1785 – Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals.
1867 – Jesse James gang robs bank in Richmond, Missouri (2 die, $4,000 taken)
1882 – 6″ of snow falls in eastern Iowa.
1903 – 1st direct primary election law in US adopted, by Wisconsin.
1918 – King Oil/Shell refinery on Curacao offically opens.
1922 – Walt Disney incorporates his 1st film company Laugh-O-Gram Films.
1934 – American outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow – Bonnie and Clyde- are killed by police in an ambush near Sailes, Louisiana.
1941 – Joe Louis beats Buddy Baer on disqualification in 7 for heavyweight boxing title.
1944 – Polo Grounds host 1st NYC night game since 1941.
1956 – World Trade Center dedicated in Ferry Building, San Francisco.
1962 – Joe Pepitone 2nd Yankee to hit 2 HRs in 1 inning (Joe DiMaggio)
1962 – Scott Carpenter orbits Earth 3 times in US Aurora 7.
1977 – US Supreme Court refuses to hear appeals of Watergate wrong doers H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman & John Mitchell.
1982 – Colin Wilson rides a surfboard 294 miles.
1985 – President Ronald Reagan awards Jimmy Stewart the Presidential Medal of Freedom and promotes him to Major General on the Retired List.
1988 – Maryland stops sale of cheap pistols on January 1, 1990.
1990 – Cost of rescuing saving & loan failures is put at up to $130 billion.
1991 – Phillies Tommy Greene (of Whiteville, NC) no-hits Montreal Expos, 2-0.
1992 – US President George H.W. Bush orders Coast Guard to intercept boats with Haitian refugees.
2017 – US President Donald Trump meets Pope Francis at the Vatican.
2019 – More than 170 tornadoes reported in a week in US states of Missouri, Oklahoma and Iowa, killing seven and causing widespread damage.