1860 – Telegraph line between LA & San Francisco opens.
1908 – NY Giants set season attendance record at 910,000 (broken in 1920)
1918 – American soldier Alvin York single-handedly attacks German gun nest, killing at least 25 and capturing 132 Germans.
1927 – “The Second Hundred Years” silent short film released starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy – 1st Laurel and Hardy film with them appearing as a team.
1933 – Colt Tower dedicated in San Francisco as a monument to firefighters.
1942 – Comedy duo Abbott and Costello launch their weekly radio show.
1945 – US President Harry Truman announced atomic bomb secret shared with Britain and Canada.
1955 – World’s most powerful aircraft carrier, USS Saratoga, launched.
1971 – John Lennon releases his megahit single “Imagine”
1972 – Harold Carmichael begins NFL streak of 127 consecutive game receptions.
1973 – OPEC meets with oil companies to discuss revision of 1971 Tehran agreement and oil prices; negotiations fail.
1974 – Franklin National Bank collapses due to fraud and mismanagement; at the time it was the largest bank failure in the history of the United States.
1979 – 13th Country Music Association Award: Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers & Barbara Mandrell wins.
1981 – US President Ronald Reagan greets predecessors Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon before sending them to Egypt for Anwar Sadat’s funeral.
1995 – Dolphin’s Dan Marino breaks Fran Tarkenton’s NFL career completions record.
1998 – US House of Representatives votes to begin impeachment hearings against President Bill Clinton on charges of lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
2015 – Actress and singer Selena Gomez reveals she has Lupus.
2018 – New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees becomes NFL’s all-time leader in passing yards; needs 201 yards to pass Peyton Manning’s record; gets 363 & 3 TD’s in Saints 43-19 win vs Washington Redskins at the SuperDome.
2019 – FBI confirm Samuel Little is America’s most prolific serial killer, after verifying more than half of his 93 confessed murders.