On this date:

1798: Congress passed the Sedition Act, making it a federal crime to publish false, scandalous or malicious writing about the United States government.

1881: Outlaw William H. Bonney Jr., alias “Billy the Kid,” was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner in present-day New Mexico.

1912: American folk singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie was born in Okemah, Oklahoma.

2004: The Senate scuttled a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

2009: Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff arrived at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina to begin serving a 150-year sentence for his massive Ponzi scheme.

2013: Thousands of demonstrators protested a Florida jury’s decision the day before to clear George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

2020: Researchers reported that the first COVID-19 vaccine tested in the U.S. boosted people’s immune systems as scientists had hoped.

2022: The National Galleries of Scotland said a previously unknown self-portrait of Vincent Van Gogh was discovered behind another of the artist’s paintings when experts took an X-ray of the canvas.

Today’s birthdays

Former football player and actor Rosey Grier is 92. Actor Vincent Pastore (TV” “The Sopranos”) is 78. Music company executive Tommy Mottola is 76. Movie producer Scott Rudin is 66. Singer-songwriter Anjelique Kidjo is 64. Singer-guitarist Kyle Gass is 64. Actor Jane Lynch is 64.