July 29 The U.S. Congress passes legislation to establish the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a civilian agency responsible for coordinating America’s activities in space. – 1958. Nearly one billion television viewers in 74 countries watch the marriage of Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, to Lady Diana
July 22 Outside Chicago’s Biograph Theatre, notorious criminal John Dillinger, America’s “Public Enemy No. 1,” is killed in a hail of bullets fired by federal agents. In a bank-robbing career that lasted just over one year, Dillinger and his associates robbed 11 banks for more than $300,000, which in today’s
July 15 During a live television and radio broadcast, president Richard Nixon stuns the nation by announcing that he will visit communist China the following year. The statement marked a dramatic turning point in U.S.-China relations, as well as a major shift in American foreign policy. – 1971. July 16
July 8 Paris, the capital city of France, officially celebrates turning 2,000 years old. In fact, a few more candles technically would have been required on the birthday cake, because the City of Lights was most likely founded around 250 B.C.E.. – 1951. In Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell rings out
We do not know precisely how or when the Native Americans first settled here. The theory is that people migrated from Eurasia across Beringia, a land bridge that connected Siberia to Alaska during the Last Glacial Period and then spread southward throughout the Americas over subsequent generations. Deglaciation along the
July 1 The largest military conflict in North American history begins when Union and Confederate forces collide at Gettysburg, Pa.. The epic battle lasts three days with casualties from both sides totaling approximately 51,000 soldiers. The battle results in a retreat to Virginia by Robert E. Lee’s Army of northern
June 24 U.S. Air Force officials release a 231-page report dismissing long-standing claims of an alien spacecraft crash in Roswell, N.M., almost exactly 50 years earlier. – 1997. June 25 Virginia becomes the 10th U.S. state. – 1788. Native American forces, led by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, defeat
July 17 U.S. president Harry S Truman, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and British prime minister Winston Churchill, meet in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam to discuss issues relating to postwar Europe and plans to deal with the ongoing conflict with Japan. The meeting was marked by growing suspicion and tension
June 10 Benjamin Franklin flies a kite during a thunderstorm and collects a charge in a Leyden jar when the kite is struck by lightning, to enable him to demonstrate the electrical nature of lightning. He coined a number of terms used today, including battery, conductor, and electrician and invented
June 3 One-hundred-twenty miles above the earth, Major Edward H. White II opens the hatch of the Gemini 4 and steps out of the capsule, to become the first American astronaut to walk in space. – 1965. June 4 The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to guarantee women the
May 20 The U.S. Congress passes the Homestead Act which allows adults over the age of 21, male and female, to claim 160 acres of land from the public domain. Eligible persons had to cultivate the land and improve it by building a barn or house, and live on the
May 13 The U.S. Congress overwhelmingly votes in favor of U.S. president James K. Polk’s request to declare war on Mexico in a dispute over Texas. Under the threat of war, the United States had refrained from annexing Texas after the latter won independence from Mexico in 1836. – 1846.
May 6 The airship Hindenburg, the largest dirigible ever built and the pride of Nazi Germany, bursts into flames upon touching its mooring mast in Lakehurst, N.J. and kills 36 passengers and crew members. – 1937. Works Projects Administration (WPA) established, provides work opportunities for millions during the Great Depression.
April 22 Adolf Hitler, learning from one of his generals that no German defense was offered to the Russian assault at Eberswalde, admits to all in his underground bunker that the war is lost and that suicide is his only recourse. – 1945. Earth Day, an event to increase public
April 15 The RMS Titanic, billed as unsinkable, sinks into the icy waters of the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage and kills 1,517 persons. – 1912. Jackie Robinson, age 28, becomes the first African-American player in Major League Baseball when he steps on Ebbets Field
April 8 Buddhists celebrate the commemoration of the birth of Gautama Buddha, 563 B.C. to 483 B.C., the founder of Buddhism. – 563 B.C.. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) is approved by the U.S. Congress. President Franklin Roosevelt proposed the WPA during the Great Depression of the 1930s when 25%
In medieval church art, the hare was a popular figure. It was believed by Pliny, Plutarch, and other philosophers and essayists in ancient times the hare was a hermaphrodite. The idea that a hare could reproduce without loss of virginity led to an association with the Virgin Mary. Hares occurred
April 1 English pranksters begin popularizing the annual tradition of April Fools’ Day by playing practical jokes on each other. – 1700. Eleven-day strike by 34,000 New York City transit workers begins, and halts bus and subway service in all five boroughs before strikers return to work with a 17%
March 25 The Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City burns down and kills 145 workers. The tragedy led to the development of a series of laws and regulations that better protected the safety of factory workers. – 1911. An explosion at a coal mine in Centralia, Ill. kills
March 18 In New York City, Henry Wells and William G. Fargo join with several other investors to launch their namesake business. The discovery of gold in California in 1849 prompted a huge spike in the demand for cross-country shipping. Wells and Fargo decided to take advantage of these great
