History for December 20

History for December 20 - On-This-Day.com

Harvey Firestone 1868 - Founder Firestone Tire and Rubber Company

• 1606 - The "Susan Constant," "Godspeed" and "Discovery" set sail from London. Their landing at Jamestown, VA, was the start of the first permanent English settlement in America.
• 1790 - The first successful cotton mill in the United States began operating at Pawtucket, RI.
• 1803 - The United States Senate ratified a treaty that included the Louisiana Territories from France for $15 million. The transfer was completed with formal ceremonies in New Orleans.
• 1820 - The state of Missouri enacted legislation to tax bachelors between the ages of 21-50 for being unmarried. The tax was $1 a year.
• 1860 - South Carolina became the first state to secede from the American Union.
• 1879 - Thomas A. Edison privately demonstrated his incandescent light at Menlo Park, NJ.
• 1990 - The world's first website and server go live at CERN. The first website was http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html.