- 1500 — The fleet of Pedro Alvares Cabral leaves Lisbon for the Indies. The fleet will discover Brazil which lies within boundaries granted to Portugal in the Treaty of Tordesillas.
- 1842 — The first documented discovery of gold in California occurs at Rancho San Francisco, six years before the California Gold Rush.
- 1933 — Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to Congress, the first of his New Deal policies.
- 1959 — The Barbie doll makes its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.
- 1960 — Dr. Belding Hibbard Scribner implants for the first time a shunt he invented into a patient, which allows the patient to receive hemodialysis on a regular basis.