1676 – 1st colonial prison organized, Nantucket, Massachusetts.
1776 – 1st gun salute for an American warship in a foreign port – US Andrew Doria at Fort St. Eustatius (Dutch Caribbean Island).
1798 – Kentucky becomes first state to nullify an act of Congress.
1801 – First edition of New York Evening Post.
1841 – Life preservers made of cork are patented by Napoleon Guerin INYC).
1875 – William Bonwill, patents dental mallet to impact gold into cavities.
1907 – Oklahoma becomes the United States 46th state.
1914 – Federal Reserve System formally opens.
1920 – 1st postage stamp meter is set in Stamford, Conn.
1933 – Roosevelt establishes diplomatic relations with USSR.
1945 – “The Lost Weekend”, based on Charles R. Jackson’s novel, directed by Billy Wilder and starring Ray Milland and Jane Wyman is released (Best Picture 1946).
1950 – US President Harry Truman proclaims emergency crisis caused by communist threat.
1959 – “Sound of Music” opens at Lunt Fontanne Theater NYC for 1443 performances.
1963 – Touch-tone telephone introduced.
1965 – Walt Disney launches Epcot Center; Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.
1973 – US President Richard Nixon authorizes construction of Alaskan pipeline.
1981 – President Reagan decides on a covert plan to block the Cuban aid to Nicaragua and El Salvador.
1986 – 36th NASCAR Sprint Cup: Dale Earnhardt wins.
1995 – US Attorney General Janet Reno announces she has Parkinson’s disease.
2010 – In University Park, Texas, the groundbreaking ceremony for the George W. Bush Presidential Center takes place.
2015 – Largest diamond discovered in more than a century – 1,111 carat stone found in the Karowe mine, Botswana.