1874: Patrick Francis Healy, SJ, was inaugurated as president of Georgetown University. The Reverend Father John Carroll (later Archbishop Carroll), who was neither president of Georgetown University nor a faculty member, founded the university in 1789. Healy is considered Georgetown's "second founder." The university's board of directors voted him acting president in 1873 upon the unexpected death of the president, the Reverend John Early. The following year Healy was confirmed as president. Patrick Healy entered the Jesuits in 1850 and took his final vows in 1867. He was one of the first African Americans to receive a Ph.D. and the first to head a predominantly white university. (Source: Library of Congress)

1792: The cornerstone of the first U.S. government building was laid in Philadelphia. The first building was the U.S. Mint to make coins for currency of the United States.