HISTORICAL TIMELINE
1493: Christopher Columbus sets sail on his second voyage to the Americas. This expedition was significantly larger than his first, consisting of 17 ships and about 1,200 men
1789: The United States Congress passes the Judiciary Act of 1789. This was a foundational statute that established the federal judiciary of the United States and created structure and jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, federal district courts, and circuit courts
1789: President George Washington nominates John Jay as the first Chief Justice
1789: The office of the U.S. Attorney General is established
1853: Cornelius Vanderbilt circumnavigates the world aboard his private yacht North Star
1862: Confederate Congress adopts Confederacy seal
1869: Black Friday: The Gold Market collapses after financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk attempted to corner the market
1889: Alexander Dey patents the dial time recorder
1890: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) officially renounced polygamy
1902: Fannie Farmer opens cooking school.
1906: U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower as the first national monument
1924: Boston, Massachusetts opens its airport
1927: NHL’s Toronto St. Patricks become Maple Leafs
1934: Babe Ruth plays last game as a New York Yankees player
1941: Japanese officials in Hawaii ordered to gather preliminary data on Pearl Harbor
1946: Cathay Pacific Airways is founded in Hong Kong by Roy C. Farrell and Syndey H. de Kantzow
1948: The Honda Motor Company is founded in Hamamatsu, Japan by Soichiro Honda and Takeo Fujisawa
1948: Mildred Gillars, also known as “Axis Sally”, pleads not guilty for treason. Gillars had been living in Germany and broadcasted Nazi radio propaganda during World War II
1952: American fast food restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) opens its first franchise in Salt Lake City, Utah (USA) after Colonel Harland Sanders franchises his recipe to friend Pete Harman
1955: U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower suffers a heart attack while on vacation in Denver, Colorado (USA)
1957: “Jailhouse Rock” single released by Elvis Presley (Billboard Song of the Year 1957)
1957: Camp Nou, the largest stadium in Europe is opened in Barcelona, Spain; designed by architects Francesc Mitjans, Josep Soteras, and Lorenzo Garcia-Barbon and became home of FC Barcelona, one of the most storied football clubs in the world
1957: Brooklyn Dodgers play their last game at Ebbets Field
1960: The USS Enterprise, the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is launched by Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia
1962: The University of Mississippi admits James Meredith, its first African-American student
1968: 60 Minutes, the influential American news magazine television program, debuts on CBS; created by Don Hewitt
1968: New York Mets manager Gil Hodges suffers a heart attack
1969: 2500 fans attend the first Elvis convention in Cincinnati, Ohio (USA)
1971: Neil LaFeve, a game warden at Sensiba Wildlife Area in Wisconsin is reported missing after not showing up to his own 32nd birthday party
1972: Privately owned 1954 vintage F86 Sabrejet fails to take off at an air show in Sacramento, California (USA), overruns the runway, and bursts into flames before crashing into an ice cream parlor, killing 22 people and injuring dozens more
1973: Guinea-Bissau declares its independence from Portugal
1975: OPEC announces a 15% increase in government revenue per barrel
1979: Ghana adopts a constitution
1985: A relay swim team completes the fastest English Channel crossing in 15 hours and 30 minutes
1988: Barbara C. Harris of Massachusetts is elected as the first woman Episcopal bishop
1988: Ben Johnson, Canadian sprinter in the Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, wins gold, temporarily; three days later Ben Johnson tests positive for steroids and stripped of the medal
1998: The U.S. Federal Reserve releases into circulation $2 billion in new harder-to-counterfeit $20 bills
2003: Anthony Hopkins receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
2005: Hurricane Rita, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes ever recorded, makes landfall in the United States on the southwestern coast of Louisiana as a Category 3 storm. Rita reached Category 5 intensity in the Gulf of Mexico (now known as the Gulf of America) with peak winds of 180 mph (285 km/h)
2007: The Big Bang Theory, a sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, premieres on CBS
2012: Books by Japanese authors or about Japan are suspended by Chinese bookstores
2014: U.S. sitcom, “Black-ish” created by Kenya Barris and starring Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross, premieres
2015: At least 1,100 people are killed and another 934 wounded after a stampede during the Hajj in Saudi Arabia
2016: The National Museum of African-American History and Culture opens on the National Mall
2017: LeBron James calls President Donald Trump “U Bum” in a tweet in response to Trump’s comments about Stephen Curry
2017: Plastic polystyrene rubbish is discovered for the first time only 1,000 miles from the North Pole by an international team of scientists
2021: Notorious Indian gangster Jitender Maan Gogi is shot dead in a court in Delhi by men posing as lawyers
2024: Former U.S. retail giant KMart confirms it is closing its last full scale store in mainland U.S. - specifically Bridgehampton, New York (USA)
2024: Thailand becomes the first southeastern Asian country to recognize same-sex marriage with the King signing the marriage equality bill into law
FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS
1725: Arthur Guinness, Irish brewer and founder of the Guinness brewery, born in Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland (d.1803)
1755: John Marshall, 4th Chief of Justice of the United States (1801-35), born in Germantown, Virginia (USA)
1871: Lottie Dod, British all-round athlete (Wimbledon 1887-88, 1891-93), born in Bebington, England
1880: Sarah Knauss, oldest American supercentenarian and third oldest person in the world (119 years, 97 days) born in Hollywood, Pennsylvania (USA)
1896: F. Scott Fitzgerald, American author (Great Gatsby, Zelda), born in Saint Paul, Minnesota
1941: Linda McCartney, American photographer, musician (Wings), and first wife of Paul McCartney born in New York City, New York (USA)
1969: Clown [Shawn Crahan], American heavy metal percussionist (Slipknot) born in Des Moines, Iowa (USA)
NOTABLE DEATHS
1991: Dr. Seuss [Theodor Seuss Geisel], American children’s author (The Cat in the Hat; Green Eggs and Ham), dies of cancer at 87
2016: Vladimir Kuzmichyov, Russian footballer and pupil of FC Spartak Moscow (b.1979)
2018: Tommy McDonald, Hall of Fame wide receiver (Philadelphia Eagles)
NATIONAL DAYS/HOLIDAYS/
INTERNATIONALLY OBSERVED DAYS
Banned Books Day
Fall Astronomy Week
International Clean Hands Week
La Merce - Spain
National Punctuation Day
World Bollywood Day
National Women’s Health and Fitness Day
National Mofongo Day
Bluebird of Happiness Day
National Fitness Day - United Kingdom
National Cherries Jubilee Day
Lash Stylists’ Day
International Day of Birmingham
National Day of Art in Care Homes
World Dense Breast Day
National Horchata Day
International Age Diversity Day
Heritage Day
Schwenkfelder Thanksgiving
Banned Websites Awareness Day
Festival of Latest Novelties
Gallbladder Good Health Day
Global Day of Student Prayer
See You at the Pole (prayer)
Kiss Day
National Familiar Hypercholeserolemia Day
World School Milk Day