1799 – George Washington is eulogized by Colonel Henry Lee as “1st in war, 1st in peace & 1st in the hearts of his countrymen.”
1854 – Wood-pulp paper 1st exhibited, Buffalo.
1865 – James H Mason (Mass) patents 1st US coffee percolator.
1914 – US Government protests British interference with American merchant ships at sea, on the same day Germans announce they will treat food as contraband, subject to seizure; weakens America’s protest.
1919 – Yankees and Boston Red Sox reach agreement to move future Baseball Hall of Fame pitching slugger Babe Ruth to New York.
1931 – Pulitzer Prize-winning musical play “Of Thee I Sing” by George and Ira Gershwin premieres on Broadway, New York.
1933 – FM radio patent granted to American engineer Edwin Howard Armstrong.
1943 – National Football League Championship, Wrigley Field, Chicago: Chicago Bears beat Washington Redskins, 41-21; Bears 6th title.
1950 – Gillette & Mutual buy All Star & World Series rights ($6M for 6 years)
1963 – The Beatles release “I Want To Hold Your Hand” and “I Saw Her Standing There” in the US.
1973 – 2 Skylab 3 astronauts walk in space for a record 7 hours.
1976 – AFC Championship, Oakland Coliseum: Raiders beat Pittsburgh Steelers, 24-7.
1982 – TIME’s Man of the Year is a computer.
1986 – TV soap “Search for Tomorrow” ends 35 year run.
1991 – Chuck Noll retires as NFL coach after 23 years.
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.
2018 – American Colin O’Brady is the first person to cross Antarctica solo and unassisted after 54 days at the Ross Ice Shelf.