1492 – Christopher Columbus sights Cuba and claims it for Spain under the name “Juana”
1793 – Eli Whitney applies for a patent on cotton gin.
1886 – Statue of Liberty dedicated by US President Grover Cleveland, celebrated by first confetti (ticker tape) parade in New York City.
1904 – St Louis police try a new investigation method – fingerprints.
1913 – “Krazy Kat” comic strip by George Herriman debuts in NY Journal.
1922 – First US coast to coast radio broadcast of a football game.
1936 – FDR rededicates Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary.
1943 – German submarine U-220 sunk by US aircraft in the Atlantic.
1954 – Nobel Prize for Literature is awarded to Ernest Hemingway.
1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: US President JFK receives letter from Soviet Leader Khrushchev suggesting agreement.
1973 – Elmore Smith of Lakers blocks 17 shots in a game (NBA record)
1986 – The centennial of the Statue of Liberty’s dedication is celebrated in New York Harbor.
1988 – Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen gives $10 million to University of Washington library.
1995 – Baseball World Series; Atlanta Braves beat Cleveland Indians, 1-0 in Game 6 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium to win their 3rd title; MVP: Braves starter Tom Glavine.
2005 – Plame affair: Lewis Libby, Vice-President dick Cheney’s chief of staff, is indicted in the Valerie Plame case. Libby resigns later that day.
2012 – American Serena Williams wins her 3rd season ending tennis title; beats Maria Sharapova of Russia 6-4, 6-3, in the WTA Championship decider in Istanbul, Turkey.
2015 – World Health Organization ranks Tuberculosis alongside HIV as world’s deadliest infectious diseases, killing 1.2 million (2014)
2020 – Global COVID-19 cases record one-day increase of more than 500,000 for the first time, rising 25% in under two weeks according to Reuters.
2021 – Mark Zuckerberg announces Facebook will change its corporate name to Meta amid increased public scrutiny over leaked internet documents.