Today in history

1636 Harvard College was founded in Massachusetts. The original name was Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was the first school of higher education in America.

1776 The Battle of White Plains took place during the American Revolutionary War.

1793 Eli Whitney applied for a patent for his cotton gin. 1886 The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbor by U.S. President Cleveland. The statue weighs 225 tons and is 152 feet tall. It was originally known as “Liberty Enlightening the World.”

1904 The St. Louis Police Department became the first to use fingerprinting.

1919 The U.S. Congress enacted the Volstead Act, also known as the National Prohibition Act. Prohibition was repealed in 1933 with the passing of the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 1936 The Statue of Liberty was rededicated by U.S. President Roosevelt on its 50th anniversary. 1965 The Gateway Arch along the waterfront in St. Louis, MO, was completed.

1976 John D. Erlichman, a former aide to U.S. President Richard Nixon, entered a federal prison camp in Safford, AZ, to begin serving his sentence for Watergate-related convictions.

1983 The U.S. vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution “deeply deploring” the ongoing U.S.-led invasion of Grenada.

1986 The centennial of the Statue of Liberty was celebrated in New York.

1990 Iraq announced that it was halting gasoline rationing.

1994 U.S. President Clinton visited Kuwait and implied that all the troops there would be home by Christmas.