1751 – The first documented performing monkey was exhibited in America. (New York City)  Admission was 1 cent.

1804 – Thomas Jefferson was nominated for US President at a Democratic-Republican caucus.

1836 – Samuel Colt was granted a United States patent for his revolver firearm.

1836 – Showman P. T. Barnum exhibited African American slave Joice Heth, claiming she was the 161 year-old nursemaid to George Washington.

1843 – Lord George Paulet occupied the Kingdom of Hawaii in the name of Great Britain in the Paulet Affair.

1862 – First Legal Tender Act 1862 was passed by the US Congress, which authorized the United States Note (greenback) into circulation, the first fiat paper money that was legal tender in America.  

1862 – Congress formed the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing to print newly issued US paper currency.

1870 – Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, was sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in Congress.

1901 – The US Steel Corporation was organized under J. P. Morgan, Sr.

1913 – The 16th Amendment to the US Constitution became law, which provided the legal basis for the institution of a graduated income tax.

1919 – Oregon began taxing gasoline, the first sate to do so.  The tax was 1 cent per gallon.

1932 – Hitler, having been stateless for seven years, obtained German citizenship when he was appointed a Brunswick state official by Dietrich Klagges, a fellow Nazi. As a result, Hitler was able to run for Reichspräsident in the 1932 election.

1933 – Launch of the USS Ranger at Newport News, Virginia. It was the first purpose-built aircraft carrier to be commissioned by the US Navy.

1939 – As part of British air raid precautions, the first of 21⁄2 million Anderson shelters was constructed in a garden in Islington, north London.

1956 – In his speech On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences, Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union, denounced Stalin.

1957 – Buddy Holly and the Crickets recorded “That’ll Be the Day”.

1963 – The Beatles released their first single in US, “Please Please Me”.

1969 – The Beatles began recording the Abbey Road album.

1982 – The final episode of “The Lawrence Welk Show” aired.

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