1717 French founder of Detroit Antoine de Lamothe Cadillac is imprisoned in the Bastille for speaking “against the government of the state and the colonies ” (freed 1718)
1825 George Stephenson's "Locomotion No. 1" becomes the first steam locomotive to carry passengers on a public rail line, the Stockton and Darlington Railway in England
1864 Centralia Massacre: Pro-Confederate guerrillas led by William T. Anderson, with Jesse James, loot Centralia and attack a train on the North Missouri Railroad, executing 24 Union soldiers. Later the same day, the guerrillas defeat the newly formed 39th Missouri Infantry Regiment, killing 123 of its 147 soldiers
1865 Circus performer James Cooke walks a 150-yard tightrope from Cliff House to Seal Rocks in San Francisco
1881 Chicago Cubs beat Troy 10-8 before a record small "crowd" of 12
1892 Book matches are patented by the Diamond Match Company
1903 Wreck of the Old 97, a train crash near Danville, Virginia, inspires a railroad song of the same name, to be released in 1924, which becomes the first song to sell 1 million copies in the US
1903 Wreck of the Old 97, a train crash near Danville, Virginia, inspires a railroad song of the same name, to be released in 1924, which becomes the first song to sell 1 million copies in the US
1908 Henry Ford's first Ford Model T automobile leaves the Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit, Michigan
1912 W. C. Handy publishes "Memphis Blues," considered the first blues song
1914 Cleveland second baseman Nap Lajoie collects his 3,000th hit
1923 NY Yankee Lou Gehrig hits the first of his 493 home runs
1937 First Santa Claus Training School opens in Albion, New York
1939 White Sox host the first "day-night" doubleheader, losing twice to Cleveland, 5-2 and 7-5
1940 Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan sign a 10-year formal alliance (Axis)
1941 US President Roosevelt launches the first Liberty ship, freighter SS Patrick Henry
1945 WWII: US General and head of the Allied occupation of Japan, Douglas MacArthur, meets Emperor Hirohito in Tokyo for the first time
1954 Late night talk show "The Tonight Show," hosted by Steve Allen, premieres on NBC-TV
1961 Sandy Koufax sets the NL strikeout season record at 269
1968 Cardinals' superstar pitcher Bob Gibson's 13th shutout of the year
1983 Tim Raines is the first since Ty Cobb to steal 70 bases and drive in 70 runs
1993 Jimmy Doolittle American air force general who conducted the raid on Tokyo in 1942, dies at 96
2008 Greg Maddux wins the 355th and final start of his career
2010 George Blanda Pro Football HOF quarterback/placekicker NFL/AFL All-Star (Chicago Bears, Houston Oilers, Oakland Raiders), dies at 83
2012 The 2004 Japanese discovery of the 113th element is confirmed
2014 57 people are killed after Mount Ontake erupts in Japan
2017 Hugh Hefner publisher Playboy, dies of natural causes at 91 - breast in peace
2023 NASA astronaut Frank Rubio returns to Earth with Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, setting an American record of 371 days in space
2023 Parker Solar Probe breaks its own record for the fastest human-made object, traveling at 394,736 mph towards the sun, equivalent to traveling between LA and NYC in 20 seconds