1629 – 1st game law passed in American colonies, by Virginia.
1664 – Roger Williams is granted a charter to colonize Rhode Island.
1832 – Mormon Joseph Smith beaten, tarred & feathered in Ohio.
1868 – Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. forms.
1880 – Tobacco Growers’ Mutual Insurance company incorporates in Connecticut.
1898 – 1st automobile sold.
1900 – New York City Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground “Rapid Transit Railroad” that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
1920 – 1st US coast guard air station established (Morehead City, NC)
1935 – Major Bowes’ Original Amateur Hour goes national on NBC Radio Network.
1947 – John D. Rockefeller, Jr. donates NYC East River site to the UN.
1955 – 1st seagoing oil drill placed in service.
1955 – Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” opens for 694 performances.
1958 – Elvis Presley joins the army (serial number 53310761)
1966 – Selective Service announces college deferments based on performances.
1980 – ABC’s nightly Iran Hostage crisis program renamed “Nightline”
1981 – “Nightline with Ted Koppel” premieres on ABC.
1987 – 1st Soul Train Music Awards: Janet Jackson, Luther Vandross win.
1989 – Worst US oil spill, Exxon’s Valdez spills 11.3 million gallons off Alaska.
1998 – Jonesboro massacre: Two students, ages 11 and 13, fire upon teachers and students at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas; five people are dead and ten are wounded.
2003 – The Arab League votes 21-1 in favor of a resolution demanding the immediate and unconditional removal or U.S. and British soldiers from Iraq.
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