1842 – Ether anesthesia is used for the first time, in an operation by the American surgeon Dr. Crawford Long.
1867 – Alaska is purchased from Russia for $7.2 million, about 2-cent/acre ($4.19/km²), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward.
1909 – The Queensboro Bridge in New York City opens, linking Manhattan and Queens.
1981 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr. Another two people are wounded at the same time.
