1898 U.S. takes control of Puerto Rico Only one year after Spain granted Puerto Rico self-rule, American troops raise the U.S. flag over the Caribbean nation, formalizing U.S. authority over the island’s one million inhabitants. In July 1898, near the end of the Spanish-American War, U.S. forces launched an invasion …read more

Getting an education isn’t just about books and grades – we’re also learning how to participate fully in the life of this nation. (We’re tomorrow’s leaders after all!)

But in order to really participate, we need to know our rights – otherwise, we may lose them. The highest law in our land is the U.S. Constitution, which has some amendments, known as the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights guarantees that the government can never deprive people in the U.S. of certain fundamental rights including the right to freedom of religion and to free speech and the due process of law. Many federal and state laws give us additional rights, too.

The Bill of Rights applies to young people as well as adults. And what I’m going to do right here is tell you about EQUAL TREATMENT.

for their complete article aclu.org

1858 Abolitionist John Brown meets Harriet Tubman at a Constitutional Convention convened in Chatham, Ontario

1701 – The Collegiate School was founded in Killingworth, CT. The school moved to New Haven in 1745 and changed its name to Yale College.

1793 – During the French Revolution, Queen Marie Antoinette was beheaded after being convicted of treason.

1829 – In Boston, MA, the first modern hotel in America opened. The Tremont Hotel had 170 rooms that rented for $2 a day and included four meals.

1859 – Abolitionist John Brown led a raid on Harper’s Ferry, VA (now located in West Virginia). 

1869 – A hotel in Boston became the first in the U.S. to install indoor plumbing.

1916 – Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in New York City, NY.

1923 – Walt Disney contracted with M.J. Winkler to distribute the Alice Comedies. This event is recognized as the start of the Disney Company.
Disney movies, music and books

1928 – Marvin Pipkin received a patent for the frosted electric light bulb.

1939 – “Right To Happiness” debuted on the NBC-Blue network.

1939 – “The Man Who Came to Dinner” opened on Broadway.

1941 – The Nazis advanced to within 60 miles of Moscow. Romanians entered Odessa, USSR, and began exterminating 150,000 Jews.

1942 – The ballet “Rodeo” premiered in New York City.

1943 – Chicago’s new subway system was officially opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

1944 – “The Robe,” by Lloyd Douglas, was published for the first time.

1945 – “His Honor the Barber” debuted on NBC Radio.

1955 – Mrs. Jules Lederer replaced Ruth Crowley in newspapers using the name Ann Landers.

1962 – U.S. President Kennedy was informed that there were missile bases in Cuba, beginning the Cuban missile crisis. 

1964 – China detonated its first atomic bomb becoming the world’s fifth nuclear power. 

1967 – NATO headquarters opened in Brussels.

1970 – Anwar Sadat was elected president of Egypt to succeed Gamal Abdel Nassar.

1973 – Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. The Vietnamese official declined the award.

1978 – Poland’s Karol Josef Wojtyla was elected Pope John Paul II.

1982 – China announced that it had successfully fired a ballistic missile from a submarine. 

1987 – Rescuers freed Jessica McClure from the abandoned well that she had fallen into in Midland, TX. She was trapped for 58 hours.

1989 – U.S. President George H.W. Bush signed the Gramm-Rudman budget reduction law that ordered federal programs be cut by $16.1 billion.

1990 – Comedian Steve Martin and his wife Victoria Tennant visited U.S. soldiers in Saudi Arabia.

1993 – The U.N. Security Council approved the deployment of U.S. warships to enforce a blockade on Haiti to increase pressure on the controlling military leaders. 

1994 – German Chancellor Helmut Kohl was re-elected to a fourth term.

1995 – The “Million Man March” took place in Washington, DC.

1997 – Charles M. Schulz and his wife Jeannie announced that they would give $1 million toward the construction of a D-Day memorial to be placed in Virginia.

2000 – It was announced that Chevron Corp. would be buying Texaco Inc. for $35 billion. The combined company was called Chevron Texaco Corp. and became the 4th largest oil company in the world.

2002 – It was reported that North Korea had told the U.S. that it had a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of an 1994 agreement with the U.S. 

2002 – The Arthur Andersen accounting firm was sentenced to five years probation and fined $500,000 for obstructing a federeal investigation of the energy company Enron.

2008 – The iTunes Music Store reached 200 billion television episodes sold.

1815 – Napoleon Bonaparte began his exile on the remote island of St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.

1847 – “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte was first published in London.

1860 – Grace Bedell, 11 years old, wrote a letter to presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln. The letter stated that Lincoln would look better if he would grow a beard.

1883 – The U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875. It allowed for individuals and corporations to discriminate based on race. 

1892 – The U.S. government announced that the land in the western Montana was open to settlers. The 1.8 million acres were bought from the Crow Indians for 50 cents per acre. (taken)

1914 – The Clayton Antitrust Act was passed by the U.S. Congress.

1931 – “Cat and the Fiddle” opened in New York for the first of 395 performances.

1937 – “To Have and Have Not” by Ernest Hemingway was published for the first time.

1939 – New York Municipal Airport was dedicated. The name was later changed to La Guardia Airport.

1945 – Pierre Laval, the former premier of Vichy France, was executed for treason.

1946 – Hermann Goering, a Nazi war criminal and founder of the Gestapo, poisoned himself just hours before his scheduled execution.

1951 – “I Love Lucy” premiered on CBS-TV.

1953 – “Teahouse of the August Moon” opened on Broadway. It ran for 1,027 performances.

1964 – It was announced that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had been removed from power. He was replaced with Alexei N. Kosygin.

1966 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a bill creating the Department of Transportation. 

1966 – In Illinois, Cahokia Mounds was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

1966 – The First Bank of the United States was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

1973 – “Tomorrow” debuted on NBC-TV.

1983 – U.S. Marines killed five snipers who had pinned them down in Beirut International Airport.

1984 – The Freedom of Information Act was passed. 

1989 – South African officials released eight prominent political prisoners.

1989 – Wayne Gretzky, while playing for the Los Angeles Kings, surpassed Gordie Howe’s NHL scoring record of 1,850 career points.

1993 – U.S. President Clinton sent warships to enforce trade sanctions that had been imposed on Haitian military rulers.

1993 – South Africa’s President F.W. de Klerk and African National Congress President Nelson Mandela were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to end the apartheid system in South Africa.

1997 – British Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green broke the land-speed record by driving a jet-powered car faster than the speed of sound.

1997 – The Cassini-Huygens mission was launched from Cape Canaveral, FL. On January 14, 2005, a probe sent back pictures of Saturn’s moon Titan during and after landing.

1998 – The U.N. condemned the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba for the seventh year in a row.

2001 – NASA’s Galileo spacecraft passed within 112 miles of Jupiter’s moon Io.

2011 – Legoland Florida opened in Winter Haven, Florida.