1527: First known letter was sent from North America by John Rut while at St. John's, Newfoundland.
1678: Robert LaSalle builds the Le Griffon, the first known ship built in America.
1803: Joseph Paxton is born. He is best known for having designed the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition of 1851.
1811: Elisha Graves Otis is born. he is best known for having invented that safety device that prevents modern elevators from being such death traps.
1852: First Boat Race between Yale and Harvard, the first American intercollegiate athletic event. Harvard won.1900: Firestone Tire & Rubber Company founded.
1900: Ernie Pyle, war correspondent, is born.
1923: Warren G. Harding is succeeded by Vice President Calvin Coolidge as the 30th President of the United States.1926: Tony Bennett is born.
1936: Jesse Owens wins the 100 meter dash by defeating Ralph Metcalfe at Berlin Olympics.
1940: Martin Sheen is born.
1941: Martha Stewart is born.1943: Gen. George S. Patton slaps a private at an army hospital in Sicily, accusing him of cowardice.
1948: Whittaker Chambers accuses Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union.
1949: The National Basketball Association is founded in the United States.1950: John Landis is born.
1958: The nuclear submarine USS Nautilus travels beneath the Arctic ice cap.
1972: The U.S. Senate ratifies the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.1981: In the United States, Air traffic controllers affiliated with the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization walk off the job. President Ronald Reagan ultimately responds by firing those who ignore his order to return to work.
Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.
