1791 – The First Bank of the U.S. at Philadelphia became the first national bank chartered by Congress.
1836 – Samuel Colt is granted a patent for the Colt revolver.
1870 – Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the U.S. Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in the U.S. Congress.
1919 – Oregon places a one cent per gallon tax on gasoline, becoming the first state to levy a gasoline tax.
1964 – Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) stunned the boxing world with a TKA of Sonny Liston, winning the world heavyweight championship.
1987 – Southern Methodist University’s football program is the first college football program to be banned from competition by the NCAA.