018, Iran-Contra figure Oliver North was announced as the new President of the US National Rifle Association.

In 2020, Georgia authorities arrested a white father and son and charged them with murder in the February shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man they had pursued in a truck after spotting him running in their neighborhood near the port city of Brunswick. (The two men and a third white man would be convicted of murder in state court and hate crimes in federal court.)

In 2024, Stormy Daniels testifies in court to a 2006 sexual encounter with Donald Trump as part of a hush money trial against Trump.