1741 – “The American Magazine,” the first magazine in the U.S., was published in Philadelphia.
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. He was later executed for the crimes.
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.
