On this date

In 1777,

the people of New Connecticut declared their independence. (The republic later became the state of Vermont.)

In 1892,

the original rules of basketball, devised by James Naismith, were published for the first time in Springfield, Mass., where the game originated.

In 1943,

work was completed on the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of War (now Defense).

In 1947,

the mutilated remains of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short, who came to be known as the “Black Dahlia,” were found in a vacant Los Angeles lot; her murder remains unsolved.

In 1967,

the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League 35-10 in the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game, retroactively known as Super Bowl I.

In 1978,

two students at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman, were slain in their sorority house. (Ted Bundy was later convicted of the crime, and executed.)

In 2009,

US Airways Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger ditched his Airbus 320 in the Hudson River after a flock of birds disabled both engines; all 155 people aboard survived.

Ten years ago:

During a visit to Saudi Arabia, President George W. Bush warned that surging oil prices threatened the U.S. economy and urged OPEC nations to boost their output.

Five years ago:

New York state enacted the nation’s toughest gun restrictions and the first since the Newtown, Conn., school massacre, including an expanded assaultweapon ban and background checks for buying ammunition.

One year ago:

In his final interview as president, Barack Obama told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that the increase of Israeli settlements had “gotten so substantial” that it was inhibiting the possibility of an “effective, contiguous Palestinian state.”