1789 - In Bourbon, KY, Bourbon Whiskey is first distilled from corn by Elijah Craig.
1793 - In Paris, the Louvre opens.
1837 - Mount Holyoke Seminary in Massachusetts becomes the first U.S. college founded for women.
1860 - Abraham Lincoln is elected President.
1861 - The U.S. removes Confederate officials from the British steamer Trent.
1864 - Abraham Lincoln is elected to his second term as President.
1889 - Montana becomes the 41st state.
1892 - Grover Cleveland is elected President
1895 - Wilhelm Rontgen discovers x-rays.
1900 - Theodore Roosevelt is elected President.
1904 - President Theodore Roosevelt is re-elected.
1910 - For the first time, women are allowed to vote in the Washington State election.
1932 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected to his first term as President.
1933 - FDR creates the Civil Works Administration.
1938 - Crystal Bird Fauset of Philadelphia becomes the first Black woman legislator.
1942 - "Operation Torch" begins as U.S. and British forces land in French North Africa.
1944 - 25,000 Hungarian Jews are loaned to the Nazis for forced labor.
1950 - The first jet-plane battle of the Korean War.
1956 - The U.N. demands that the U.S.S.R. leave Hungary.
1960 - JFK (Sen-MA) is elected President, beating VP Richard Nixon.
1965 - The British Indian Ocean Territory is formed.
1966 - Edward W. Brooke (Rep-MA) becomes the first Black elected to Senate Ronald Reagan is elected governor of California; President Johnson signs an anti-trust immunity to the AFL-NFL merger.
1979 - ABC broadcasts "Iran Crisis: American Held Hostage" with Frank Reynolds (the forerunner to "Nightline").
1980 - The Voyager-1 space probe discovers the Saturn's 15th moon.
1983 - Martha Layne Collins becomes the first female governor of Kentucky; W. Wilson Goode becomes the first Black mayor of Philadelphia.
1984 - Anna Fisher becomes the first "mom" to go into orbit, when the STS 51-A mission is launched.
1987 - 11 die when a bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army explodes at an Ulster Remembrance Day Service.
1988 - 900 die as an earthquake hits China; George H.W. Bush is elected President.
1990 - 100,000 additional US troops are sent to the Persian gulf; Saddam Hussein fires his army chief and threatens to destroy the Arabian peninsula.
1994 - Republicans regain control of the U.S. Congress.

Birthdays
1656 - Sir Edmond Halley, first to calculate a comet's orbit (Halley's Comet)
1922 - Christiaan Barnard, surgeon (performed the first heart transplant)
1931 - Morley Safer , TV newscaster (60 Minutes)
1936 - Edward G. Gibson, astronaut (Skylab 4)
1942 - Angel Cordero, Jr., jockey (won over 6,000 races)
1947 - Margaret Rhea Seddon, M.D. / astronaut (STS 51D, STS 40)
1948 - Dale A. Gardner, Commander USN / astronaut (STS 8, STS 51A)
1949 - Bonnie Raitt, singer / guitarist (Green Light, The Glow, Thing Called Love)

Passings
1308 - Duns Scotus, who coined the word "dunce"
1933 - King Nadir Shah of Afghanistan, assassinated by Abdul Khallig
1978 - Norman Rockwell, artist

Reported Missing in Action
1965
Parker, Richard H., Australian Army (Australia); KIA in ambush, body not recovered

1967
Adams, John R., US Army (CA); UH1C crashed (crewchief); survivors attacked

Brenneman, Richard C., USAF (IN); F4C shot down, released by DRV March, 1973 - alive as of 1996

Baxter, Bruce R., US Army SF (MA); HH3E shot down after picking him up (wounded), KIA in crash, body not recovered

Evert, Lawrence G., USAF (WY); F105 shot down

Hines, Vaughn, US Army (CA); OV1C crashed in water, KIA, body not recovered

Kusick, Joseph G., US Army SF (PA); HH3H shot down after picking him up (wounded), KIA in crash, body not recovered

Weatherman, Earl C., USMC (CA); AWOL after escaping brig, delivered to Viet Cong by cabdriver, reported by VC to have DIC during escape April, 1968, but later reported alive and living in Vietnam

1970
Corona, Joel, US Army (TX); drowned while swimming with friends, body not recovered