1892 – Charles Duryea takes the first American-made automobile for a test drive.
1906 – San Francisco earthquake ends, killing 452.
1924 – “National Barn Dance” premieres on WLS Chicago.
1927 – Actress Mae West found guilty of “obscenity and corrupting the morals of youth” in a New York stage play entitled “Sex.” She is sentenced to 10 days in prison and fined $500, the resulting publicity launches her Hollywood career.
1932 – President Herbert Hoover suggests a five-day work week.
1944 – 1944 NFL Draft: Angelo Bertelli from the University of Notre Dame is the first pick by the Boston Yanks.
1945 – Aircraft carrier USS Franklin heavily damaged in Japanese air raid.
1948 – American Broadcasting Company (ABC) TV network debuts.
1955 – The German automaker Volkswagen, after six years of selling cars in the United States, found Volkswagen of America in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey to standardize its dealer and service network.
1960 – Comiskey Park’s famed “exploding” scoreboard begins operating.
1963 – Johnny Cash releases the single “Ring of Fire” written by his future wife June Carter and Merle Kilgore.
1971 – Charles Manson sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Sharon Tate.
1982 – Sally Ride is named the first American woman astronaut.
1986 – Michael Spinks beats Larry Holmes in 15 rounds for the heavyweight boxing title.
1989 – Gun turret explodes on USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors.
1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: Timothy McVeigh sets off a truck bomb at Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168, including 19 children, and injuring 500.
2011 – Fidel Castro resigns his position of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Part of Cuba after 45 years in power.
2018 – Senator Tammy Duckworth (Illinois-D) is the first parent to bring a baby into the Senate chambers, a day after the Senate votes to allow babies on the chamber’s floor.
2021 – NASA successfully flies its drone helicopter Ingenuity on Mars. It’s the first powered aircraft to fly on another world.
2022 – US inflation hits 8.5%, the highest since 1981, driven by a rise in gas prices, rent and food.
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