- 1519 – Explorer Hernan Cortez enters Tenochtitlan and Aztec ruler Moctezuma welcomes him with a great celebration.
- 1837 – Mary Lyons founds Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, which later becomes Mount Holyoke College.
- 1889 – Montana is admitted as the 41st state.
- 1895 – Physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovered X-rays.
- 1923 – Beer Hall Putsch: In Munich, Adolf Hitler leads the Nazis in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government.
- 1933 – President Franklin Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than 4 million unemployed.
- 1973 – The right ear of John Paul Getty III, who had been kidnapped four months earlier, was delivered along, with a ransom note, to a daily newspaper. The ransom was later paid, with Getty III found alive at a gas station in southern Italy.
- 1994 – Republican candidates swept the midterm elections, regaining control of both chambers of Congress. It marked the first time in 40 years the Republicans controlled both the House and Senate.
