1621 – Myles Standish is elected as the first commander of the Plymouth Colony.
1801 – US House of Representatives breaks electoral college tie, chooses Thomas Jefferson President over Aaron Burr.
1817 – First US city lit by gas (Baltimore)
1876 – Sardines first canned by Julius Wolff in Eastport, Maine.
1878 – 1st telephone exchange in San Francisco opens with 18 phones.
1913 – 1st minimum wage law in US takes effect (Oregon)
1913 – NY Armory Show introduces Picasso, Matise, Duchamp to US public.
1926 – Avalanche buries 75 in Sap Gulch, Bingham, Utah: 40 die.
1933 – First issue of American news magazine “Newsweek” is published.
1943 – Dow Chemical and Corning Glass Works form a joint venture to explore and produce silicon materials, based off of the work of James Franklin Hyde.
1958 – Comic strip “BC” 1st appears.
1964 – US Supreme Court rules – 1 man 1 vote (Westbury v Sanders)
1970 – US army officer Jeffrey MacDonald murders his pregnant wife and two small daughters at Fort Bragg, NC.
1972 – Sales of the Volkswagen Beetle model exceeds those of Ford Model T.
1974 – Robert K. Preston, a disgruntled U.S. Army private, buzzes the White House with a stolen helicopter.
1981 – Chrysler Corp reports largest corporate losses in US history.
1995 – Federal judge allows lawsuit claiming US tobacco makers knew nicotine was addictive & manipulated its levels to keep customers hooked.
1998 – Larry Wayne Harris & Bill Levitt arrested for possession of anthrax.
2014 – US Secretary of State John Kerry claims climate change requires urgent action and that only a small “window of time” remained open.
2016 – Chief executive Tim Cook confirms Apple will contest FBI order to unlock the phone of San Bernardino gunman Syed Rizwan Farook.
