1782 – George Washington creates the Purple Heart medal (original name Badge of Military Merit) as commander of the Continental Army.
1882 – Hatfields of south West Virginia and McCoys of east Kentucky feud, 100 wounded or die.
1904 – Train derails on bridge in Eden, Colorado, during a flash flood, kills 96.
1912 – Progressive (Bull Moose) Party nominates Theodore Roosevelt for US President.
1927 – Peace Bridge between US and Canada dedicated.
1939 – Millionaire Howard Hughes is presented with a Congressional Gold Medal.
1942 – 1st American offensive in Pacific in WWII, Guadalcanal, Solomon Island.
1944 – IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I)
1953 – Eastern Airlines enters jet age, uses electra prop-jet.
1955 – Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, the precursor to Sony, begins its first transistor radios in Japan.
1957 – Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
1959 – Explorer 6 transmits 1st TV photo of Earth from space.
1963 – Jacqueline Kennedy becomes 1st US First Lady to give birth (Patrick Kennedy) since Mrs. Cleveland.
1964 – US Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin resolution.
1970 – Shootout at Marin Courthouse in San Rafael, California, kills 4, including the presiding judge.
1981 – “The Washington Star” ceases all operations after 128 years of publication.
1989 – U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland (D-TX) and 15 others die in a plane crash in Ethiopia.
1990 – US deploys troops to Saudi Arabia beginning Operation Desert Shield.
1997 – STS 85 (Discovery 23) launches into orbit.
2018 – Mendocino Fire becomes the largest recorded fire in California’s history at 190,600 acres, overtaking 2017 Thomas Fire.
About Author
