On This Day in:

1673 – The first recorded wine auction took place in London.

1792 – U.S. President George Washington signed the Postal Service Act that created the U.S. Post Office.

1807 – Former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr was arrested in Alabama. He was later tried and acquitted on charges of treason.

1809 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the power of the federal government was greater than that of any individual state.

1815 – The USS Constitution, under Captain Charles Stewart fought the British ships Cyane and Levant. The Constitution captures both, but lost the Levant after encountering a British squadron. The Constitution and the Cyane returned to New York safely on May 15, 1815. The Cyane became the USS Cyane.

1839 – The U.S. Congress prohibited dueling in the District of Columbia.

1846 – The formal transfer of government between Texas and the United States took place. Texas had officially become a state on December 29, 1845.

1856 – The tintype camera was patented by Professor Hamilton L. Smith.

1864 – The Knights of Pythias was founded in Washington, DC. A dozen members formed what became Lodge No. 1.

1872 – Luther Crowell received a patent for a machine that manufactured

1872 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in New York City.

1872 – Silas Noble and J.P. Cooley patented the toothpick manufacturing

1873 – The University of California got its first Medical School.

1878 – Thomas Alva Edison patented a music player (the phonograph).

1880 – The American Bell Company was incorporated.

1881 – Kansas became the first state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.

1921 – The motion picture 'The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse' was released starring Rudolph Valentino.

1931 – The U.S. Congress allowed California to build the Oakland Bay Bridge.

1933 – The U.S. House of Representatives completed congressional action on the amendment to repeal Prohibition.

1942 – U.S. President Roosevelt signed an executive order giving the military the authority to relocate and intern Japanese-Americans.

1942 – Approximately 150 Japanese warplanes attacked the Australian city of Darwin.

1945 – During World War II, about 30,000 U.S. Marines landed on Iwo Jima.

1952 – Emmett L. Ashford became the first black umpire in organized baseball. He was authorized to be a substitute in the Southwestern International League.

1952 – 'The African Queen' opened at the Capitol Theatre in New York City.

1958 – Racing jockey Eddie Arcaro got win number 4,000, as he rode the winner at Santa Anita race track in Southern California.

1962 – John Glenn made space history when he orbited the world three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes. He was the first American to orbit the Earth. He was aboard the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule.

Glenn witnessed the Devil's Cigarette Lighter while in flight.

1965 – Ranger 8 crashed on the moon after sending back thousands of pictures of its surface.

1981 – The U.S. State Department call El Savador a 'textbook case' of a Communist plot.

1981 – Ford Motor Company announced its loss of $1.5 billion.

1985 – Mickey Mouse was welcomed to China as part of the 30th anniversary of Disneyland. The touring mouse played 30 cities in

30 days.

1985 – William Schroeder became the first artificial-heart patient to leave the confines of the hospital.