Edison shows off his phonograph, atom bomb testing heads underground, a chimpanzee orbits the Earth, the Pong craze begins, and the world loses another Beatle, all on this day.
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1777: San Jose, Calif., is founded as Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe. It is the first civilian settlement, or pueblo, in Alta California, a territory of New Spain that included all of present day California and Arizona, and portions of Nevada and Utah.