- 1816 – Indiana becomes the 19th state.
- 1941 – Germany and Italy declare war on the United States following the American declaration of war on Japan in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
- 1946 – UNICEF was established.
- 1951 – Joe DiMaggio announced his retirement from baseball.
- 1972 – Apollo 17 becomes the sixth and last Apollo mission to land on the moon.
- 1994 – Up to 40,000 Russian troops invaded Chechnya to put down a secessionist rebellion.
- 2008 – Bernard Madoff, an investment manager, was arrested and charged with defrauding clients of up to $50 billion in what may have been the largest Ponzi scheme in Wall Street history.
