- 1128 – Pope Honorius II recognizes the Knights Templar
- 1832 – American author Horatio Alger is born.
- 1842 – A British army doctor reaches a sentry post in Afghanistan, the sole survivor of a massacre of 4,500 soldiers and 12,000 camp followers trying to withdraw through the Khyber Pass.
- 1850 – Charlotte Ray is born. She became the first Black female lawyer and the first woman admitted to the bar in Washington, D.C.
- 1885 – Alfred C. Fuller, who founded the Fuller Brush Company, is born.
- 1898 – Juanita Brooks is born. She became a famed historian best known for her research on the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
- 1907 – Sabine Zlatin is born. During World War II, Zlatin and her husband rescued children from intern camps and eventually established a home for refugees. However, in 1944, Klaus Barbie and Nazi soldiers captured all 44 children and adults who lived and worked there except Zlatin and killed them. During a war crimes trial in 1987, Zlatin testified against Barbie.
- 1910 – The world’s first public radio broadcast occurred from the Metropolitan Opera House.
- 1926 – Melba Lison is born. She became a self-taught jazz trombonist and was a member of Dizzy Gillespie’s tour of the Middle East in 1956.
- 1929 – Wyatt Earp dies peacefully in Los Angeles at age 80
- 1941 – James Joyce dies at age 58.
- 1950 – Soviets boycott United Nations Security Council Meeting.
- 1966 – Lyndon Johnson appoints Robert Weaver as the head of HUD, making him the nation’s first Black cabinet member.
- 1968 – Johnny Cash performs at Folsom Prison.
- 1970 – Shonda Rhimes is born.
- 1981 – Barbara Sonntag of Colorado sets the American speed crocheting record of 4,412 stitches in 30 minutes, or approximately 147 stitches per minute.
- 1982 – A plane crashes into the Potomac River, less than a mile from the end of the runway, killing 78 people.
- 1990 – Douglas Wilder of Virginia becomes the nation’s first Black governor
- 1999 – Michael Jordan retires for the second time.
