1822 – The Florida Territory is created.
1842 – Ether anesthesia is used for the first time in an operation by American surgeon Dr. Crawford Long.
1855 – “Border Ruffians” from Missouri invade Kansas and force the election of a pro-slavery legislature.
1867 – Alaska is purchased from Russia for $7.2 million by U.S. Secretary of State William Seward.
1870 – The 15th Amendment, granting African-American men the right to vote, was adopted into the U.S. Constitution.
1981 – President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C. hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.; three others are wounded in the same incident.
