1513 – Explorer Juan Ponce de León claimed Florida for Spain as the first known European to reach Florida.
1792 – The Coinage Act was passed which established the United States Mint and authorized the $10 Eagle, $5 half-Eagle & 2.50 quarter-Eagle gold coins & silver dollar, ½ dollar, quarter, dime & half-dime.
1800 – First performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s 1st Symphony in C.
1827 – US inventor Joseph Dixon of Salem, Massachusetts, began manufacturing lead pencils.
1865 – Confederate President Jefferson Davis fled Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia (US Civil War)
1872 – US engineer George Brayton patented an internal combustion engine (Brayton Cycle)
1877 – First Easter egg roll held on White House lawn
1877 – First human cannonball act performed by 14-year-old Rossa Matilda Richter known as Zazel at the Royal Aquarium in London
1902 – “Electric Theatre”, the first full-time movie theater in the United States, opened in Los Angeles, California.
1917 – US President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany.
1921 – Albert Einstein lectured in New York City on his new “Theory of Relativity.”
1932 – Charles Lindbergh turned over $50,000 as ransom for his kidnapped son.
1935 – Scottish physicist Robert Watson-Watt received a British patent for RADAR.
1954 – Plans to build Disneyland were first announced.
1977 – Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” album went to #1 and stayed #1 for 31 weeks.
1978 – Velcro was first put on the market.
1992 – Mafia boss John Gotti was found guilty of 5 murders (Paul Castellano, Thomas Bilotti, Robert DiBernardo, Liborio Milito and Louis Dibono), plus conspiracy to murder, loansharking, illegal gambling, obstruction of justice, bribery and tax evasion.
2010 – Basketball superstar Kobe Bryant signed a three-year contract extension with the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers worth $87 million.
2020 – Number of COVID-19 cases worldwide passed 1 million, with 1,002,159 cases and 51,485 deaths reported, according to Johns Hopkins University.
2020 – Record 6.6 million Americans filed claims for unemployment in last week according to the US Department of Labor, 10 million over 2 weeks.