1780 – John Hancock becomes the first Governor of Massachusetts.
1870 – Pimlico Race Course opens in Baltimore.
1870 – Postcards first used in USA.
1906 – US inventor Lee de Forest patents “Audion”, a 3-diode amplification valve which proved a pioneering development in radio & broadcasting.
1923 – Senate committee publishes 1st report on Teapot Dome scandal.
1929 – Former Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall convicted of accepting $100,000 bribe in the Teapot scandal – 1st US Cabinet member to go to jail.
1930 – 1st scheduled transcontinental air service began.
1940 – Benjamin O Davis, Sr. becomes 1st African American general in US Army.
1951 – Peace talks aimed at ending Korean War resumed in Panmunjom.
1955 – Tappan sells 1st microwave oven.
1960 – 1st electronic wrist watch placed on sale, NYC.
1960 – Cuba nationalizes all remaining US businesses.
1962 – US Ambassador to the UN Adlai Stevenson demands USSR Un rep Zorin answer regarding Cuban missile bases saying, “I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over”
1963 – Anti-Kennedy “WANTED FOR TREASON” pamphlets scattered in Dallas.
1974 – US Air Force fires 1st ICBM.
1976 – Governor Wallace grants full pardon to Clarence Norris, last known survivor of 9 Scottsboro Boys who were convicted in 1931 rape.
1983 – US invades Grenada, a country 1/2,000 its population (US Wins!)
1994 – Susan Smith claims her 2 kids were carjacked in South Carolina (she actually killed them)
2001 – Windows SP first become available.
2012 – Hurricane Sandy makes landfall in Cuba and Haiti killing 65 people and causing over $80 million in damage.
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