1883 – United States and Canadian railroads set and synchronized four standard time zones – Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific – replacing over 100 previous time zones.
1903 – Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty gives the United States exclusive canal rights in Panama.
1913 – Lincoln Beachey becomes the first American pilot to perform an aircraft loop-the-loop in his Curtiss aeroplane near San Diego.
1920 – Apollo Theater opens at 221 West 42nd Street in New York City.
1926 – George Bernard Shaw accepts the Nobel Prize for Literature, but refuses the prize money, saying “I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a friend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize.”
1928 – Walt Disney’s “Steamboat Willie” is released, the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon.
1936 – Main span of Golden Gate bridge joined.
1949 – National League batting leader Jackie Robinson, who hit .342, is named the league’s Most Valuable Player.
1959 – “Ben-Hur,” directed by William Wyler and starring Charlton Heston, premieres in New York City. It wins the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1960.
1961 – President John F. Kennedy sends 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam.
1963 – Bell Telephone introduces the touch-tone telephone to customers in Pennsylvania.
1966 – Roman Catholic bishops in the United States end rules against eating meat on Fridays.
1975 – Houston Rockets guard Calvin Murphy ends his NBA-record consecutive free throws made streak at 58.
1978 – In Jonestown, Guyana, 918 members of the Peoples Temple are murdered or commit suicide under the leadership of cult leader Jim Jones.
1983 – MGM/UA releases nostalgic holiday film “A Christmas Story,” starring Peter Billingsley and Darren McGavin, based on anecdotes from humorist Jean Shephard.
1993 – North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) passes the United States House of Representatives.
1999 – In College Station, Texas, 12 people are killed and 27 people injured at Texas A&M University when a massive bonfire under construction collapses.
2005 – 20th Century Fox releases “Walk the Line,” starring Joauqun Phoenix as Johnny Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter, and directed by James Mangold. Witherspoon wins an Academy Award.
2015 – American singer-songwriter Willie Nelson receives the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize at the Thomas Jefferson Building in Washington, D.C.
2020 – COVID-19 death toll passes 250,000 in the United States as recorded cases hit 11.5 million and hospitalizations at 76,830 amid a country-wide surge.
Author: Sonny Jones
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