1854 – Lighthouse built on Alcatraz Island.
1862 – Dr. Richard Gatling patents Gatling machine gun in Indianapolis.
1914 – Vogue holds 1st model show (“Fashion Fete”, NYC)
1924 – California legalizes professional boxing (illegal since 1914)
1929 – Richard E. Byrd, Laurence McKinley Gould and their polar expedition team begin a 2 1/2 month, 1500-mile dog-sled journey into the Queen Maud Mountains. The first exploration of the interior of Antarctica.
1939 – First air conditioned automobile (Packard) exhibited, Chicago, Illinois.
1948 – American humorist Will Rogers commemorated by US Postage Service on 3-cent stamp.
1950 – US troops vacate Pyongyang North Korea.
1952 – Republican candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected President of the United States, defeating Democrat candidate Adlai Stevenson.
1954 – Philadelphia A’s move to Kansas City.
1963 – John Lennon utters his infamous line at a Royal Variety Performance “Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And for the rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewelry…” in London.
1968 – “Wichita Lineman” 12th album by Glen Campbell is released (Billboard Album of the Year 1969)
1976 – 1st mass-market free agent reentry draft in baseball, Reggie Jackson, Joe Rudi, Gullett, Tenace, Fingers, Baylor, Grich & McCovey, available.
1980 – Republican candidate Ronald Reagan is elected President of the United States, defeating incumbent Democrat US President Jimmy Carter by a landslide.
1990 – “Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story” opens at Shubert NYC for 225 performances.
1994 – San Francisco: First conference that focuses exclusively on the subject of the commercial potential of the World Wide Web.
2001 – American tennis star Serena Williams wins the WTA Tour Championship in Munich, Germany after Lindsey Davenport defaults the final due to a knee injury; Williams’ first season-ending title.
2008 – Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected President of the United States, defeating Republican candidate John McCain.
2014 – The US votes in mid-term elections; Republicans retain the House & regain the Senate.
2019 – Largest mass commutation in US history when 462 non-violent inmates freed from Oklahoma prisons as part of state prison reforms.