1673 – Lord Berkley sells his half of New Jersey to the Quakers.
1810 – “Converse”, 1st opera, premieres in NY.
1818 – Congress approves 1st pensions for government services.
1850 – Henry Wells & William Fargo forms American Express in Buffalo.
1870 – 1st US National Wildlife Preserve (Lake Meritt in Oakland, California)
1877 – President Hayes appoints Fredrick Douglass marshal of Washington, DC.
1881 – Barnum & Bailey’s “Greatest Show on Earth” opens (Madison Square Garden)
1911 – North Dakota enacts a hail insurance law.
1922 – WBT-AM in Charlotte, NC begins radio transmissions.
1931 – 1st electric shavers go on sale in US (Schick)
1945 – Maurice “Rocket” Richard becomes the 1st NHLer to score 50 goals.
1952 – 1st plastic lens for cataract patients fitted (Philadelphia)
1961 – Poppin’ Fresh Pillsbury Dough Boy introduced.
1966 – Scott Paper begins selling paper dresses for $1.
1979 – “On the 20th Century” closes at St. James Theater NYC after 460 performances.
1982 – Singer Teddy Pendergrass’ spinal cord severed in a car accident.
1990 – Largest ever art robbery at Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. 13 works valued over $500 million are stolen.
1994 – Zsa Zsa Gabor files for bankruptcy.
2003 – FBI agents raid the corporate headquarters of HealthSouth Corporation in Birmingham, Alabama on suspicion of massive corporate fraud led by the company’s top executives.
2014 – US closes the Syrian embassy in Washington and expels all Syrian diplomats.
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