On July 16 in …

1661 –- The first banknotes in Europe are issued, by the Swedish bank Stockholms Banco.

1790 –- President George Washington signs into law the “Residence Act,” establishing an area known as the District of Columbia as the capital city of the United States. The federal government currently is located in New York City, but will move once office construction is completed in DC.

1861 — President Abraham Lincoln orders Union troops to begin a 25-mile march into Virginia for what will become known as the First Battle of Bull Run, the first major land battle of the Civil War.

1945 –- The “Atomic Age” begins when the U.S. government successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon in the desert near Alamogordo, NM. The test is part of the Manhattan Project that will help develop the atomic bombs dropped on Japan.

1973 –- During U.S. Senate hearings on what was nicknamed “Watergate,” former White House aide Alexander Butterfield reveals that President Richard Nixon has secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations.

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