Today:
1765: The Stamp Act Congress convened in New York City. Representatives from nine of the American colonies met to organize a protest against the British Stamp Act.
1826: The Granite Railway in Massachusetts, one of the first railroads in the United States, began operations.
1849: American author Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore at the age of 40.
1913: The moving assembly line was implemented for the first time at the Ford Motor Company’s Highland Park plant, revolutionizing automobile production.
1919: KLM, the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands, was founded. It is the oldest airline in the world still operating under its original name.
1944: During World War II, a revolt by Jewish prisoners, known as the Sonderkommando, took place at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
1949: The German Democratic Republic, commonly known as East Germany, was established.
1959: The Soviet spacecraft Luna 3 transmitted the first-ever photographs of the far side of the Moon.
1996: The Fox News Channel began broadcasting in the United States.
2001: The United States and its allies launched Operation Enduring Freedom, the invasion of Afghanistan, in response to the September 11th terrorist attacks.