Events
- 1774 – Rhode Island becomes the first of Britain's North American colonies to ban the importation of slaves.
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: Marquis de Lafayette lands near Charleston, South Carolina, in order to help the Continental Congress to train its army.
- 1805 – Lewis and Clark Expedition: Scouting ahead of the expedition, Meriwether Lewis and four companions sight the Great Falls of the Missouri River.
- 1881 – The USS Jeannette is crushed in an Arctic Ocean ice pack.
- 1893 – Grover Cleveland undergoes secret, successful surgery to remove large, cancerous portion of his jaw; operation not revealed to US public until 1917, nine years after the president's death.
- 1927 – A ticker-tape parade is held for aviator Charles Lindbergh down 5th Avenue in New York City.
- 1935 – In one of the biggest upsets in championship boxing, the 10 to 1 underdog James J. Braddock defeated Max Baer in Long Island City, New York, and became the heavyweight champion of the world.
- 1942 – The United States opens its Office of War Information.
- 1966 – The United States Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.
- 1967 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson nominates Solicitor–General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
- 1971 – Vietnam War: The New York Times begins to publish the Pentagon Papers.
- 1977 – Convicted Martin Luther King Jr. assassin James Earl Ray is recaptured after escaping from prison three days before.
- 1983 – Pioneer 10 becomes the first manmade object to leave the Solar System.
- 1994 – A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blames recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages.
- 1996 – The Montana Freemen surrender after an 81–day standoff with FBI agents.
- 1997 – A jury sentences Timothy McVeigh to the death penalty for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
- 2002 – The United States of America withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
- 2005 – A jury in Santa Maria, California acquits pop singer Michael Jackson of molesting 13–year–old Gavin Arvizo at his Neverland Ranch.