1861 – West Virginia secedes from Virginia.
1881 – Levi P Morton, US ambassador to France drives first rivet in Statue of Liberty.
1901 – First woman to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel (Anna Taylor)
1908 – Billy Murray hits the charts with “Take Me Out To The Ball Game”
1911 – Orville Wright remained in the air 9 minutes and 45 seconds in a glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina setting a new world record that stood for 10 years.
1929 – “Black Thursday”, start of stock market crash, Dow Jones down 12.8%.
1931 – George Washington Bridge linking New York City and New Jersey dedicated, opens the next day.
1938 – US forbids child labor in factories.
1939 – Nylon stockings go on sale for first time (Wilmington, Delaware)
1940 – US Fair Labor Standards of 1938 comes into effect – minimum wage, 44 hour week.
1945 – Charter of United Nations comes into effect.
1954 – Dwight D. Eisenhower pledges United States’ support to South Vietnam.
1962 – Cuban missile crisis: Soviet ships approach but stop short of the US blockade of Cuba.
1971 – Texas Stadium opens-Cowboys beat Patriots 44-21.
1979 – Yankee manager Billy Martin punches a marshmallow salesman, puts job in jeopardy.
1989 – American televangelist Jim Bakker is sentenced to 45 years in prison for fraud but the sentence is later reduced to eight years on appeal.
2003 – Concorde makes its last commercial flight.
2008 – “Bloody Friday” saw many of the world’s stock exchanges experienced the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices.
2018 – Largest jackpot in US history at 1.6 billion won by one person in Southern California.
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