• 1765, the Stamp Act Congress, meeting in New York, drew up a declaration of rights and liberties

• 1781, at Yorktown, Virginia, British commander Lord Cornwallis surrendered to a Franco-American force led by George Washington and the comte de Rochambeau, paving the way for the end of the American Revolutionary War

• 1789, Chief Justice John Jay is sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court