Today in history—June 6

1639: The General Court of Massachusetts grants 500 acres of land at Pecoit to Edward Rawon for creation of the first gunpowder mill in the American colonies.

1832: Legal reformer and utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham dies at London.  You can see his skeleton, dressed and wearing a wax head, in a glass case at the University of London.

1859: Queen Victoria signs the letters patent creating the Colony of Queensland.

1891: Scots-born lawyer John Alexander Macdonald, the first Prime Minister of Canada, dies in office at Ottawa.

1907:  Henkel & Cie. of Düsseldorf markets the first household detergent, called “Persil.”

1925: Walter Percy Chrysler, the former Buick president who had acquired the ailing Maxwell Motor Co., creates his own company, which he names Chrysler Corp.

1932: The first federal gasoline tax, one cent per gallon, goes into effect in the United States.

1933: Richard Hollingshead, an auto-parts salesman and film buff, creates the first drive-in movie theater (which he calls the “Drive In Theater”) on Crescent Boulevard in Camden, New Jersey.

1933: President Roosevelt signs the Securities Act of 1933 into law, creating the Securities and Exchange Commission.

1941: Louis Chevrolet, the Swiss-born race driver who founded the American car company that bears his name, dies at Detroit, Michigan.

1946: The Basketball Association of America, the forerunner of the National Basketball Association, is founded in New York City.

1962: The Beatles audition for EMI Records.  Producer George Martin is unimpressed with the audition tapes, but later changes his mind after meeting the group.

1971: After 23 years on the air, CBS’s Ed Sullivan Show airs its final episode.