Also on this date
Howard University, a historically Black school of higher learning in Washington, D.C., was founded.
In 1867,
In 1867,
Congress passed, over President Andrew Johnson’s veto, the first of four Reconstruction Acts.
In 1877,
Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, even though Tilden had won the popular vote.
In 1917,
Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship as President Woodrow Wilson signed the Jones-Shafroth Act.
In 1939,
Roman Catholic Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli was elected pope on his 63rd birthday; he took the name Pius XII.
In 1962,
Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors in a game against the New York Knicks, an NBA record that still stands. (Philadelphia won, 169147.)
In 1985,
the federal government approved a screening test for AIDS that detected antibodies to the virus, allowing possibly contaminated blood to be excluded from the blood supply.
In 1989,
representatives from the 12 European Community nations agreed to ban all production of chlorofluorocarbons, the synthetic compounds blamed for destroying the Earth’s ozone layer, by the end of the 20th century.
In 1990,
more than 6,000 drivers went on strike against Greyhound Lines Inc. (Later, the company fired the strikers.)
In 1995,
the Internet search engine website Yahoo! was incorporated by founders Jerry Yang and David Filo.
The Supreme Court ruled that a grieving father’s pain over mocking protests at his Marine son’s funeral had to yield to First Amendment protections for free speech in a decision favoring the Westboro Baptist Church.
The U.N. Security Council approved the toughest sanctions against North Korea in two decades, over Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test and rocket launch.
Vice President Mike Pence said the coronavirus risk to Americans remained low, but that “we’re ready for anything.”
Associated Press