1457 – Gutenberg Bible became the first printed book.
1622 – Indians attacked a group of colonist in the James River area of Virginia. 347 residents were killed.
1630 – The first legislation to prohibit gambling was enacted. It was in Boston, MA.
1638 – Anne Hutchinsoon, a religious dissident, was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1719 – Frederick William abolished serfdom on crown property in Prussia.
1733 – Joseph Priestly invented carbonated water (seltzer).
1765 – The Stamp Act was passed. It was the first direct British tax on the American colonists. It was repealed on March 17, 1766.
1775 – Edmund Burke presented his 13 articles to the English parliament.
1790 – Thomas Jefferson became the first U.S. Secretary of State.
1794 – The U.S. Congress banned U.S. vessels from supplying slaves to other countries.
1822 – New York Horticultural Society was founded.
1841 – Englishman Orlando Jones patented cornstarch.
1871 – William Holden of North Carolina became the first governor to be removed by impeachment.
1872 – Illinois became the first state to require sexual equality in employment.
1873 – Slavery was abolished in Puerto Rico.
1874 – The Young Men’s Hebrew Association was organized in New York City.
1882 – The U.S. Congress outlawed polygamy.
1888 – The English Football League was established.
1894 – The first playoff competition for the Stanley Cup began. Montreal played Ottawa.
1895 – Auguste and Louis Lumiere showed their first movie to an invited audience in Paris.
1901 – Japan proclaimed that it was determined to keep Russia from encroaching on Korea.
1902 – Great Britain and Persia agreed to link Europe and India by telegraph.
1903 – Niagara Falls ran out of water due to a drought.
1903 – In Columbia, the region near Galera De Zamba was devastated by a volcanic eruption.
1904 – The first color photograph was published in the London Daily Illustrated Mirror.
1905 – Child miners in Britain received a maximum 8-hour workday.
1906 – France lost the first ever rugby game ever played against Britain.
1907 – Russians troops completed the evacuation of Manchuria in the face of advancing Japanese forces.
1907 – In Paris, it was reported that male cab drivers dressed as women to attract riders.
1910 – In Liberia, a telegraph cable linked Tenerife and Monrovia.
1911 – Herman Jadlowker became the first opera singer to perform two major roles in the same day at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.
1915 – A German zeppelin made a night raid on Paris railway stations.
1919 – The first international airline service was inaugurated on a weekly schedule between Paris and Brussels.
1933 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill legalizing the sale and possession of beer and wine containing up to 3.2% alcohol.
1934 – The first Masters golf championship began in Augusta, GA.
1935 – In New York, blood tests were authorized as evidence in court cases.
1935 – Persia was renamed Iran.
1941 – The Grand Coulee Dam in Washington began operations.
1943 – The Dutch workweek was extended to 54 hours.
1943 – Obligatory work for woman ends in Belgium.
1945 – The Arab League was formed with the adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt.
1946 – The British granted Transjordan independence.
1946 – The first U.S. built rocket to leave the earth’s atmosphere reached a height of 50-miles.
1947 – The Greek government imposed martial law in Laconia and southern Greece.
1948 – The United States announced a land reform plan for Korea.
1948 – “The Voice of Firestone” became the first commercial radio program to be carried simultaneously on both AM and FM radio stations.
1954 – The first shopping mall opened in Southfield, Michigan.
1954 – The London gold market reopened for the first time since 1939.
1956 – Perry Como became the first major TV variety-show host to book a rock and roll act on his program. The act was Carl Perkins.
1960 – A.L. Schawlow & C.H. Townes obtained a patent for the laser. It was the first patent for any laser.
1965 – U.S. confirmed that its troops used chemical warfare against the Vietcong.
1972 – The U.S. Senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment. It was not ratified by the states.
1974 – The Viet Cong proposed a new truce with the U.S. and South Vietnam. The truce included general elections.
1975 – Walt Disney World Shopping Village opened.
Disney movies, music and books
1977 – The Dutch Den Uyl government fell.
1977 – Comedienne Lily Tomlin made her debut on Broadway in “Lily Tomlin on Stage” in New York.
1977 – Indira Ghandi resigned as the prime minister of India.
1978 – Karl Wallenda, of the Flying Wallendas, fell to his death while walking a cable strung between to hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
1979 – The National Hockey League (NHL) voted to accept 4 WHA teams, the Oilers, Jets, Nordiques & Whalers.
1980 – People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) was founded by Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco.
1981 – U.S. Postage rates went from 15-cents to 18-cents an ounce.
1981 – RCA put its Selectra Vision laser disc players on the market.
1981 – A group of twelve Green Berets arrived in El Salvador. This brought the total number of advisors to fifty-four.
1981 – The first Mongolian entered space aboard the Russian Soyuz 39.
1982 – The Space Shuttle Columbia was launched into orbit on mission STS-3. It was the third orbital flight for the Columbia.
1987 – A barge loaded with 32,000 tons of refuse left Islip, NY, to find a place to unload. After being refused by several states and three countries space was found back in Islip.
1988 – The Congress overrode U.S. President Reagan‘s veto of a sweeping civil rights bill.
1989 – Oliver North began two days of testimony at his Iran-Contra trial in Washington, DC.
1989 – The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee reported the class gap was widening.
1990 – A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, found Captain Hazelwood not guilty in the Valdez oil spill.
1991 – Pamela Smart, a high school teacher, was found guilty in New Hampshire of manipulating her student-lover to kill her husband.
1992 – A Fokker F-28 veered off a runway at New York’s LaGuardia airport and into Flushing Bay, killing 27 people.
1993 – Cleveland Indians pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews were killed in a boating accident in Florida. Bob Ojeda was seriously injured in the accident.
1993 – Intel introduced the Pentium-processor (80586) 64 bits-60 MHz-100+ MIPS.
1995 – Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returned to Earth after setting a record for 438 days in space.
1997 – Tara Lipinski, at 14 years and 10 months, became the youngest women’s world figure skating champion.
2002 – The U.S. Postal Rate Commission approved a request for a postal rate increase of first-class stamps from 34 cents to 37 cents by June 30. It was the first time a postal rate case was resolved through a settlement between various groups. The groups included the U.S. Postal Service, postal employees, mailer groups and competitors.
2002 – A collection of letters and cards sent by Princess Diana of Wales sold for $33,000. The letters and cards were written to a former housekeeper at Diana’s teenage home.
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