- 1789 – Congress set January 7, 1789 as the date by which states were required to choose electors for the country’s first-ever presidential election.
- 1800 – Millard Fillmore elected as the 13th President of the United States under the Whig ticket.
- 1891 – Zora Neale Hurston, author, pioneering scholar of African-American folklore, is born.
- 1892 – A massive mine explosion leaves nearly 100 dead in Krebs, Oklahoma.
- 1896 – Fannie Merrit Farmer self-publishes Boston Cooking-School Cook Book. The book’s name would later be renamed The Fannie Farmer Cookbook.
- 1905 – Nella Morton is born. She became a feminist educator, pushed for full integration for black students at the Biblical Seminary of New York, worked with mentally disabled children and developed curricular theories from 1956 to 1971
- 1927 – Harlem Globetrotters play their first game.
- 1950 – ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ is the #1 song on U.S. pop charts.
- 1953 – President Truman announces U.S. has developed hydrogen bomb.
- 1955 – Marian Anderson becomes the first African American to sing at the Metropolitan Opera.
- 1957 – Katie Couric is born.
- 1979 – Pol Pot overthrown.
- 1999 – President Clinton’s impeachment trial begins.
- 2015 – 12 people die in shooting at “Charlie Hebdo” offices.
