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Today is Day 121 of 2024
1662
Queen Mary II of England born St James's Palace, London.
1789
George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first elected President of the United States.
1803
In what became known as the Louisiana Purchase, the United States bought the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million.
1812
Louisiana becomes the 18th U.S. state.
1863
A 65-man French Foreign Legion infantry patrol fights a force of nearly 2,000 Mexican soldiers to nearly the last man in the battle of Camarón.
1877 
Alice B. Toklas (The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook) born in San Francisco.
A close associate of author Gertrude Stein, she was secretary, cook, & confidante in Stein's Paris literary salon.
1883
Czech novelist Jaroslav Hašek (The Good Soldier Šchweik) born in Prague.
1888
Poet, essayist and critic John Crowe Ransom born in Pulaski, Tennessee.
1896
Blues and gospel singer and guitarist Reverend Gary Davis born in Laurens, South Carolina.
1900
John Luther Casey Jones, veteran engineer of the Chicago & New Orleans Limited, dies at the throttle in an effort to slow down the hurtling Cannonball express.
1908
Actress Eve Arden (Our Miss Brooks) born in Mill Valley, California.
1937
Poet and dramatist Tony Harrison (V) born in Leeds, England.
1938
A rabbit that was a prototype of Bugs Bunny was introduced in the cartoon short Porky's Hare Hunt.
1939 
The 1939 New York World's Fair opens.
1943
Operation Mincemeat takes place when the British submarine HMS Seraph surfaces in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain and releases the body of a dead man planted with false invasion plans and dressed as a British military intelligence officer.
Singer Bobby Vee (The Night Has a Thousand Eyes) born in Fargo, North Dakota.
1945
Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for a day.
Singer-songwriter, guitarist, and activist Mimi Fariña born in Mill Valley, California.
1966
Folksinger/novelist Richard Fariña is killed in a motorcycle accident two days after the publication of his book Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me, in Carmel, California.
The Church of Satan is established at the Black House at 6114 California St, San Francisco, California.
1975
The Vietnam War formally ends with the unconditional surrender by South Vietnamese president Duong Van Minh.
This Day at the New Yorker
Proverb:
“A good conscience is a soft pillow.” ~ Australian Proverb
