- 1533 – Explorer Francisco Pizarro arrives in Cuzco, the capital of the Inca Empire.
- 1777 – After 16 months of debate, the Continental Congres approves the Articles of Confederation.
- 1791 – Georgetown University opened as the first Roman Catholic college in the United States.
- 1864 – Union General William Tecumseh Sherman begins Sherman’s March to the Sea.
- 1920 – The first assembly of the League of Nations was called to order in Geneva, Switzerland.
- 1939 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial.
- 1969 – More than 500,000 people demonstrated in Washington against the Vietnam War.
