Events
- 1621 - The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony sign a peace treaty with Massasoit of the Wampanoags.
- 1622 - Jamestown massacre: Algonquian Indians kill 347 English settlers around Jamestown, Virginia, a third of the colony's population.
- 1630 - Massachusetts Bay Colony outlaws the possession of cards, dice, and gaming tables.
- 1638 - Anne Hutchinson is expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for religious dissent.
- 1871 - In North Carolina, William Woods Holden becomes the first governor of a U.S. state to be removed from office by impeachment.
- 1888 - The Football League is formed.
- 1933 - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs into law a bill legalizing the sale of beer and wine.
- 1941 - Washington's Grand Coulee Dam begins to generate electricity.
- 1960 - Arthur Leonard Schawlow & Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser.
- 1975 - A fire at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Decatur, Alabama causes dangerous lowering of cooling water levels.
- 1984 - Teachers at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California are charged with Satanic ritual abuse of the children in the school. The charges are later dropped as completely unfounded.
- 1989 - Clint Malarchuk of the Buffalo Sabres suffers a near-fatal injury when another player accidentally slits his throat in one of the most gruesome sports injuries of all time.
- 1993 - The Intel Corporation ships the first Pentium chips (80586), featuring a 60 MHz clock speed, 100+ MIPS, and a 64 bit data path.
- 1997 - Tara Lipinski, age 14 years and 10 months, becomes the youngest champion of the women's world figure skating competition.
- 2006 - Three Christian Peacemaker Teams Hostages are freed by British forces in Baghdad after 118 days captivity and the death of their colleague, American Tom Fox.