1847 – Michigan is 1st state to abolish capital punishment.
1863 – Emancipation Proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln to free slaves in US confederate states.
1890 – The Rose Parade, then known as the Tournament of Roses, is first held in Pasadena, California.
1892 – Ellis Island opens as a US immigration inspection station – it would go on to be the gateway to the US for more than 12 million people.
1903 – President Theodore Roosevelt and Edith Roosevelt unveil new renovations to The White House, including a new West Wing.
1913 – US Post Office begins parcel post deliveries.
1928 – 1st US air-conditioned office building opens, San Antonio…
1934 – Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (US bank guarantor) effective.
1939 – Hewlett-Packard is founded by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in a garage in Palo Alto, California “the birthplace of Silicon Valley”
1948 – 1st color newsreel filmed (Pasadena, California)
1954 – Rose & Cotton Bowl are 1st sports colorcasts.
1960 – Johnny Cash plays first of many free concerts behind bars.
1966 – All US cigarette packs required to carry “Caution Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health”
1975 – H.R. Halderman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Mardian convicted of Watergate crimes.
1984 – AT&T’s 22 owned Bell system companies divests into 8 companies.
1990 – David Dinkins sworn in as 1st African American mayor of New York City.
1998 – US Census Bureau estimates population of US at 268,921,733.
2008 – A New Hampshire law legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples comes into effect.
2016 – After floods along the Mississippi River kills 31, Exxon Mobile Corp decides to close a plant in flood-threatened Memphis.
2018 – California becomes largest US state to legalize cannabis for recreational use.
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