1841 – The Supreme Court rules in the United States v. The Amistad cast that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally.
1864 – Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was appointed the commander in chief of Union forces in the Civil War.
1933 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to Congress, the first of his New Deal policies.
1959 – The Barbie doll makes its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.
