On this date in 1958… 

Explorer I was the first satellite launched by the United States was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida by the Jupiter C rocket and was designed, built, and launched under the direction of Dr. Wernher Von Braun.

• 1861 – Louisiana state troops seized the U.S. Mint and Customs House in New Orleans.
• 1865 – General Robert E. Lee was appointed commander-in-chief of the Confederate States forces.
• 1865 – The US House of Representatives passed the constitutional amendment to abolish slavery.
• 1874 – The James-Younger gang robbed a train at Gads Hill, Missouri.

On this date in 1838… 

Seminole Chief Osceola died in prison at Fort Moultrie, on Charleston Harbor, South Carolina from what many say was a broken heart.

• 1712 – During the Tuscarora War, South Carolina settlers and Indian allies led by Colonel John Barnwell destroyed a fort built and manned by the Tuscaroroa and Coree tribes near New Bern, North Carolina.
• 1861 – The U.S. revenue cutter Lewis Cass surrendered to Alabama state troops at Mobile.
• 1863 – The ironclads C.S.S. Chicora and C.S.S. Palmetto State, dispersed the entire Union blockade fleet in front of Charleston harbor and raised the federal blockade for 24 hours.

On this date in 1845… 

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” was first published in the New York Evening Mirror. American literature has never been the same since.

• 1802 – John Beckley of Virginia was appointed first Librarian of Congress.
• 1832 – Folsom’s band of Choctaw reached the Kiamichi River region of Indian Territory. 
• 1834 – US President Andrew Jackson ordered first use of federal soldiers to suppress a labor dispute on the Chesepeake and Ohio Canal.
• 1850 – Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky proposed the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Congress.
• 1872 – Francis L. Cardoza was elected State Treasurer of South Carolina.
• 1964 – In Louisiana, Grand Avenue High School of DeQuincy, Louisiana defeated Audrey Memorial High School of Cameron, Louisiana and posted sports history’s most lopsided high-school basketball score, 211-29.

On this date in 1986… 

The space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida.  The blast killed all seven crew members, including flight commander Francis R. “Dick” Scobee; pilot Michael J. Smith; Ronald E. McNair; Ellison S. Onizuka; Judith A. Resnik; Gregory B. Jarvis; and schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.

• 1833 – A Cherokee commission of John Ross, John Baldridge, Richard Taylor, and Joseph Vann, met with the Secretary of War in Washington and refused to negotiate about Cherekee removal while the federal government failed to live up to its agreements to protect them from the State of Georgia,
• 1861 – South Carolina adopted the Palmetto Flag. 
• 1861 – Louisiana state troops occupied Fort Macomb. 
• 1865 – The cruiser C.S.S. Stonewall was officially designated and began its trip to the Confederate States.
• 1980 – The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Blackthorn collided with the tanker Capricorn while leaving Tampa, Florida and capsized killing 23 Coast Guard crewmembers.
• 1981 – The tanker Olympic Glory collided with another vessel and spilled a million gallons of oil in Galveston Bay, Texas.

On this date in 1825…

The U.S. Congress approved Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians down the “Trail of Tears.”

• 1785 – The first state university was chartered at Athens, Georgia.
• 1814 – Red Stick Creeks attacked an encampment of almost 1,000 Georgia militia and allied Indians on Callabee Creek. The Allies lost 22 killed and almost 150 wounded and the American expedition was forced to leave the area.
• 1826 – Confederate General Richard Taylor was born in the Zachary Taylor House at Louisville, Kentucky.
• 1870 – After accepting the 15th amendment, Virginia was readmitted to the United States.
• 1956 – Elvis Presley recorded his first single for RCA, “Heartbreak Hotel.” It became the first of many #1 hits for Presley.
• 1967 – Astronauts Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo 1 spacecraft at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

On this date in 1945… 

While covering the men of his company near Holtzwihr, France, Texan 2nd Lt. Audie Murphy killed more than 240 German soldiers and destroyed 6 tanks. For this and other courageous actions, Murphy became the most decorated American soldier of WWII.

• 1716 – A Creek and Yamassee delegation arrived at the neutral Cherokee village of Tugaloo in northeastern Georgia. Rather than talking peace, the delegation urges the Cherokee to help attack South Carolina settlements. The Cherokee killed the representatives.
• 1838 – Tennessee enacted the first prohibition law in the United States
• 1861 – Georgia state troops seized Oglethorpe Barracks and Fort Jackson.
• 1861 – Louisiana seceded from the union.
• 1861 – The “Arkansaw” comedian Harry McCarthy began writing The Bonnie Blue Flag after witnesing the unfurling of the new Mississippi Republic flag in Jackson.
• 1875 – As many as 40 Mexican and Indian cattle rustlers attacked a squad from troop G, ninth cavalry outside Ringgold Barracks, Texas killing two troopers. Several suspects were captured and 9 Mexicans were found guilty of murder.
• 1983 – Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant died in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

On this date in 1993… 

Muslim extremist Mir Aimal Qazi fired on CIA employees as they waited in their cars at a stoplight near the entrance of Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, Virginia.  Two CIA employees were killed and three others wounded. Qazi was convicted of capital murder and executed by lethal injection in 2002.

• 1947 – Al Capone died of complications of syphilis, pneumonia, and heart failure at Palm Island, Florida after fearing all his life he would suffer a violent death.
• 1999 – In Louisville, KY, Matthew Scott received the first hand transplant in the United States.
• 2010 – In Arlington, TX, the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame opened.