- 1542 – Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo of Portugal arrives at what is now San Diego, California.
- 1779 – Samuel Huntington is elected President of the Continental Congress, succeeding John Jay.
- 1787 – The Congress of the Confederation voted to send the newly-written United States Constitution to the state legislatures for approval.
- 1892 – Mansfield University was the home team for the first night football game against Wyoming Seminary. The contest at Smythe Park in Mansfield, Pa., was called off at halftime because the electrical lighting was inadequate.
- 1912 – Corporal Frank S. Scott of the Army becomes the first enlisted man to die in an airplane crash.
- 1920 – A grand jury indicted eight Chicago White Sox players for throwing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds.
- 1928 Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.
- 1982 – The first reports appear of deaths in the Chicago area from Extra-strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide. Seven people died and the unsolved case resulted in tamper-proof packaging for consumer products.
- 2008 – Congressional negotiators and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson agreed on a $700 billion banking industry bailout plan.
