- 1679 – The Province of New Hampshire is separated from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
- 1793 – The first cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol is laid by George Washington.
- 1850 – Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
- 1851 – First publication of The New-York Daily Times, which later becomes The New York Times.
- 1870 – Old Faithful Geyser is observed and named by Henry D. Washburn.
- 1947 – The National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency are established by the National Security Act. It also establishes the Air Force as an equal branch of the military.
- 1948 – Margaret Chase Smith of Maine becomes the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate without completing another senator’s term.
- 1961 – U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold dies in an airplane crash while attempting to negotiate peace in what is now Zambia.
- 1970 – Rock star Jimi Hendrix died at the age of 27 following a drug overdose in London.
- 2001 – Letters were mailed containing anthrax spores to several news media organizations and to Democratic Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. The attacks killed 5 people and infected 17 others.
