1642 — Montreal is founded by French colonists.
1652 — Rhode Island passes the first law in North America making slavery illegal.
1765 — Fire destroys a large part of Montreal.
1896 — The Supreme Court, in Plessy v. Ferguson, endorses “separate but equal” racial segregation.
1917 — The Selective Service Act of 1917 is passed, giving the President the power of conscription.
1927 — A schoolhouse in Bath, Michigan is blown up with explosives planted by local farmer (and disgruntled school board member) Andrew Kehoe, who then sets off a dynamite-laden automobile. The attacks killed 38 children and six adults, including Kehoe, who earlier had killed his wife.
1948 — It’s been four days since Israel once again became an independent nation.
1954 — Yesterday, in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the United States Supreme Court unanimously overturned earlier rulings going back to Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, by declaring that state laws that established separate public schools for black and white students denied black children equal educational opportunities — “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”
1974 — India detonates its first nuclear weapon becoming the sixth nation to do so.
1980 — Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington State, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage.
1992 — The Archivist of the United States officially announces the 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — almost 203 years after it was initially submitted!
2008 — Hopewell Mennonite Church ordains a new bishop — for the first time in 25 years or so.