2019: Ross Perot, founder of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and presidential candidate in 1992 and 1996 running as an independent, died. He was 89.

1868: The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It defined citizenship and mandated all citizens had "equal protection under the law."

1819: Elias Howe, inventor of the first practical sewing machine, was born in Spencer, Massachusetts. At the age of sixteen, he began an apprenticeship in a factory in Lowell, Massachusetts, but lost that job in the Panic of 1837. Howe then moved to Boston, where he found work in a machinist's shop. It was here that he began tinkering with the idea of inventing a mechanical sewing machine. Eight years later, he demonstrated his machine to the public. At 250 stitches a minute, Howe's lockstitch mechanism outstitched five hand sewers with a reputation for speed. He patented the invention on September 10, 1846. (Source: Library of Congress)