On this day in 1963 (61 years ago): March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gives his I Have a Dream speech.

On this day in 1792 (232 years ago): During what became known as the September Massacres of the French Revolution, rampaging mobs slaughter three Roman Catholic bishops, more than two hundred priests, and prisoners believed to be royalist sympathizers.

On this day in 1945 (79 years ago): Cold War: Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet Union embassy clerk, defects to Canada, exposing Soviet espionage in North America, signalling the beginning of the Cold War.

On this day in 1698 (326 years ago): In an effort to Westernize his nobility, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a tax on beards for all men except the clergy and peasantry.

On this day in 1997 (27 years ago): Mother Teresa, Albanian-Indian nun, missionary, and saint, Nobel Prize laureate passed away (b. 1910)

On this day in 1561 (463 years ago): The ultimately unsuccessful Colloquy of Poissy opens in an effort to reconcile French Catholics and Protestants.

On this day in 1776 (248 years ago): The Continental Congress officially names its union of states the United States. On this day in 1791 (233 years ago): Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, is named after President George Washington.

On this day in 1848, Vermont railroad worker Phineas Gage survives an iron rod 1+1⁄4 inches in diameter being driven through his brain; the effects on his behavior and personality stimulate discussion of the nature of the brain and its functions. Today he'd be a US Senator

On this day in 1962 (62 years ago): An appeals court orders the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith, the first African-American student admitted to the segregated university.

On this day in 1975 (49 years ago): The first American saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, is canonized by Pope Paul VI.

On this day in 1530 (494 years ago): Appearance of the miraculous portrait of Saint Dominic in Soriano in Soriano Calabro, Calabria, Italy; commemorated as a feast day 1644–1912.

Things that happened today that make America great In 1787, Constitution is signed in Philadelphia. In 1849, Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery In 1933, Senator Chuck Grassley is born In 1976, : the Space Shuttle Enterprise is unveiled by NASA.

Born on this day in 1947, Norma McCorvey, the "Jane Roe" of Roe v. Wade. Roe case was 1st of many lies from left on issue of abortion. The latest lies from Kamala Harris & her ilk include that babies aren't left to die & that laws to protect the unborn costs lives (they don't)

On this day in 1889 (135 years ago): Nintendo Koppai (Later Nintendo Company, Limited) is founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce and market the playing card game Hanafuda.

On this day in 1567 (457 years ago): French War of Religion: Protestant coup officials in Nîmes massacre Catholic priests in an event now known as the Michelade.

On this day in 1978 (46 years ago): Pope John Paul II becomes the first non-Italian pontiff since 1523.

On this day in 1947, the first interracial Freedom Ride begins through the upper South in violation of Jim Crow laws. The riders wanted enforcement of the Supreme Court's 1946 Irene Morgan decision that banned racial segregation in interstate travel.

On this day in 1912 (113 years ago): RMS Titanic sets sail from Southampton, England on her maiden voyage. Keep watching for spoilers

On this day in 1963 (62 years ago): Pope John XXIII issues Pacem in terris, the first encyclical addressed to all Christians instead of only Catholics, and which described the conditions for world peace in human terms.

On this day in 1517 German priest & scholar Martin Luther vandalized the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg.