- 1817 – Mississippi becomes the 20th state.
- 1868 – The first traffic lights are installed outside the Palace of Westminster in London.
- 1869 – The Territory of Wyoming granted women the right to vote.
- 1884 – Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published.
- 1898 – The Treaty of Paris is signed, officially ending the Spanish-American War. It gave Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines to the United States.
- 1906 – President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first American to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the mediation of the Russo-Japanese War.
- 1936 – Britain’s King Edward VII abdicated the throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
- 1984 – The National Science Foundation reported the discovery of the first planet outside of the solar system – 21 million light-years from Earth.
