| Year | Event
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| 1823 | The Monroe Doctrine enunciated by President Monroe in his annual message to Congress this date states a nationalistic determination to oppose any European influence in the Western Hemisphere and to remain aloof from European conflicts.
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| 1859 | John Brown is convicted of treason for his armed attack on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. He goes to the gallows unrepentant, convinced that his plan to seize federal arms and arm Negro slaves in order to lead an uprising against slavery was ordained by God.
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| 1942 | The Nuclear Age begins: in a squash court beneath the University of Chicago's Stagg Field, a group of researchers led by Enrico Fermi achieved the world's first self-sustaining fission reaction.
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| 1956 | Fidel Castro and his followers land in Cuba and, after an initial setback, begin a campaign of guerrilla war, aiming to overthrow General Fulgencio Batista's government.
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| 1957 | The first large-scale nuclear power plant starts up at Shippingport, Pennsylvania, supplying electricity to Pittsburgh area.
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| 1970 | Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created.
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| 1983 | Basque terrorists bombed eight U.S. facilities in Spanish Basque territory to protest U.S. involvement in Central America.
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| 1989 | The U.S. president George Bush (R) and the Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev formally declare the Cold War to be at an end. (From The Encarta® 2000 New World Timeline)
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| 1996 | Special Action Committee on Okinawa (SACO) final report recommends, among other things, that Futenma Marine Corps Air Station, located in central Okinawa and entirely surrounded by the city of Ginowan, be closed in 5 to 7 years (which Clinton agreed to in April). Don't hold your breath; as of 2004, the date for any such closing is at least 16 years away.
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