1848 – 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 – First football uniforms used by University of Pittsburgh.
1920 – Pro football playoff game, Akron & Buffalo 0-0 tie, title undecided.
1929 – First nudist organization, the American League for Physical Culture, in New York City.
1941 – Sister Elizabeth Kenny’s new treatment for infantile paralysis approved.
1941 – US aircraft carrier Lexington and five heavy cruisers leave Pearl Harbor.
1946 – President Harry Truman created the Committee on Civil Rights by Executive Order #9808.
1955 – Historic bus boycott begins in Montgomery, Alabama by Rosa Parks and other civil rights activists.
1964 – Captain Roger Donlon is awarded the first Medal of Honor of the Vietnam War for successfully repelling a large Viet Cong attack.
1970 – Los Angeles Rams running back Willie Ellison sets National Football League record of 247 yards rushing.
1974 – Final episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus aired on BBC TV.
1982 – Senior PGA Championship, PGA National GC: Don January wins his lone Champions Tour major title by 1 stroke over Julius Boros.
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.
1997 – STS 87 (Columbia 24) lands.
2004 – 93rd Davis Cup: Spain beats United States in Seville 3-2.
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 – The World Health Organization says 142,000 people died of measles around the world in 2018, nearly 20,000 more than in 2017.
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