On this date...

Benjamin Rush

In 1813, Thomas Jefferson writes to John Adams to let him know their mutual friend and fellow signer of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Rush, has passed away.

In 1831, Jedediah Smith, one of the nation’s most important trapper-explorers, is killed by Comanche tribesman on the Santa Fe Trail.

In 1887, The Hells Canyon Massacre begins in Lewiston, Washington Territory, in what is now Idaho. The mass slaughter of Chinese gold miners by a gang of white horse thieves was one of many hate crimes perpetrated against Asian immigrants in the American West during this period.

In 1889, The American petrochemical corporation South Penn Oil Co., later Pennzoil Company, was founded in Pennsylvania.

In 1896, 255 people were killed when a devastating F4 tornado struck St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois.

In 1930, New York's Chrysler Building is completed, briefly becoming the world's tallest building. Its secretly assembled 185-foot spire ensures that it tops a rival skyscraper, but the Empire State Building claims the title the next year.

In 1933, Walt Disney released the animated short film The Three Little Pigs, which featured the song Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?; highlighting fortitude in the face of adversity, both the cartoon and the song proved highly popular with Depression-era moviegoers.

In 1937, The Golden Gate Bridge, located in San Francisco, opened to traffic.

In 1941, President F.D. Roosevelt proclaimed an unlimited state of emergency with regards to the NAZI Party threats of world domination.

In 1942, Doris “Dorie” Miller, a cook aboard the USS West Virginia, became the first African-American to receive the Navy Cross for displaying “extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety” during Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.

In 1961, John Tower became the first Republican elected to the United States Senate from Texas since Reconstruction. He was elected in a special election to fill the unexpired term of Lyndon B. Johnson, who had resigned to assume the vice presidency. Tower remained in the Senate until he resigned in 1985.

In 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court, in United States v. O’Brien, upheld the conviction of David O’Brien for destroying his draft card outside a Boston courthouse, ruling that the act was not protected by freedom of speech.

In 1986, the U.S. Patent Office grants a patent to inventor Lonnie Johnson for his toy design simply titled ”Squirt Gun.” After a few name changes and additional patents, Johnson’s invention was re-named the “Super Soaker®” and would become the best-selling water toy of all time, eventually earning its rightful place in the American National Toy Hall of Fame.