On this day...

2016 -BC- Origin of Era of Abraham 331 -BC- Alexander the Great of Macedon defeats Persian army at Gaugamela 110 -BC- Origin of Sidonian Era 366 St Damasus I begins his reign as Catholic Pope 1661 Yachting begins in England; King Charles II beats his brother James 1791 1st session of the new French legislative assembly 1800 Spain cedes Louisiana to France in a secret treaty 1837 "Racer's" Hurricane (Gulf of Mexico) 1837 Treaty with Winnebago Indians 1847 Maria Mitchell discovers a non-naked-eye comet 1851 1st Hawaiian stamps issued 1869 1st postcards are issued (Vienna) 1879 Cincinnati Enquirer publishes 1st report on baseball reserve clause 1885 Special delivery mail service begins in US 1886 US mint at Carson City, Nevada closes 1889 Washington voters adopt state constitution in referendum 1890 Yosemite National Park established 1893 3rd worst hurricane in US history kills 1,800 (Mississippi) 1894 Civic organization, Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben founded in Omaha, Nebraska 1896 Sherlock Holmes adventure "The Veiled Lodger" takes place (BG) 1898 Henry Huntington buys the LA Railway 1898 Jews are expelled from Kiev Russia 1903 1st baseball World Series, Pitts Pirates vs Boston Pilgrims (Red Sox) 1908 Henry Ford introduces the Model T car (costs $825) 1908 Jack Chesbro's final Yankee victory, beats Walter Johnson 2-1 1910 Berkshire Cattle Fair held in Pittsfield Mass (1st state fair) 1912 Yanks lose game #100 en route to a 50-102 season 1919 World Series #16 begins as a best of 9 affair, White Sox intentionally throw this series to satisfy gamblers (The Black Sox Scandal) 1921 1st all NY series to be played entirely in 1 stadium (the Polo Grounds) & 1st NY Yankee World Series begins (World Series #18) 1922 Former Chicago Staleys play 1st NFL game as Chicago Bears, win 6-0 1928 Leon Vanderstuyft of Belgium bicycled 76 miles 504 yards in 1 hour 1932 Babe Ruth's points & hits a HR there, off of Cubs Charlie Root 1932 NHL readmits Ottawa & drops Pittsburgh 1933 Packers make 5 1st downs, the Giants make 0, but still win 10-7 1933 Wash Senator coach Nick Altrock plays in a game at age 57 1936 Gen Francisco Franco establishes the state of Spain 1937 Pullman Co formally recognizes Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters 1938 Germany annexes Sudetenland (1/3 of Czechoslovakia) 1939 Winston Chruchill refers to Soviet policy as "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma" 1940 Pennsylvania Turnpike, pioneer toll thruway, opens 1942 Bell P-59 Airacomet fighter, 1st US jet, makes maiden flight 1943 Allied forces captured Naples during WW II 1944 Newspaper editor Alejandro C¢rdova assassinated in Guatemala 1944 St Louis Browns win their only AL pennant 1945 Heavyweight champ Joe Louis is discharged from the army 1946 1st NL playoffs, Dodgers vs Cards (St Louis wins 2 games to 0) 1946 Bob Feller 348th strikeout of the season 1947 1st helicopter air mail & express service, LA, Ca 1947 NHL Pension Society founded 1947 US control of Haitian customs & governmental revenue ends 1948 Calif Supreme Court voids state statute banning interracial marriages 1948 Radio Denmark begins transmitting 1949 People's Republic of China proclaimed by Mao Tse-tung (National Day) 1949 Republic of China (Taiwan) forms on the island of Formosa 1950 Phillies win NL pennant on last day of season (10th inning HR) 1951 1st treaty signed by woman ambassador-Eugenie Anderson 1951 24th Infantry Regiment, last all-black military unit, deactivated 1952 1st ultra high frequency (UHF) television station, Portland Or 1953 Indian state of Andhra Pradesh partitioned from Madras 1954 British colony of Nigeria becomes a federation 1955 "Honeymooners" premieres 1956 Johnny Heckmann rides 7 winners at Chicago Hawthorne Horse track 1957 B-52 bombers begin full-time flying alert in case of USSR attack 1958 Britain transfers Christmas Island (south of Java) to Australia 1958 Inauguration of NASA 1958 Vanguard Project transferred from military to NASA 1959 1st World Series (World Series #56) since 1948 not to feature a NY team (LA vs Chic) 1960 Nigeria gains independence from Britain (National Day) 1961 A believed extinct volcanco erupts in Tristan da Cunha 1961 East & West Cameroon merge as Federal Republic of Cameroon 1961 Roger Maris sets record of 61 HRs, last off of Tracy Stallard 1962 Barbra Streisand signs her 1st recording contract (with Columbia) 1962 Brian Epstein signs a contract to manage the Beatles through 1977 1962 James Meredith became 1st black at U of Mississippi 1962 Johnny Carson hosts his 1st Tonight Show, Joan Crawford guests 1962 The Lucy Show premiers 1962 US National Radio Astronomy Obs gets a 300' (91m) radio telescope 1963 Nigeria becomes a republic within the Commonwealth 1964 Free Speech Movement launched at U of California, Berkley 1964 SF cable cars declared a national landmark 1968 "Night of the Living Dead" premieres in Pittsburgh 1969 Guernsey & Jersey begin issuing their own postage stamps 1970 Last game at Philadelphia's Connie Mack Stadium, Phils-2 Expos-1 1971 Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida opens 1972 1st games of the World Hockey Association 1973 Leo Durocher resigns as Houston Astro manager 1975 Britain grants internal self-government to Seychelles 1975 Ellice Islands split from Gilbert Islands, take name "Tuvalu" 1975 Reunion Island stops prints stamps, France takes over production 1977 Brazilian soccer great Pele' retires with 1,281 goals in 1,363 games 1977 Yanks win 2nd consecutive AL East title 1978 Tuvalu (Ellice Islands) gains independence from Britain 1978 Yanks lose 9-2 to Indians forcing a playoff game with Red Sox 1979 US returns Canal Zone to Panama after 75 years (but not the canal) 1980 Cosmonauts Ryumin & Popov break space endurance record of 176 days 1982 EPCOT Center opens in Orlando Florida 1982 West Germany's Parliament ousts chancellor Helmut Schmidt 1984 Gary Trudeau's Doonesbury comic strip resumes after 2-year hiatus 1984 Peter Ueberroth replaces Bowie Kuhn as 6th commissioner of baseball 1986 President Carter's presidential library/museum dedicated in Atlanta 1987 6 killed by an earthquake measuring 6.1 in LA 1988 Lowest batting avg for NL champion (Tony Gwynn .313) 1988 Robert Englund the actor who plays Freddie Kruger weds Nancy Booth 1989 Dallas Cowboy, Ed "Too Tall" Jones records his 1,000th NFL tackle 1989 Thousands of East Germans flee to West Germany 1989 US issues a stamp, labeling an apatosaurus as a brontosaurus 1990 Pres Bush at the UN, condemns Iraq's takeover of Kuwait 1991 Howard Stern adds Baltimore to his radio network (WJFK-AM)