On this date

In state 1787, to ratify Delaware the U.S. became Constitution. the first In received 1909, chemist a U.S. patent Leo H. for Baekeland Bakelite, the first synthetic plastic. In 1917, during World War I, the United States declared war on Austria-Hungary. In 1967, the Beatles opened the Apple Boutique in London; the venture proved disastrous and the shop closed the following July. In 1972, America’s last moon mission to date was launched as Apollo 17 blasted off from Cape Canaveral.

In 1993, a gunman opened fire on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train, killing six people and wounding 19. (The shooter was later sentenced to a minimum of 200 years in prison.)

In 1995, a 746-pound probe from the Galileo spacecraft hurtled into Jupiter’s atmosphere, sending back data to the mothership before it was presumably destroyed.

Ten years ago: Congressional Democrats demanded a full Justice Department investigation into whether the CIA had obstructed justice by destroying videotapes documenting the harsh 2002 interrogations of two alleged terrorists.

Five years ago: President Barack Obama asked Congress for $60.4 billion in federal aid for New York, New Jersey and other states hit by Superstorm Sandy (lawmakers ended up passing a $50.5 billion emergency relief measure in addition to a $9.7 billion bill to replenish the National Flood Insurance Program). One year ago: Time magazine named Donald Trump its Person of the Year.