1775
Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys captured Fort Ticonderoga from the British.
1863
Confederate General Stonewall Jackson died after being accidentally shot by his own troops.
1869
The United States’ first transcontinental railroad was completed with a ceremony at Promontory Summit, Utah.
1924
J. Edgar Hoover became director of the FBI.
1940
Winston Churchill succeeded Neville Chamberlain as British prime minister.
1994
Nelson Mandela was sworn in as South Africa’s first black president.
Birthdays
John Wilkes Booth
American actor, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln (1838)
Sir Thomas Johnstone Lipton
merchant (1850)
Fred Astaire
dancer (1899)
David O. Selznick
film producer (1902)
Milton Babbitt
composer (1916)
Bono
singer (1960)