1487 Opening ceremony of the sixth Great Temple of Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City) 4,000 prisoners of war are sacrificed to Aztec gods over four days

1642 4 of Abel Tasman's crew killed at Wharewharangi (Murderers) Bay by Māori Tribe; Tasman's ships depart without landing in New Zealand

1675 King Philip's War: Combined colonial New England militia stake massive attack against the Great Swamp Fort, owned by the Narragansetts Peoples, totally destroying the settlement and killing or displacing hundreds of non-combatant women and children

1686 Robinson Crusoe leaves his island after 28 years (as per Daniel Defoe's famous novel)

1776 Thomas Paine publishes his first "American Crisis" essay beginning "These are the times that try men's souls"

1777 Washington settles his troops at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania for the winter

1795 1st state appropriation of money for road building, Kentucky

1823 Georgia passes 1st US state birth registration law in US

1828 Report by US Vice President John C. Calhoun defending the rights of states to nullify federal laws is presented to the South Carolina legislature but it takes no action

1842 US recognizes independence of Hawaii

1843 "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens is published, 6,000 copies sold

1854 Allen Wilson of Conn patents sewing machine to sew curving seams

1870 After 31 days at sea in a small boat, William Halford and 3 others reach the island of Kauai, Hawaii to seek help for the shipwrecked USS Saginaw. A capsize in the breakers meant only Halford survived.

1871 Albert L Jones of New York City patents corrugated paper

1889 Bishop Museum founded in Hawaii

1891 1st Negro Catholic priest ordained in US, Charles Uncles, Baltimore

1903 Williamsburg suspension bridge opens between Brooklyn and Manhattan

1907 239 workers died in a coal mine explosion in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania

1910 Rayon 1st commercially produced in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania

1918 Robert Ripley begins his "Believe It or Not" column (NY Globe)

1919 American Meteorological Society found

1928 1st autogyro flight in US

1933 US President Roosevelt creates Electric Home & Farm Authority (EHFA) to assist low income household with purchase of major appliances

1941 US Office of Censorship created to control info pertaining to WW II

1942 Robert Stroud, convicted murdered, transferred to Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, where he becomes known as "Birdman of Alcatraz"

1950 Chinese invasion of Tibet forces the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to flee Lhasa for Yadong on the Tibetan-India border

1950 General Eisenhower named NATO commander

1958 First radio broadcast from space, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends a Christmas message "to all mankind, America's wish for peace on Earth and goodwill to men everywhere"

1959 1st Liberty Bowl game-Penn State beats Alabama 7-0

1960 Fire aboard USS Constellation, under construction at Brooklyn (50 die)

1960 Mercury-Redstone 1A reaches 210 km in test flight

1972 Apollo 17 (last of Apollo Moon landing series) returns to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, southeast of Samoa

1984 Fire at Wilberg Mine in central Utah killed 27 people

1985 Mary Lund is 1st woman to receive a Jarvik VII artificial heart at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis

1988 NASA unveils plans for lunar colony & manned missions to Mars

1991 6,000th episode of One Life To Live

2007 The Lakotah people, a Native American tribe, proclaim independence and withdraw all their treaties with the United States. Establish the Republic of Lakotah, as a separate country.

2018 Drones flying over Gatwick airport, England, causes delays and cancellations for 800 flights and 110,000 people

2019 Earliest fossilized trees, 386 million years old, found at a quarry in Cairo, New York, study published in "Current Biology"