- 1774 – The first Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia.
- 1775 – King George III goes before Parliament to declare the American colonies in rebellion, and authorizes a military response.
- 1776 – Benjamin Franklin departs for France on a mission to seek French support for the American Revolution.
- 1825 – The Erie Canal, America’s first man-made waterway, was opened linking the Great Lakes and Atlantic Ocean via the Hudson River.
- 1861 – The Pony Express officially ceases operations.
- 1881 – The storied gunfight at the O.K. Corral occurred in Tombstone, Arizona.
- 1892 – Ida B. Wells publishes, Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.
- 1936 – The first electric generator at Hoover Dam goes into full operation.
- 1984 – Doctors in California performed the first baboon-to-human heart transplant in a 14-day-old girl, known as Baby Fae. The baby died of heart failure Nov. 15.
- 1990 – District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry was sentenced to six months in prison and fined $5,000 for his conviction on misdemeanor drug charges. Barry became mayor again in 1995.
- 2001 – Congress passes the USA PATRIOT Act into law.
