1620 – The Mayflower departs Plymouth, England with 102 Pilgrims and about 30 crew for the New World.
1628 – Puritans from Massachusetts Bay Colony land at Salem.
1716 – 1st lighthouse built in north America (Boston)
1837 – Oberlin collegiate Institute of Ohio goes co-ed (4 women, 30 men)
1862 – Stonewall Jackson occupies Frederick, Maryland.
1899 – Carnation processes its first can of evaporated milk.
1901 – US President William McKinley is shot by Leon Czolgosz, and anarchist, while visiting the Pan-American Exposition in New York.
1909 – Word received that American explorer Robert Peary had discovered the North Pole, 5 months earlier.
1916 – 1st true supermarket, the “Piggly Wiggly” is opened by Clarence Saunders in Memphis, Tennessee.
1943 – “Congressional Limited” train derails near Frankfort, Pennsylvania, kills 79.
1954 – US plane shot down above Siberia.
1957 – Elvis records “White Christmas”, “Silent Night” & “Here Comes Santa Claus”
1984 – Lanford Wilson’s “Balm in Gilead” premieres in NYC.
1984 – Today Show begins live remote telecasts from Moscow.
1985 – Midwest Express Airlines Flight 104, a Douglas DC-9 crashes just after takeoff from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, killing 31.
1989 – Amateur Athletic Fed strips Ben Johnson of all track records.
1990 – US citizens is shot in Kuwait: oil markets surge on aggressive US statements toward Iraq.
1995 – Senate Ethics committee votes 6-0 to ask for expulsion of Bob Packwood.
2012 – Barack Obama accepts the Democratic nomination for US President.
2017 – Hurricane Irma makes landfall on Caribbean Island of Barbuda, Sint Maartens and British Virgin Island. Prime Minister Gaston Browne reports 95% of buildings in Barbuda damaged.