Events
- 1862 - American Civil War: Battle at Lee's Mills in Virginia.
- 1862 - American Civil War: A bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia became law.
- 1863 - American Civil War: Siege of Vicksburg – ships led by Union Admiral David Dixon Porter move through heavy Confederate artillery fire on approach to Vicksburg, Mississippi.
- 1881 - In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle.
- 1945 - The United States Army liberates Nazi Sonderlager (high security) Prisoner of War camp Oflag IVc .
- 1947 - Texas City Disaster: An explosion on board a freighter in port causes the city of Texas City, Texas, to catch fire, killing almost 600.
- 1947 - Bernard Baruch coins the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.
- 1963 - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pens his famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail" while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama for protesting against segregation.
- 1972 - Apollo program: Apollo 16 launches towards the Moon from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
- 1972 - Vietnam War: Nguyen Hue Offensive – Prompted by the North Vietnamese offensive, the United States resumes bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong.
- 2007 - Virginia Tech massacre: the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, in which a gunman shoots 32 people to death and injures 23 others before committing suicide.