On this day in 1785, President George Washington appointed Thomas Jefferson as Minister to France, who stepped in for an aged Benjamin Franklin. When someone mentioned that he was Franklin’s […]

On this day in 1841, the U.S. Supreme Court exonerated 35 Africans who had seized control of the Amistad, a Spanish slave ship headed to Cuba. The incident occurred two […]

On this day in 1917, riots and demonstrations erupted in the city of Petrograd, now called St. Petersburg. The February Revolution, so named because Russia observed the Julian calendar at […]

On this day in 1876, Patent Number 174,465 was awarded to Alexander Graham Bell for a device that would electrically transmit sound. Bell’s application to the U.S. Patent Office, made […]

On this day in 1475, Michelangelo was born in Caprese, Italy, near Florence. His father, a member of the declining Buonarroti family, ridiculed his son’s artistic pursuits, believing they were […]

On this day in 1962, George C. Scott refused a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role of a shady gambler in The Hustler. When he learned that he had […]

On this day in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt took the oath of office to become the  32nd  president of the United States. With unemployment during the election year at over […]

On this day in 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed congressional legislation to make The Star Spangled Banner the official national anthem of the United States. Though this patriotic tune had […]

On this day in 1972, NASA launched Pioneer 10 from Cape Canaveral, its primary mission to gather information on the planet Jupiter. Carried on a three-stage Atlas-Centaur rocket, the nine-foot […]

On this day in 1790, Congress authorized the first official U.S. census. Five months later, under the authority of Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, 17 federal marshals, aided by 200 […]