1848 – US President James K. Polk triggers the Gold Rush of 1849 by confirming a gold discovery in California.
1893 – Electric car built at the Dixon Carriage works in Toronto, could go 15 miles between charges.
1908 – 1st US football uniform numerals used (University of Pittsburgh)
1920 – Pro football playoff game Akron & Buffalo..0-0 tie, title undecided.
1929 – 1st US nudist organization, the American League for Physical Culture in New York City.
1941 – Sister Elizabeth Kenny’s new treatment of infantile paralysis approved.
1946 – US President Harry Truman creates Committee on Civil Rights by Executive Order #9808.
1949 – Ezzard Charles defeats Jersey Joe Walcott for heavyweight boxing title.
1955 – Montgomery Improvement Association formed by Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Edgar Nixon to support the Montgomery bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama.
1964 – Captain Roger Donlon is awarded the first Medal of Honor of the Vietnam War for successfully repelling a large Viet Cong attack.
1966 – “I Do! I Do!” opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 561 performances.
1973 – Chicago Cubs Ron Santo becomes 1st baseball player to invoke 10-5 rule and veto his trade (with the California Angels)
1978 – Free agent Pete Rose signs 4-year, $32 million contract with Phillies becoming highest paid baseball player.
1985 – Dow Jones Industrial Average rose above 1,500 level for first time.
1988 – Federal grand jury indicts The PTL Club founder and Christian evangelist Jim Bakker for fraud after he paid hush money to cover up an alleged rape.
1996 – Players union approves new collective bargaining agreement.
2006 – Audrey Hepburn’s Givenchy little black dress from film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” auctioned for charity for record $923,187 at Christie’s London.
2008 – Former NFL star O.J. Simpson is sentenced to 33 years in prison for kidnapping and armed robbery.
2018 – Letter by Albert Einstein from 1954 on concept of religion sells for $2.9 million at Christie’s in New York.
2019 – WHO says 142,000 people died of measles around the world in 2018, nearly 20,000 more than in 2017.
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