On This Day

1776 – The Continental Congress officially names its new union of sovereign states the United States. 1791 – Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, is named after President George Washington. 1850 – California is admitted as the thirty-first U.S. state. 1850 – The Compromise of 1850 transfers a third of Texas’ claimed...
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1504 – Michelangelo’s David is unveiled in Florence. 1888 – In London, the body of Jack the Ripper’s second murder victim, Annie Chapman, is found. 1892 – The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited. 1926 – Germany is admitted to the League of Nations. 1930 – 3M begins marketing Scotch transparent tape. 1935 –...
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1776 – World’s first submarine attack: the American submersible craft Turtle attempts to attach a time bomb to the hull of British Admiral Richard Howe’s flagship HMS Eagle in New York Harbor. 1864 – American Civil War: Atlanta, Georgia, is evacuated on orders of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman. 1876 – In Northfield, Minnesota,...
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1492 – Christopher Columbus sails from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, his final port of call before crossing the Atlantic for the first time. 1522 – The Victoria, the only surviving ship of Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition, returns to Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the world. 1628 –...
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On September 5, 1698 – Russia’s Peter the Great imposed a tax on beards. On September 5, 1774 – The first session of the U.S. Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia. The delegates drafted a declaration of rights and grievances, organized the Continental Association, and elected Peyton Randolph as the first president of the Continental...
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1781 – Los Angeles, California, is founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porziuncola) by 44 Spanish settlers. 1884 – The United Kingdom ends its policy of penal transportation to New South Wales in Australia. 1886...
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1189 – Richard I of England (a.k.a. Richard “the Lionheart”) is crowned at Westminster. 1777 – American Revolutionary War: during the Battle of Cooch’s Bridge, the Flag of the United States is flown in battle for the first time. 1783 – American Revolutionary War: the war ends with the signing of the Treaty of...
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44 BC – Pharaoh Cleopatra VII of Egypt declares her son co-ruler as Ptolemy XV Caesarion. 1666 – The Great Fire of London breaks out and burns for three days, destroying 10,000 buildings including St Paul’s Cathedral. 1752 – Great Britain adopts the Gregorian calendar, nearly two centuries later than most of Western Europe....
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1804 – Juno, one of the largest main belt asteroids, is discovered by German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding. 1836 – Narcissa Whitman, one of the first English-speaking white women to settle west of the Rocky Mountains, arrives at Walla Walla, Washington. 1875 – A murder conviction effectively forces the violent Pennsylvanian Irish anti-owner coal...
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1813 – Creek War – Fort Mims massacre: Creek “Red Sticks” kill over 500 settlers (including over 250 armed militia) in Fort Mims, north of Mobile, Alabama. 1835 – Melbourne, Australia is founded. 1836 – The city of Houston is founded by Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen 1909 – Burgess Shale fossils...
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