1252: Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition

1618: German astronomer Johannes Kepler discovers the third of his three planetary laws, the “harmonic law”

1841: First emigrant wagon train to make it to California leaves Independence, Missouri on a 1,730 mile journey over the Sierra Nevada [1]

1869: National Woman Suffrage Association forms in New York, founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton

1940: Richard and Maurice McDonald open the 1st McDonald’s restaurant in San Bernardino, California

1951: AT&T becomes the first US corporation to have a million stockholders after young car salesman Brady Denton purchases 7 shares worth $1,078

1988: The Soviet Union begins withdrawing its 115,000 troops from Afghanistan

Source: Onthisday.com