1778 – The Continental Congress passes the first United States federal budget.
1796 – George Washington’s Farewell Address is printed across America as an open letter to the public.
1881 – President James A. Garfield died of wounds inflicted by an assassin more than two months earlier. Vice President Chester A. Arthur becomes President upon Garfield’s death.
1982 – Emoticons were born when Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott Fahlman proposed using a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis – 🙂 – to depict a horizontal smiley face.
1985 – Tipper Gore and other political wives form the Parents Music Resource Center as Frank Zappa and other musicians testify at Congressional hearings on obscenity in rock music.
1995 – The Washington Post and The New York Times publish the Unabomber’s manifesto.
2008 – The Bush administration asked Congress for $700 billion to buy up troubled mortgage-related assets from U.S. financial institutions.
