1866 – World’s 1st roller rink opens (Newport, Rhode Island)
1896 – Harvey Hubbell patents electric light socket with a pull chain.
1909 – SOS 1st used by an American ship, Arapahoe, off Cape Hatteras, NC.
1914 – John Wray patents animation.
1924 – 1st newsreel pictures of US presidential candidates were taken.
1934 – 1st federal prisoners arrive at Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay.
1944 – US air raid on Palembang.
1950 – Ethel Rosenberg testifies before grand jury on allegations of spying for the Soviet Union.
1951 – 100,000 acres flooded from Mississippi River in Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Illinois.
1956 – 1st flight 4-motor Cessna 620.
1971 – Construction begins on Louisiana Superdome.
1978 – Legionnaire’s disease bacteria isolated in Atlanta.
1988 – Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, NC, opens.
1989 – Voyager 2 discovers 2 partial rings of Neptune.
1991 – Shite Muslims release US hostage Edward Tracy.
1999 – The Salt Lake City tornado tears through the downtown district of the city, killing one.
2003 – NATO takes over control of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.
2009 – “Need You Now” album released by Lady Antebellum (Billboard Album of the Year 2010)
2015 – Largest ever outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in New York – 12 dead, with over 100 cases in the South Bronx.
2016 – A Greenland shark declared oldest vertebrate animal in the world at 392 years by international team of scientists.