What Happened On This Day In History?

1848

The California Gold Rush kicks off when James Marshall, a construction worker, discovers a gold nugget at Sutter's Mill, in northern California.

1908

The first Boy Scout troop was organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell.

1922

Christian K. Nelson of Onawa, Iowa, patented the Eskimo Pie.

1924

The Russian city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad in honor of the late revolutionary leader. The name has since been changed back to St. Petersburg.

1935

The first canned beer is sold by the Krueger Brewing Company in Richmond, Virginia.

1942

A special court of inquiry into America's lack of preparedness for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor placed much of the blame on Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and Lieutenant General Walter C. Short, the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army commanders.

1943

President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco.

1961

Hollywood screen star Marilyn Monroe divorces her husband of five years, playwright Arthur Miller.

1964

The first "Sports Illustrated" swimsuit issue was published.

1972

The Supreme Court struck down laws that denied welfare benefits to people who had resided in a state for less than a year.

1978

A nuclear-powered Soviet satellite plunged through Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over parts of northern Canada.

1985

In Portland, Oregon, Penny Harrington becomes the first female police chief of a major American city.

1986

The Voyager 2 space probe swept past Uranus, coming within 50,679 miles of the seventh planet of the solar system.

1987

Gunmen in Lebanon kidnapped educators Alann Steen, Jesse Turner, Robert Polhill and Mitheleshwar Singh. All were later released.

1989

Confessed serial killer Ted Bundy was put to death in Florida's electric chair for the 1978 kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach.

1995

The prosecution gave its opening statement at the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

2000

The eventual major party nominees for president - Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore - posted victories in the Iowa caucuses.

2003

The new U.S. Department of Homeland Security officially opened and its head, former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, was sworn in.

2006

Disney agrees to purchase Pixar animation studio for $7.4 billion.

1712

Frederick the Great, King of Prussia.

1776

Ernst Hoffmann, German writer and composer.

1862

Edith Wharton, American Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist.

1917

Ernest Borgnine, actor.

1918

Oral Roberts, American neo-Pentecostal televangelist.

1936

Doug Kershaw, American musician.

1941

Aaron Neville, singer.

1949

John Belushi, American actor, comedian and singer most notable for his work on Saturday Night Live, National Lampoon's Animal House, and The Blues Brothers.

1965

Winston Churchill, prime minister of Great Britain from 1940–1945 and 1951–1955, dies in London, England, at age 90 with his wife Lady Clementine Churchill and other members of the family at his bedside.

1975

Larry Fine (born Louis Feinberg), American comedian and actor, probably best known as a member of the comedy act The Three Stooges.

1986

L. Ron Hubbard, American writer and founder of Scientology.

1993

Thurgood Marshall, first African American member of the United States Supreme Court, dies in Bethesda, Maryland, at the age of 84.