1790 – The capital city of the U.S. moved to Philadelphia from New York City.

1807 – Robert Fulton’s “North River Steam Boat” (known as the “Clermont”) began heading up New York’s Hudson River on its successful round-trip to Albany.

1815 – Napoleon began serving his exile when he arrived at the island of St. Helena.

1859 – A hot air balloon was used to carry mail for the first time. John Wise left Lafayette, IN, for New York City with 100 letters. He had to land after only 27 miles.

1863 – Federal batteries and ships bombarded Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC, harbor during the Civil War.

1894 – John Wadsworth of Louisville set a major league record when he gave up 28 base hits in a single game.

1896 – The Klondike gold rush was set off by George Carmack discovering gold on Rabbit Creek in Alaska.

1903 – Joseph Pulitzer donated a million dollars to Columbia University. This started the Pulitzer Prizes in his name.

1915 – Charles F. Kettering received a patent for the first electric ignition device.

1939 – The movie “Wizard of Oz” premiered in New York. It had premiered in Hollywood on August 15.

1943 – The Allied conquest of Sicily was completed as U.S. and British forces entered Messina.

1945 – The nationalists of Indonesia declared their independence from the Netherlands.

1961 – The Communist East German government completed the construction of the Berlin Wall.

1973 – Lee Trevino got the first hole in one of his career at the U.S.I. Golf Classic, in Sutton, MA.

1977 – Florists Transworld Delivery (FTD) reported that in one day the number of orders for flowers to be delivered to Graceland had surpassed the number for any other event in the company’s history.

1978 – Maxie Anderson, Ben Abruzzo and Larry Newman became the first to land after a successful trans-Atlantic balloon flight. The voyage began in Presque Isle, ME and ended in Miserey, France.

1982 – The U.S. Senate approved an immigration bill that granted permanent resident status to illegal aliens who had arrived in the United States before 

1985 – A year-long strike began when 1,400 Geo. A. Hormel and Co. meat packers walked off the job.

1987 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 2,700 for the first time.

1996 – A military cargo plane crashed in Wyoming killing eight crewmembers and a Secret Service employee. The plane was carrying gear for U.S. President Clinton.

1996 – Ross Perot was announced to be the Reform Party’s presidential candidate. It was the party’s first-ever candidate.

1998 – NationsBank and BankAmerica merge to create the largest U.S. bank.

1998 – Russia devalued the ruble.

2002 – In Santa Rosa, CA, the Charles M. Schulz Museum opened to the public.

During the War of 1812, American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit and his army to the British without a fight. Hull, a 59-year-old veteran of the American Revolution, had lost hope of defending the settlement after seeing the large English and Indian force gathering outside Detroit’s walls. The general was also preoccupied with the presence of his daughter and grandchildren inside the fort.

Of Hull’s 2,000-man army, most were militiamen, and British General Isaac Brock allowed them to return to their homes on the frontier. The regular U.S. Army troops were taken as prisoners to Canada. With the capture of Fort Detroit, Michigan Territory was declared a part of Great Britain and Shawnee chief Tecumseh was able to increase his raids against American positions in the frontier area. Hull’s surrender was a severe blow to American morale. In September 1813, U.S. General William Henry Harrison, the future president, recaptured Detroit.

In 1814, William Hull was court-martialed for cowardice and neglect of duty in surrendering the fort, and sentenced to die. Because of his service in the revolution, however, President James Madison remitted the sentence.

Source: history.com

1777 – During the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Bennington took place. New England’s minutemen routed the British regulars.

1812 – Detroit fell to Indian and British troops in the War of 1812.

1829 – The “Siamese twins,” Chang and Eng Bunker, arrived in Boston, MA. They had come to the Western world to be exhibited. They were 18 years old and joined at the waist.

1842 – In New York City, the U.S. government took over operations of the City Despatch Post. This was the first congressionally authorized local postage delivery. 

1858 – A telegraphed message from Britain’s Queen Victoria to U.S. President Buchanan was transmitted over the recently laid trans-Atlantic cable.

1861 – U.S. President Lincoln prohibited the Union states from trading with the states of the Confederacy. 

1923 – Carnegie Steel Corporation put into place the eight-hour workday for its employees.

1930 – The first British Empire Games were held at Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The event is now called the British Commonwealth Games.

1937 – Harvard University became the first school to have graduate courses in traffic engineering and administration.

1954 – Sports Illustrated was published for the first time. It was claimed that 250,000 subscriptions had been sold before the first issue came off of the presses.

1954 – Jack Paar replaced Walter Cronkite as host of “The Morning Show” on CBS-TV.

1960 – Cyprus was granted independence by Britain.

1960 – The free-fall world record was set by Joseph Kittinger. He fell more than 16 miles (about 84,000 feet) before opening his parachute over New Mexico.

1978 – Xerox was fined for excluding Smith-Corona Mfg. from the copier market. The fine was $25.6 million.

1984 – The U.S. Jaycees voted to admit women to full membership in the organization.

