1771 – The Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called “The Regulators”, occurs in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina.
1817 – Mississippi River steamboat service begins.
1860 – Chicago: Republican convention selects Abraham Lincoln as candidate.
1866 – US Congress authorizes the nickel 5-cent piece (replaces silver half-dime).
1891 – George A. Hormel & Co introduces Spam.
1918 – The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the US Congress, making criticism of the government an imprisonable offense.
1927 – Supreme Court ruled bootleggers must pay income tax.
1939 – Food stamps are 1st issued.
1946 – Musical “Annie Get Your Gun” starring Ethel Merman premieres in NYC.
1951 – The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between Idlewild Airport (New York International Airport) and Heathrow Airport (London), operated by El Al Israel Airlines.
1956 – Kraft Theater presents an act from “Profiles in Courage.”
1963 – Astronaut Gordon Cooper completes 22 orbits in Faith 7, ends US Project Mercury.
1965 – The Campbell Soup Company introduces SpaghettiOs under its Franco-American brand.
1971 – 1st class postage now costs 8 cents (was 6 cents).
1979 – National League approves Astros sales from Ford Motors to John J. McMullen for $19M.
1985 – Michael Jordan named NBA Rookie of the Year.
1988 – US Surgeon General C. Everett Koop reports nicotine as addictive as heroin.
2011 – Space shuttle Endeavour launches for its final commission in space.
2013 – Bill Gates becomes the world’s richest man with $72.7 billion again after losing the position in 2008.
2013 – Human stem cells are successfully cloned.
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