1606 – The Virginia Company loads three ships with settlers and sets sail to establish Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.
1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans.
1860 – South Carolina becomes the first state to attempt to secede from the United States.
1924 – Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison
1941 – World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming, China.
1942 – World War II: Japanese air forces bomb Calcutta, India.
1946 – The popular Christmas film It's a Wonderful Life is first released in New York City.
1951 – The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity. The electricity powered four light bulbs.
1952 – A United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington killing 87.
1967 – A Pennsylvania Railroad Budd Metroliner exceeds 155 mph on their New York Division, also present day Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.
1968 – The Zodiac Killer kills Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday in Vallejo, California.
1971 – The international aid organization Doctors Without Borders is founded by Bernard Kouchner and a group of journalists in Paris, France.
1989 – United States invasion of Panama: The United States sends troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega. This is also the first combat use of purpose-designed stealth aircraft.
1991 – A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.
1995 – NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.
1740 – Arthur Lee, American physician and diplomat (d. 1792)
1833 – Samuel Mudd, American physician (d. 1883)
1868 – Harvey Samuel Firestone, American businessman, founded the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company (d. 1938)
1881 – Branch Rickey, American baseball player and manager (d. 1965)
1888 – Fred Merkle, American baseball player and manager (d. 1958)
1914 – Harry F. Byrd, Jr., American lieutenant, publisher, and politician (d. 2013)
1959 – Trent Tucker, American basketball player and sportscaster
1812 – Sacagawea, American explorer (b. 1788)
1820 – John Bell, American farmer (b. 1750)
1961 – Moss Hart, American director and playwright (b. 1904)
1968 – John Steinbeck, American novelist and short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
1971 – Roy O. Disney, American banker and businessman, co-founded The Walt Disney Company (b. 1893)
1976 – Richard J. Daley, American lawyer and politician, 48th Mayor of Chicago (b. 1902)
1996 – Carl Sagan, American astronomer, astrophysicist, and cosmologist (b. 1934)