1861

Alabama became the fourth state to declare its secession from the Union.

1908 President Theodore Roosevelt leveraged the Antiquities Act of 1906 to proclaim the Grand Canyon as a national monument; it would become a national park in 1919.

1964

U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry issued “Smoking and Health,” a report that concluded that “cigarette smoking contributes substantially to mortality from certain specific diseases and to the overall death rate.”