868 – A copy of the Diamond Sutra was printed in China, making it the oldest known dated printed book.

1792 – Robert Gray commanded the first expedition to sail into the Columbia River.

1846 – President James K. Polk asked for a Declaration of War against Mexico, and started the Mexican–American War.

1858 – Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd state of the United States.

1864 – Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart was mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern.

1880 – Seven people were killed in the Mussel Slough Tragedy, a gun battle in California.

1889 – An attack upon a U.S. Army paymaster and escort resulted in the theft of over $28,000 and the award of two Medals of Honor.

1894 – Four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers went on a wildcat strike.

1910 – An act of the U.S. Congress established Glacier National Park in Montana.

1927 – Louis B. Mayer formed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

1928 – General Electric opened the first TV station (Schenectady, NY).

1929 – First regularly scheduled TV broadcasts began (3 nights per week).

1943 – World War II: American troops invaded Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.

1945 – World War II: Off the coast of Okinawa, the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill was hit by two kamikazes.

1947 – BF Goodrich announced the development of the tubeless tire (Akron Ohio).

1956 – Elvis Presley’s first entry on UK charts with “Heartbreak Hotel”.

1963 – Racist bombings in Birmingham, Alabama, disrupted nonviolence in the Birmingham campaign and precipitated a crisis involving federal troops.

1963 – “Puff (The Magic Dragon)” by Peter, Paul & Mary hit #2 in the charts.

1965 – Ellis Island was added to Statue of Liberty National monument.

1967 – 100,000,000th US phone was connected.

1968 – Richard Harris released “MacArthur Park”.  Harris played Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films.

1970 – The 1970 Lubbock tornado killed 26 and caused $250 million in damage.

1970 – “The Long and Winding Road” was the Beatles’ last American single release.

1972 – John Lennon said his phone was tapped by FBI on “The Dick Cavett Show”.

1973 – Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg’s charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times were dismissed.

1974 – Steely Dan released “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”.

1981 – Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Cats” (based on poetry by T. S. Eliot) directed by Trevor Nunn, first premiered in the West End, London.

1985 – Madonna’s “Crazy For You” single reached #1.

1987 – Klaus Barbie went on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II.

1996 – After the aircraft’s departure from Miami, a fire started by improperly handled chemical oxygen generators in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Airlines Flight 592 caused the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 on board.

1997 – Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeated Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format.

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