- 1788 – American Pioneers to the Northwest Territory arrive at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, establishing Marietta, Ohio, as the first permanent American settlement of the new United States in the Northwest Territory, and opening the westward expansion of the new country.
- 1827 – John Walker, an English chemist, sells the first friction match that he had invented the previous year.
- 1933 – Prohibition is repealed for beer of no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight, eight months before the ratification of the XXI amendment.
- 1967 – Film critic Roger Ebert published his very first film review in the Chicago Sun-Times.
- 1969 – The Internet’s symbolic birth date: publication of RFC 1.