1850 – California becomes the 31st state in record time, without ever having been a territory.
1942 – During World War II, a Japanese floatplane drops incendiary bombs on an Oregon state forest – the first and only attack on the U.S. mainland in the war. No significant damage was done.
1956 – Elvis Presley appears on the Ed Sullivan Show for the first time, winning 60 million viewers or 83 percent of the TV viewers at the time. The show became the most-watched TV broadcast of the 1950s.
1976 – Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong dies. He led the Chinese people through a long revolution and ruled the communist government from 1949 until his death. He was one of the most significant communist figures of the Cold War.