1995 – Voters in Bermuda rejected independence from Great Britain.

1999 – In Russia, Vladimir V. Putin was confirmed as prime minister by the lower house of parliament.

Gun violence in the United States is a public health crisis.

It goes beyond the mass shootings that grab the nation’s attention. Every day, gun violence takes lives from communities all across the country in the form of suicides, unintentional shootings, and interpersonal conflicts that become fatal due to easy access to guns.

In this country, an average of 35,000 people are killed with guns every year—96 each day.

Yet this violence is not inevitable. Every other developed nation in the world does a better job of protecting its people from gun violence. The gun murder rate in the United States is 25 times higher than it is in peer nations; and American teenagers are 82 times more likely to die from a gun homicide than their international peers.

There is no single, simple solution to reducing gun violence in this country. However, there are a number of common-sense steps that would be a great place to start—steps that could be taken right now.

• Ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines
• Enable the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to research gun violence as a public health issue
• Require background checks for all gun sales
• Support local violence prevention and intervention programs
• Disarm all domestic abusers
• Make extreme risk protection orders available in every state

Make Extreme Risk Protection Orders Available in Every State

Extreme risk protection orders provide a crucial tool for family members and law enforcement to intervene and prevent a tragic shooting.

FACT SHEET

Disarm All Domestic Abusers

Guns in the hands of domestic abusers pose an extreme risk to victims of abuse.

FACT SHEET

Support Local Violence Prevention and Intervention Programs

A comprehensive approach to reducing gun violence must include support for evidence-based violence intervention programs that engage all community stakeholders.

FACT SHEET

Require Background Checks for All Gun Sales

A glaring gap in the federal law allows individuals to buy a gun without a background check and with no questions asked.

FACT SHEET

Enable the CDC to Research Gun Violence as a Public Health Issue

Two decades of restrictions on public health research into gun violence has left us willfully ignorant about the full scope of this problem and the most effective interventions to prevent it.

FACT SHEET

Ban Assault Weapons and High-Capacity Ammunition Magazines

Weapons of war should have no place in our communities.

FACT SHEET

1057 – Macbeth, the King of Scotland, was killed by the son of King Duncan.

1848 – The dental chair was patented by M. Waldo Hanchett.

1877 – Thomas Edison wrote to the president of the Telegraph Company in Pittsburgh, PA. The letter stated that the word, “hello” would be a more appropriate greeting than “ahoy” when answering the telephone.

1911 – The product Crisco was introduced by Procter & Gamble Company.

1914 – The Panama Canal was officially opened to commercial traffic as an American ship sailed from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The first vessel to pass through the canal was the American cargo and passenger ship SS Ancon.

1918 – Diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Russia were severed. 

1935 – Will Rogers and Wiley Post were killed in an airplane crash in near Point Barrow, AK.

1939 – “The Wizard of Oz” premiered in Hollywood, CA. Judy Garland became famous for the movie’s song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

1943 – Because of his special talent to use food scraps in both unusual and appetizing recipes, the U.S. War Department awarded Sgt. Edward Dzuba the Legion of Merit.

1944 – The Allied forces of World War II landed in southern France.

1945 – The Allies proclaimed V-J Day a day after Japan agreed to surrender unconditionally.

1947 – India became independent from Britain and was divided into the countries of India and Pakistan. India had been under British about 200 years.

1948 – The Republic of Korea was proclaimed.

1948 – CBS-TV inaugurated the first nightly news broadcast with anchorman Douglas Edwards.

1949 – In San Francisco, a stunt leap off the Golden Gate Bridge was performed for the first time.

1961 – East German workers began construction of the Berlin Wall.

1970 – Mrs. Pat Palinkas became the first woman to ‘play’ in a pro football game when she held the ball for the Orlando, FL, Panthers.

1971 – U.S. President Nixon announced a 90-day freeze on wages, rents and prices. 

1983 – Six-month-old Lisa Harap of Queens Village, NY became the youngest identifiable living person to appear on a cover of “TIME” magazine.

1986 – The U.S. Senate approved a package of economic sanctions against South Africa. The ban included the importing of steel, uranium, textiles, coal, and produce from South Africa.

1992 – Vietnam blamed Hollywood for creating the “myth” concerning the issue of U.S. servicemen still being held prisoner in Indochina.

1994 – The U.S. Social Security Administration became an independent government agency. It had been a part of the Department of Health and Human Services agency. 

1997 – The U.S. Justice Department decided not to prosecute FBI officials in connection with the deadly 1992 Ruby Ridge siege in Idaho. The investigation dealt with an alleged cover-up. 

2000 – A group of 100 people from North Korea arrived in South Korea for temporary reunions with relatives they had not seen for half a century. Also, a group of 100 South Koreans visited the North.

2001 – Astronomers announced the discovery of the first solar system outside our own. They had discovered two planets orbiting a star in the Big Dipper. 

2011 – Google announced that it would acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.