By Robert Hester
1646 – Massachusetts uses death penalty for denying that Holy Bible is God’s word.
1845 – First nationally observed uniform election day in US.
1854 – Lighthouse built on Alcatraz Island.
1862 – Dr. Richard Gatling patents Gatling machine gun in Indianapolis.
1873 – Dentist John Beers of San Francisco patents the gold crown.
1879 – James Ritty patents first cash register, to combat stealing by bartenders in his salon in Dayton, Ohio.
1904 – First stadium build specifically for football (Harvard Stadium)
1924 – Nellie Tayloe Ross elected first US female governor (Wyoming)
1939 – First air-conditioned automobile (Packard) exhibited, Chicago, Illinois.
1949 – “One Man’s Family” premieres on TV.
1950 – US troops vacate Pyongyang North Korea.
1958 – Democrats win US congressional election.
1973 – Mark Medoff’s “When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder?” premieres in NYC.
1979 – 500 Iranian students loyal to Ayatollah Khomeini seize the US Embassy in Tehran, taking 90 hostages for 444 days.
1981 – Dr. George Nichopoulas is acquitted of overprescribing addictive drugs for Elvis Presley.
1994 – San Francisco: First conference that focuses exclusively on the subject of the commercial potential of the World Wide Web.
2003 – Former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy becomes the first person indicted under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. He was eventually acquitted.
2008 – Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected President of the United States, defeating Republican candidate John McCain.
2014 – The US votes in mid-term elections: Republicans retain the House & regain the Senate.
2016 – Paris Agreement on climate change becomes effective.