This Week in History

1677 – Massachusetts gains title to Maine for $6,000
1852 – Uncle Sam cartoon figure made its debut in the NY Lantern weekly
1868 – Senate begins Pres Andrew Johnson impeachment trial
1887 – Chester Greenwood of Maine patents earmuffs
1925 – Tennessee makes it unlawful to teach evolution
1943 – Failed assassin attempt on Hitler during Smolensk-Rastenburg flight
1954 – Braves’ Bobby Thomson breaks his ankle, he is replaced by Hank Aaron
1965 – Beatles’ “Eight Days a Week,” single goes #1 & stays #1 for 2 weeks
1965 – Jeff Beck replaces Eric Clapton of the Yardbirds
1971 – Live at Fillmore East recorded
1989 – 27th shuttle, Discovery 8, launched, 1st woman to do the countdown

1755 – 1st steam engine in America installed, to pump water from a mine
1773 – Jeanne Baptiste Pointe de Sable found settlement now known as Chicago
1789 – US Post Office established
1901 – Ground is broken for Boston’s 1st AL ballpark (Huntington Ave Grounds)
1933 – FDR conducts his 1st “fireside chat”
1945 – NY is 1st to prohibit discrimination by race & creed in employment
1956 – Dow Jones closes above 500 for 1st time (500.24)
1963 – Bob Dylan cancels “Ed Sullivan Show” television appearance
1987 – “Les Miserables” opens at Broadway/Imperial NYC for 4000+ perfs
1990 – LA Raiders announce they were returning to Oakland

1850 – Woman’s Medical College of Penn (1st female medical school)
1918 – Save the Redwoods League founded
1948 – Reginald Weit became the 1st black to play in the US Tennis Open
1967 – Pink Floyd releases their 1st song (Arnold Layne)
1968 – Otis Redding posthumously receives gold record for ” Dock of the Bay”
1987 – Wayne Gretzky scores 1,500th NHL point
1997 – Ashes of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry are launched into space

1876 – 1st telephone call made (Alexander Graham Bell to Thomas Watson)
1893 – Ivory Coast becomes a French colony
1903 – Harry Gammeter, Cleveland, patents multigraph duplicating machine
1909 – Jack Johnson fights Victor McLaglen to no decision in 6 for box title
1963 – Pete Rose debuts with hits in his 2 1st at bats in spring training
1945 – Japan declares Vietnam Independence
1969 – James Earl Ray pleads guilty in murder of Martin Luther King Jr
1975 – “Rocky Horror Show” opens at Belasco Theater NYC for 45 performances

1745 – Bells for 1st American carillon shipped from England to Boston
1864 – Ulysses S Grant is appointed commander of Union Army
1897 – Indian, fans start calling the team Indians (in 1915 becomes official)
1926 – Bertha Landes elected 1st woman mayor of Seattle
1942 – Construction of the Alaska Highway began
1954 – 1st local color TV coml WNBT-TV (WNBC-TV) NYC (Castro Decorators)
1957 – 8.1 earthquake shakes Andreanof Islands, Alaska
1959 – Barbie, the popular girls’ doll, debuted, over 800 million sold
1961 – 1st animal returned from space, dog named Blackie aboard Sputnik 9
1964 – 1st Ford Mustang produced
1976 – 1st female cadets accepted to West Point Military Academy
1981 – Dan Rather becomes primary anchorman of CBS-TV News

1838 – US mint in New Orleans begins operation (producing dimes)
1855 – 1st train crosses 1st US railway suspension bridge, Niagara Falls
1896 – Volunteers of America forms (NYC)
1900 – NL decides to go with 8 teams They exclude Baltimore, Cleveland, Louisville & Washington (in 1953 Boston Braves move to Milwaukee)
1934 – Edwin Hubble photo shows as many galaxies as Milky Way has stars
1950 – 1st woman medical officer assigned to naval vessel (BR Walters)
1952 – Ronald Reagan marries Nancy Davis
1959 – Groucho, Chico & Harpo’s final TV appearance together
1965 – 1st US combat forces arrive in Vietnam (3,500 Marines)
1968 – Fillmore East opens
1971 – Radio Hanoi broadcasts Jimi Hendrix’s “Star Spangled Banner”
1983 – IBM releases PC DOS version 2.0

1876 – Alexander Graham Bell patents telephone
1911 – Willis Farnsworth, Petaluma, CA, patents coin-operated locker
1917 – 1st jazz record “Dixie Jazz Band One Step,” recorded by Nick LaRocca Original Dixieland Jazz Band, released by RCA Victor in Camden NJ
1918 – Pres Wilson authorizes US Army’s Distinguished Service Medal
1933 – Game of “Monopoly” invented
1936 – Hitler breaks Treaty of Versailles, sends troops to Rhineland
1962 – Beatles made their broadcasting debut on BBC radio
1996 – 1st surface photos of Pluto (photographed by Hubble Space Telescope)

1808 – 1st college orchestra in US founded, at Harvard
1836 – 3,000 Mexicans beat 182 Texans at the Alamo, after 13 day fight
1857 – Dred Scott Decision: Supreme Court rules slaves cannot be citizens
1922 – Babe Ruth signs 3 years at $52,000 a year NY Yankee contract
1950 – Silly Putty invented
1964 – Elijah Muhammad renames Cassius Clay, Muhammad Ali
1985 – Mike Tyson KOs Hector Mercedes in 1 round in his 1st pro fight
1995 – Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Phoenix AZ on KEDJ 106.3/100.3 FM

1623 – 1st American temperance law enacted, Virginia
1743 – 1st US religious journal, The Christian History, published, Boston
1770 – Boston Massacre, British troops kill 5 in crowd. Crispus Attackus becomes 1st black to die for American freedom
1836 – Mexico attacks Alamo
1845 – Congress appropriates $30,000 to ship camels to western US
1872 – George Westinghouse Jr patents triple air brake for trains
1908 – 1st ascent of Mt Erebus, Antarctica
1924 – Computing-Tabulating-Recording Corp becomes IBM
1957 – Sgt Bilko satirizes Elvis Presley (Elvis Pelvin)
1997 – Tommy Lasorda, Nellie Fox & Willie Wells for Hall of Fame

1789 – 1st Congress declares constitution in effect (9 senators, 13 reps)
1825 – John Quincy Adams inaugrated as 6th president
1837 – City of Chicago incorporates
1861 – Confederate States adopt “Stars & Bars” flag
1881 – California becomes 1st state to pass plant quarantine legislation
1902 – American Automobile Association (AAA) founded in Chicago
1921 – Hot Springs National Park created in Arkansas
1924 – “Happy Birthday To You” published by Claydon Sunny
1964 – Jimmy Hoffa convicted of jury tampering
1978 – Chicago Daily News, founded in 1875, publishes last issue
1985 – War veterans returned to the “Bridge over the River Kwai”