On this date...

Samuel Adams

In 1776, in Philadelphia. Samuel Adams gives a speech on Liberty and Independence that included “Courage, then, my countrymen; our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty.”

In 1776, Major Andrew Williamson was leading an expedition of 330 South Carolina militia against a band of 1,200 Cherokees, commanded by Loyalist Alexander Cameron, at Senecca.

In 1876, Colorado was admitted to the union, becoming the 38th U.S. state. It is known as the centennial state.

In 1940, John F. Kennedy's Why England Slept, a critical account of the British military that became a best seller, was published.

In 1943, Simmering racial tensions and economic frustrations boil over in New York City  culminating in what is now known as the Harlem Riot of 1943. During an altercation in the lobby of the Braddock Hotel, a white police officer shoots a Black soldier, Robert Bandy, triggering a massive uprising.

In 1957, the United States and Canada announced they had agreed to create the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).

In 1958, Nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus begins the first transit of the North Pole in Operation Sunshine

In 1961, Amusement park lovers “head for the thrills” as Six Flags Over Texas, the first park in the Six Flags chain, has its soft opening.

In 1966, Charles Whitman, a student and ex-marine, fired down from the clock tower on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, killing 14 people and wounding 31 others (one of whom died years later from complications related to his wounds); it was one of the worst mass murders in a public area in U.S. history.

In 1981, The cable television network MTV debuted, with the broadcast of the music video for Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles.

In 1988, Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh began broadcasting his nationally syndicated radio program.

In 1995, Westinghouse Electric Corp. struck a deal to buy CBS for $5.4 billion.

In 2018, the remains of dozens of presumed casualties of the Korean War were returned to U.S. soil; in an emotional ceremony in Hawaii, military members carried 55 boxes draped with American flags off two military transport planes.

In 2023, then former President Donald Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury on conspiracy and obstruction charges related to his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election