On this date...

US Flag

In 1775, the Continental Congress authorized the enlistment of expert riflemen to serve the United Colonies for one year. This launches the U.S. Army as America's first national institution, more than a year before the Declaration of Independence is published on July 4, 1776.

In 1777, The Continental Congress approved the Stars and Stripes as the first national flag of the United States.

In 1846, Anticipating the outbreak of war with Mexico, American settlers in California rebel against the Mexican government and proclaim the short-lived California Republic during the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846.

In 1877, Henry Ossian Flipper, born into slavery in Thomasville, Georgia, in 1856, becomes the first African American cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.

In 1900, The Hawaii Organic Act takes effect, establishing US governance for the islands—further formalizing control after Americans illegally overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893 and annexed the territory in 1898.

In 1943, the U.S. Supreme Court, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, ruled 6-3 that public school students could not be forced to salute the flag of the United States or recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

In 1946, The United States presents the Baruch Plan for the international control of atomic weapons to the United Nations. The failure of the plan to gain acceptance resulted in a dangerous nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

In 1951, the U.S. Census Bureau dedicates UNIVAC, the first commercially produced electronic digital computer in the United States. UNIVAC, which stood for Universal Automatic Computer,

In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill adding the phrase “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.

In 1972, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered a ban on domestic use of the pesticide DDT, to take effect at year’s end.