1776 – Rhode Island establishes wage & price controls to curb inflation: Limit is 70 cents a day for carpenters, 42 cents for tailors.
1781 – Bank of North America, 1st US bank opens.
1841 – Alabama becomes 1st state to license dental surgeons.
1862 – Union ironclad ship “Monitor” sand off Cape Hatteras, NC.
1890 – Ellis Island (NYC) opens as a US immigration depot.
1904 – First New Year’s Eve celebration held in Times Square (then Longacre Square), in New York City.
1907 – For 1st time a ball drops at Times Square to signal the New Year.
1910 – US tobacco industry produced 9 billion cigarettes in 1910.
1914 – Colonel Jacob Ruppert & Captain Huston purchase NY Yankees for $460,000.
1930 – US tobacco industry produced 123 billion cigarettes in 1930.
1935 – Charles Darrow patents Monopoly.
1945 – Ratification of United Nations Charter completed.
1946 – US President Harry Truman officially proclaims end of WW II.
1955 – The General Motors Corporation becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over $1 billion USD in a year.
1963 – Dear Abby show premieres on CBS radio (runs 11 years)
1974 – NY Yankees sign Jim “Catfish” Hunter for 5 years for a record $3.75 million.
1981 – CNN Headline News debuts.
1989 – “Me and My Girl” closes at Marquis Theater NYC after 1420 performances.
1997 – Microsoft buys Hotmail E-mail service.
2004 – Official opening of Taipei 101, then the tallest skyscraper in the world, at a height of 509 metres (1,670 feet)