On March 4th...

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1193 Saladin, the conqueror of Jerusalem, died.

1628 King Charles I of England granted a royal charter to Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1681 William Penn received grant of Pennsylvania.

1745 Casimir Pulaski, Polish cavalry officer who aided America's fight for independence, was born.

1776 Americans captured Dorchester Heights, giving them control of the port of Boston, Massachusetts.

1789 The U. S. Constitution was declared in effect.

1791 Vermont was admitted as the 14th state.
1791 The first Jewish member of the U. S. Congress, Israel Jacobs (Pennsylvania), took office.

1801 Thomas Jefferson became the first U. S. President to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C.

1826 Granite Railway of Quincy, Massachusetts, became the first railroad chartered in the United States.

1837 The City of Chicago, Illinois, was incorporated.

1858 Matthew C. Perry, American naval officer who opened Japan to world trade, died.

1863 The Territory of Idaho was organized.

1877 Inventor Garrett Morgan was born.

1812 Alexander Hamilton Stephens, U. S. Congressman and Vice-President of the Confederate States of America, died.

1888 Football coach Knute Rockne was born.

1895 Comic actor Shemp Howard was born.

1902 The American Automobile Association was founded in Chicago.

1908 Redfield Proctor, U. S. Secretary of War and Senator, died.

1913 The Department of Commerce and Labor was divided by Congress into separate departments of Commerce and Labor.

1921 Hot Springs National Park was created.
1921 The U.S . Congress approved the burial of an unidentified American soldier from World War I in the plaza of the new Arlington Memorial Amphitheater.

1923 U. S. Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall resigned after it was discovered he had accepted bribes to lease oil reserves at Teapot Dome to private citizens.

1924 "Happy Birthday To You" was published by Claydon Sunny.

1930 Coolidge Dam was dedicated.

1933 Frances Perkins became the first woman to hold a Cabinet position in the United States (Secretary of Labor).
1933 Bertha Wilson was appointed as the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada.

1966 John Lennon said "We (Beatles) are more popular than Jesus."

1977 The first CRAY 1 supercomputer was shipped, to Los Alamos Laboratories in New Mexico.

1978 The Chicago Daily News published its last issue.

1993 Albert Bruce Sabin, developer of the oral polio vaccine, died.

1994 Actor John Candy died.

1999 U. S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun died.

1999 Former U. S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Andrew Blackmun died.

2007 U. S. Senator Thomas Eagleton died.

2008 Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, died.

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This page was last updated on July 15, 2018.