- The United Nations officially condemned Apartheid. (1962) The UN condemned the 45-year-long racist practices of South Africa and requested that all countries in the UN cease military and economic ties with the country. The Apartheid policies wouldn't fully come to an end for 32 more years.
- Plutonium was first made. (1944) The chemical element later used to make atomic bombs was created in a laboratory at the US government's Hanford Atomic Facility in the state of Washington.
- US President Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican to be elected President. (1860) He beat out three other candidates and won 40 percent of the popular vote. By the time he was inaugurated in March of 1861, however, seven states had seceded from the Union and had elected Jefferson Davis as their president. The American Civil War began about a month later.
- The inventor of the game of basketball was born. (1861) James Naismith, a Canadian, not only invented the sport, but also wrote the official rule book and started the basketball program at the University of Kansas — he is the only coach in the history of the KU program with a losing record. Naismith may also have been responsible for the introduction of the first football helmet.
- The US tested its largest underground hydrogen bomb in its history. (1971) The bomb, called Cannikin, was detonated by the US Atomic Energy Commission on a volcanic island called Amchitka in the Aleutian Islands. The blast raised the ground 20 feet (about 6 meters) and was estimated to be about 400 times more powerful than the bomb the US dropped on Hiroshima.
- The longest-running TV program in US history, Meet the Press debuted. (1947) The show initially began in 1945 as a radio show. It features interviews and news, often involving American and world politics.
- The last combat unit of the Confederate Army surrendered during the American Civil War. (1865) The Confederate States Navy ship CSS Shenandoah surrendered after having spent a year sailing around the world, during which time the crew captured or sank 38 vessels. The ship also is historically noted for having fired the last shot during the American Civil War.
- The first official college football game was played. (1869) Princeton University — then known as the College of New Jersey — was defeated by Rutgers College 6-4.
- The patents that led to the game Monopoly were purchased by Parker Brothers. (1935) The precursor to Monopoly was a game called The Landlord's Game, which was invented by a Quaker woman named Elizabeth Magie. Game developers played with her idea, making changes, and eventually Charles Darrow developed and sold the game as Monopoly. He sold his version of the game to Parker Brothers on this day.
- Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin addressed his country ensuring a World War II victory. (1941) This was only the second time in the 20 years since he'd assumed power that he addressed the people of his nation. He insisted that though the Soviet Union had lost 350,000 soldiers in the war so far, Germany had lost more than four million. By the end of the war, more than 26 million Soviets had been killed — nearly half of the 60 million total casualties in the war worldwide and far more than any other country.
