1675 – Plymouth Colony governor Josiah Winslow led a colonial militia against the Narragansett during King Philip’s War.

1795 – The French Directory, a five-man revolutionary government, was created.

1889 – North Dakota and South Dakota were admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states.

1920 – In the United States, KDKA of Pittsburgh started broadcasting as the first commercial radio station. The first broadcast was the result of the 1920 United States presidential election.

1936 – The British Broadcasting Corporation initiated the BBC Television Service, the world’s first regular, “high-definition” (then defined as at least 200 lines) service. Renamed BBC1 in 1964, the channel still runs to this day.

1947 – In California, designer Howard Hughes performed the maiden (and only) flight of the Hughes H-4 Hercules (also known as the “Spruce Goose”), the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built.

1951 – Canada in the Korean War: A platoon of The Royal Canadian Regiment defended a vital area against a full battalion of Chinese troops in the Battle of the Song-gok Spur. The engagement lasted into the early hours the next day.

1959 – Quiz show scandals: Twenty-One game show contestant Charles Van Doren admitted to a Congressional committee that he had been given questions and answers in advance.

1959 – The first section of the M1 motorway, the first inter-urban motorway in the United Kingdom, opened between the present junctions 5 and 18, along with the M10 motorway and M45 motorway.

1960 – Penguin Books was found not guilty of obscenity in the trial R v Penguin Books Ltd, the Lady Chatterley’s Lover case.

1962 – The Elvis Presley film “Girls! Girls! Girls!” premiered.

1963 – Dion stormed out of a taping of the English TV show Ready Steady Go! He complained that the go-go dancers were distracting him from his performance.

1963 – Kate Smith gave her first full concert to paying customers.

1965 – Norman Morrison, a 31-year-old Quaker, set himself on fire in front of the river entrance to the Pentagon to protest the use of napalm in the Vietnam war.

1966 – The Cuban Adjustment Act came into force and allowed 123,000 Cubans the opportunity to apply for permanent residence in the United States.

1967 – Vietnam War: US President Lyndon B. Johnson and “The Wise Men” concluded that the American people should be given more optimistic reports on the progress of the war.

1974 – George Harrison began his first tour in eight years. He was the first former Beatle to attempt a nationwide solo tour.

1978 – The Police released the debut album Outlandos d’Amour.

1979 – The movie Quadrophenia opened. The movie features Sting.

1983 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed a bill which created Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

1984 – Capital punishment: Velma Barfield became the first woman executed in the United States since 1962.

1986 – Lebanon hostage crisis: U.S. hostage David Jacobsen was released in Beirut after 17 months in captivity.

1988 – The Morris worm, the first Internet-distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, was launched from MIT.

1998 – Atlantic Records launched an online music video service, Instavid.

1999 – Honolulu shootings: In the worst mass murder in the history of Hawaii, a gunman shot at eight people in his workplace, killing seven.

2000 – Expedition 1 arrived at the International Space Station for the first long-duration stay onboard. From this day to present, a continuous human presence in space on the station remains uninterrupted.

2003 – Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs ran in the New York City Marathon. He finished in 4 hours, 14 minutes and 54 seconds. He raised $2 million dollars for children.

2008 – Lewis Hamilton secured his maiden Formula One Drivers’ Championship Title by one point ahead of Felipe Massa at the Brazilian Grand Prix, after a pass for fifth place against the Toyota of Timo Glock on the final lap of the race.

2016 – The Chicago Cubs defeated the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, which ended the longest Major League Baseball championship drought at 108 years.

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