1541 – Hernando de Soto observes 1st recorded flood in America (Mississippi River)
1813 – David Melville, Newport, Rhode Island, patents apparatus for making coal gas.
1818 – US Congress approves 1st pensions for government service.
1850 – Henry Wells & William Fargo from American Express in Buffalo.
1881 – Barnum & Bailey’s first combined “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)
1944 – 2,500 women trample guards & floorwalkers to purchase 1,500 alarm clocks announced for sale in a Chicago, Illinois department store.
1952 – 1st plastic lens for cataract patients fitted (Philadelphia)
1959 – US President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs Hawaii statehood bill.
1965 – Poppin’ Fresh Pillsbury Dough Boy introduced.
1966 – Scott Paper begins selling paper dresses for $1.
1968 – US Congress repeals requirement for a gold reserve.
1977 – US restricts citizens from visiting Cuba, Vietnam, North Korea and Cambodia.
1986 – US Treasury Department announces plans to alter paper money.
1987 – Gerber survey find most popular names for newborns are Jessica and Mathew.
1990 – Largest art robbery in US history: 13 works of art worth over $500 million are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.
2003 – FBO agents raid the corporate headquarters of HealthSouth Corporation in Birmingham, Alabama on suspicion of massive corporate fraud led by the company’s top executive.
2018 – First fatal accident involving an Uber self-driving car hitting a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona.
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