This Day in History

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1643: The first legal divorce in the American colonies takes place (more info) 1925: Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first female governor in the United States (more info)

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1870: The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begins (more info) 1938: The March of Dimes is established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (more info)

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1879: Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time (more info) 1907: The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square -- then known as Longacre Square -- in New York City (more info)

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1807: At the urging of President Thomas Jefferson, Congress passes the Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries (more info) 1941: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Washington, D.C., for a series of meetings with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on a unified Anglo-American war strat

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1620: William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts (more info) 1898: Pierre and Marie Curie discover radium (more info)

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1803: The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans (more info) 1860: South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the United States (more info)

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1776: Thomas Paine publishes one of a series of pamphlets in the Pennsylvania Journal titled 'The American Crisis' (more info) 1777: George Washington's Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania (more info)

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1903: Near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright make history's first successful flight in a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft (more info) 1944: The U.S. Army announces the end of its policy of holding Japanese-Americans in internment camps, allowing "evacuees" to return home (more in

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1799: President George Washington dies at the age of 67 (more info) 1903: The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina (more info)

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1577: Sir Francis Drake sets out from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage (more info) 1862: At the Battle of Fredericksburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee defeats the Union Major General Ambrose E. Burnside in a decisive loss for the Union army (more info)

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1901: Italian physicist and radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi succeeds in sending the first radio transmission across the Atlantic Ocean (more info) 1913: Two years after it was stolen from the Louvre museum in Paris, Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece 'The Mona Lisa' is recovered inside Italian waiter Vincenzo Peruggia's

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1941: Following the American declaration of war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Germany and Italy declare war on the United States (more info) 1946: The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is established (more info)