- 1473 – Polish astronomer Copernicus is born.
- 1847 – Donner Party rescued.
- 1910 – Typhoid Mary is freed from her first periods of isolation and goes on to cause several more outbreaks of typhoid in the New York area.
- 1913 – 1st prize inserted into a Cracker Jack box.
- 1940 – Smokey Robinson is born.
- 1942 – FDR orders detention and internment of all west-coast Japanese-Americans. Utah successfully pursues a contract to build the Topaz Internment Camp by Delta.
- 1942 – Tuskegee Airmen initiated.
- 1952 – Amy Tan is born. Her novel, The Joy Luck Club has now been translated into 35 languages.
- 1963 – The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan is published.
- 2002 – Vonetta Flowers becomes the first Black gold medalist in the Winter Olympics.
- 2016 – Harper Lee dies. She is best known for her 1960 book, “To Kill a Mockingbird”
