1646 – Massachusetts uses death penalty for denying that Holy Bible is God’s word.
1845 – First nationally observed uniform election day in US.
1846 – Benjamin Parker patents artificial leg.
1862 – Dr. Richard Gatling patents Gatling machine gun in Indianapolis.
1879 – African American inventor Thomas Elkins patents refrigerating apparatus.
1908 – Brooklyn Academy of Music opens in NYC.
1924 – California legalizes professional boxing (illegal since 1914)
1929 – Richard E. Byrd, Laurence McKinley Gould and their polar expedition team begins a 2 1/2 month, 1500-mile dog-sledge journey into the Queen Maud Mountains. The first exploration of the interior of Antarctica.
1939 – First air conditioned automobile (Packard) exhibited, Chicago, Illinois.
1948 – American humorist Will Rogers commemorated by US Postage Service on 3-cent stamp.
1951 – 9th Ryder Cup: US wins 9 1/2-2 1/2 at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina, US.
1954 – “Fanny” opens at Majestic Theater NYC for 888 performances.
1959 – Ernie Banks, Cubs shortstop, wins 2nd consecutive NL MVP.
1960 – “Misfits” premieres, final movie for Clark Gable & Marilyn Monroe.
1968 – “Wichita Lineman” 12th album by Glen Campbell is released (Billboard Album of the Year 1969)
1976 – 1st mass-market free-agent reentry draft, Reggie Jackson, Joe Rudi, Don Gullett, Tenace, Fingers, Baylor, Grich & McCovey, available.
1980 – Ronald Reagan (R) defeats incumbent US President Jimmy Carer (D) by a landslide.
1993 – Elton John awarded $518,700 from Sunday Mirror for a false report on his diet.
2003 – Former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy becomes the first person indicted under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. He was eventually acquitted.
2008 – Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected President of the United States of America
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