1799 – George Washington is eulogized by Colonel Henry Lee as “1st in war, 1st in peace & 1st in hearts of his countrymen”
1811 – A theater fire in Richmond, Virginia kills the Governor of Virginia George William Smith and the president of the First National Bank of Virginia Abraham B. Venable.
1854 – Wood-pulp paper 1st exhibited, Buffalo.
1862 – 1st US navy hospital ship enters service.
1865 – James H. Mason (Mass) patents 1st US coffee percolator.
1878 – 1st US store to install electric lights, Philadelphia.
1917 – US Federal government took over operation of American railroads for duration of WW I.
1924 – Judy Garland, 1/2, billed as Baby Frances, makes her show business debut.
1933 – FM radio patent granted to American engineer Edwin Howard Armstrong.
1944 – Tennessee Williams’ play “Glass Menagerie” premieres in Chicago.
1950 – Gillette & Mutual buy All Star & World Series rights ($6M for 6 years)
1963 – Beatles release “I Want To Hold Your Hand”/”I Saw Her Standing There”
1973 – Soyuz 13 returns to Earth.
1982 – TIME’s Man of the Year is a computer.
1986 – TV soap “Search for Tomorrow” ends 35 year run.
1991 – Jack Ruby’s gun sells for $220,000 in auction.
1992 – NY Jet announcer Marty Glickman retires at 75.
1996 – Six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey is found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family’s home in Boulder, Colorado.
1998 – Iraq announces its intention to fire upon U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the northern and southern no-fly zones.
2001 – Crude oil prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) record one of their largest 1-day jumps of the year as traders become convinced that OPEC will follow through on production cuts.