On This Day in:

1774 – Britain passed the Coercive Act against Massachusetts.

1797 – Nathaniel Briggs patented a washing machine.

1834 – The U.S. Senate voted to censure President Jackson for the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States.

1854 – The Crimean War began with Britain and France declaring war on Russia.

1864 – A group of Copperheads attack Federal soldiers in Charleston, IL. Five were killed and twenty were wounded.

1865 – Outdoor advertising legislation was enacted in New York. The law banned “painting on stones, rocks and trees.”

1885 – The Salvation Army was officially organized in the U.S.

1898 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a child born in the U.S. to Chinese immigrants was a U.S. citizen. This meant that they could not be deported under the Chinese Exclusion Act.

1905 – The U.S. took full control over Dominican revenues.

1910 – The first seaplane took off from water at Martinques, France. The pilot was Henri Fabre.

1911 – In New York, suffragists performed “Pageant of Protest.”

1917 – During World War I the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was founded.

1921 – U.S. President Warren Harding named William Howard Taft as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court.

1922 – Bradley A. Fiske patented a microfilm reading device.

1930 – Constantinople and Angora changed their names to Istanbul and Ankara respectively.

1933 – In Germany, the Nazis ordered a ban on all Jews in businesses, professions and schools.

1938 – In Italy, psychiatrists demonstrated the use of electric-shock therapy for treatment of certain mental illnesses.

1939 – The Spanish Civil War ended as Madrid fell to Francisco Franco.

1941 – The Italian fleet was defeated by the British at the Battle of Matapan.