On May 24, 1797, future President Thomas Jefferson writes to his friend Angelica Church, inquiring casually about their mutual friend, Maria Cosway, a woman who had once captured his heart and inspired a romantically themed essay.

For the first time in U.S. history, the House of Representatives exercises its constitutional power of impeachment and votes to charge Senator William Blount of Tennessee with “a high misdemeanor, entirely inconsistent with his public duty and trust as a Senator.”

After two unsuccessful attempts, the USS Constitution is launched in Boston Harbor. The a 44-gun U.S. Navy frigate, built to fight Barbary pirates off the coast of Tripoli, performed commendably during those conflicts, and in 1805 a peace treaty with Tripoli was signed on the Constitution‘s deck.

The first parachute jump of note is made by André-Jacques Garnerin from a hydrogen balloon 3,200 feet above Paris.