Stock and bond markets were closed Wednesday for a national day of mourning to honor former President George H.W. Bush.

ON THIS DATE: In 1735, in London, French surgeon Claudius Amyand performed the first successful appendectomy at St. George’s Hospital. In 1774, Austria became the first nation to introduce a state education system. In 1790, Congress moved from New York to Philadelphia. In 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The amendment abolished slavery in the U.S. In 1877, Thomas Edison demonstrated the first gramophone, with a recording of himself reciting Mary Had a Little Lamb. In 1883, “Ladies’ Home Journal” was published for the first time. In 1884, the construction of the Washington Monument was completed by Army engineers. The project took 34 years. In 1889, Jefferson Davis died in New Orleans. He was the first and only president of the Confederate States of America. In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge became the first president to give a presidential address that was broadcast on radio. In 1947, Everglades National Park in Florida was dedicated by President Harry Truman. In 1989, Egon Krenz resigned as leader of East Germany. In 1994, Orange County, California, filed for bankruptcy protection due to investment losses of about $2 billion. The county is one of the richest in the U.S. and was the largest municipality to file for bankruptcy. In 1998, astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour connected the first two building blocks of the international space station in the shuttle cargo bay.