1861 – The first Medal of Honor was awarded. It went to Col. Bernard Irwin, an assistant surgeon serving in the first major U.S. Army-Apache conflict.
1935 – A jury in New Jersey finds Bruno Hauptmann guilty of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, the son of Charles Lindbergh.
1945 – Thousands of Allied planes started bombing the German city of Dresden in World War II. The attack caused a firestorm that destroyed the city over a three-day period.
1960 – After a successful test, France becomes the fourth country to possess nuclear weapons.
1984 – Konstantin Cherneko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as a general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
