1876 – An express train called the Transcontinental Express arrives in San Francisco, California, via the First Transcontinental Railroad only 83 hours and 39 minutes after having left New York City.
1917 – The very first Pulitzer Prizes are given: Laura E. Richards, Maude H. Elliott, and Florence Hall receive the first Pulitzer for a biography (for Julia Ward Howe). Jean Jules Jusserand receives the first Pulitzer for history (for his work With Americans of Past and Present Days). Herbert B. Swope receives the first Pulitzer for journalism (for his work for the New York World).
1924 – During a British expedition, Edward Felix Norton reaches the height of 8,573 metres (28,127 feet) above sea level (on Mount Everest), the highest point climbed by anyone until then, but because of it being evening, he is unable to go up to the summit.
1926 – Robert Earl Hughes sets current record for world's heaviest human.
1944 – World War II: A hunter-killer group of the United States Navy capture the German submarine U-505, marking the first time a U.S. Navy vessel captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century.
1967 - Stockport Air Disaster: British Midland Flight G-ALHG crashes in Hopes Carr, Stockport, England, killing 72 people.
1970 – Tonga gains independence from the United Kingdom. Taufa'ahau Tupou IV is King, a position he had held since 1965 when Tonga was a British protectorate.
1989 – Solidarity's victory in the first partly free parliamentary elections in post-war Poland sparks off a succession of peaceful anti-communist revolutions in Eastern Europe.
1989 – Ufa train disaster: A natural gas explosion near Ufa, Russia, kills 645 as two trains passing each other throw sparks near a leaky pipeline.
1991 – Britain's Conservative government announces that some British regiments would disappear or be merged into others – the largest armed forces cuts in almost twenty years.
2001 – Gyanendra becomes King of Nepal, after the death of Dipendra of Nepal, who was King for three days after the Royal Massacre, in which he was injured.
2002 – The wall of the Zeyzoun reservoir in Syria breaks. The resulting flood kills 100 people.
2003 – U.S. lifestyle guru Martha Stewart and her broker are indicted for using privileged investment information and then obstructing a federal investigation. Stewart also resigns as chairperson and chief executive officer of Martha Stewart Living.
2011 – The Puyehue Cordon Caulle volcanic structure in Chile erupts, sending an ash cloud over parts of South America and as far away as Oceania. Many flights are cancelled.