1639 The first observation of transit of Venus occurred (only 2, record event)
1642 Abel Janzoon Tasman discovers Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania)
1703 First Lutheran pastor ordained in America, Justus Falckner at Philadelphia
1759 Destructive eruption of Vesuvius
1832 South Carolina passes Ordinance of Nullification
1849 The Father of the Tractor John Froelich, the inventor of the first gasoline-powered farm tractor, was born in Froelich, Iowa. Froelich's tractor, completed in 1892, featured a Van Duzen one-cylinder gasoline engine mounted on wooden beams to operate a threshing machine
1853 Bat Masterson gambler, saloon keeper, lawman, journalist; subject of TV series in the 1960s; was born
1859 Charles Darwin publishes "On the Origin of Species"
1863 Civil War battle for Lookout Mountain began in Tennessee
1871 National Rifle Association organized (NYC)
1874 Joseph F Glidden patents barbed wire
1880 Southern University established
1888 Dale Carnegie was born on this day in Maryville, Missouri
1900 On this day, the first gasoline-powered Pierce automobile was taken on a test drive through the streets of Buffalo, New York
1903 Clyde Coleman of NYC patents automobile electric starter
1905 The first Canadian Northern Railway passenger train reaches Edmonton after a 27 hour trip from Winnipeg Manitoba.
1930 The first woman pilot on a transcontinental air flight Miss Ruth Nichols (Mineola, NY to CA), in a Lockheed-Vega, took 7 days
1942 The State Department confirms the existence of Nazi extermination camps and the murder of two million Jews to date.
1944 First B-29 raids from Marianas base.
1944 HMCS Shawinigan (Corvette) lost in the CAbot Strait
1944 US bombers based on Saipan, first attack Tokyo
1947 John Steinbeck's novel "The Pearl" published
1947 Un-American Activities Committee finds "Hollywood 10" in contempt because of their refusal to reveal whether they were communists
1949 Britain nationalizes its steel &iron industry
1952 Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" opens in London
