1607 – Jamestown, Virginia was settled as an English colony.

1610 – Henry IV of France was assassinated by Catholic zealot François Ravaillac, and Louis XIII ascended to the throne.

1643 – Four-year-old Louis XIV became King of France upon the death of his father, Louis XIII.

1796 – Edward Jenner administered the first smallpox inoculation.

1800 – The 6th United States Congress recessed, and the process of moving the U.S. Government from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., began the following day.

1804 – William Clark and 42 men departed from Camp Dubois to join Meriwether Lewis at St. Charles, Missouri, marking the beginning of the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s historic journey up the Missouri River.

1842 – Illustrated London News; the world’s first illustrated weekly newspaper, began publication.

1878 – The last witchcraft trial held in the United States began in Salem, Massachusetts, after Lucretia Brown, an adherent of Christian Science, accused Daniel Spofford of attempting to harm her through his mental powers.

1925 – Virginia Woolf’s novel “Mrs Dalloway” was published by The Hogarth Press.

1927 – “Ain’t She Sweet?” hit #1 on the singles chart by Ben Bernie.

1938 – “The Adventures of Robin Hood”, directed by Michael Curtiz, William Keighley and starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland was released.

1939 – Lina Medina became the youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five.

1942 – US Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was formed.

1944 – Nazi General Erwin Rommel, Speidel & von Stulpnagel attempted to assassinate Adolph Hitler.

1945 – Physician Joseph G. Hamilton injected misdiagnosed cancer patient Albert Stevens (CAL-1) with 131 kBq (3.55 µCi) of plutonium without his knowledge. Stevens lived another 20 years, surviving the highest known accumulated radiation dose in any human.

1961 – Civil rights movement: A white mob twice attacked a Freedom Riders bus near Anniston, Alabama, before fire-bombing the bus and attacking the civil rights protesters who fled the burning vehicle.

1967 – New York Yankee Mickey Mantle hit career HR #500 off Baltimore Oriole’s Stu Miller.

1968 – The Beatles announced formation of their own record label, Apple Corp.

1969 – Chevrolet built its last Corvair.

1973 – Skylab, the United States’ first space station, was launched.

1986 – Netherlands Institute for War Documentation published Anne Frank’s complete diary.

1988 – Carrollton bus collision: A drunk driver traveling the wrong way on Interstate 71 near Carrollton, Kentucky hit a converted school bus carrying a church youth group. Twenty-seven died in the crash and ensuing fire.

1989 – The final TV episode of “Family Ties” aired on NBC with a an audience of 36 million.

1998 – Seinfeld’s final 2-part episode “The Finale” aired on NBC to 76.3M viewers (commercials priced at $2M for 30 seconds)

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