1868 ~ Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina were readmitted to the Union.

1876 ~ Lt. Col. Custer and the 210 men of U.S. 7th Cavalry were killed by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians at Little Big Horn in Montana. The event is known as "Custer's Last Stand."

1906 ~ Pittsburgh millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw, the son of coal and railroad baron William Thaw, shot and killed Stanford White. White, a prominent architect, had a tryst with Florence Evelyn Nesbit before she married Thaw. The shooting took place at the premeire of "Mamzelle Champagne" in New York.

1917 ~ The first American fighting troops landed in France. 

1921 ~ Samuel Gompers was elected head of the AFL for the 40th time.

1938 ~ Gaelic scholar Douglas Hyde was inaugurated as the first president of the Irish Republic.

1948 ~ The Soviet Union tightened its blockade of Berlin by intercepting river barges heading for the city.

1951 ~ In New York, the first regular commercial color TV transmissions were presented on CBS using the FCC-approved CBS Color System. The public did not own color TV's at the time.

1962 ~ "The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the use of unofficial non-denominational prayer in public schools was unconstitutional.

1964 ~ U.S. President Lyndon Johnson ordered 200 naval personnel to Mississippi to assist in finding three missing civil rights workers.

1968 ~ Bobby Bonds (San Francisco Giants) hit a grand-slam home run in his first game with the Giants. He was the first player to debut with a grand-slam.

1970 ~ The U.S. Federal Communications Commission handed down a ruling (35 FR 7732), making it illegal for radio stations to put telephone calls on the air without the permission of the person being called.

1973 ~ White House Counsel John Dean admitted that U.S. President Nixon took part in the Watergate cover-up.

1985 ~ ABC’s "Monday Night Football" began with a new line-up. The trio was Frank Gifford, Joe Namath and O.J. Simpson.

1985 ~ New York Yankees officials enacted the rule that mandated that the team’s bat boys were to wear protective helmets during all games.

1990 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of an individual, whose wishes are clearly made, to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment. "The right to die" decision was made in the Curzan vs. Missouri case.

1993 ~ Kim Campbell took office as Canada's first woman prime minister. She assumed power upon the resignation of Brian Mulroney.

1997 ~ The Russian space station Mir was hit by an unmanned cargo vessel. Much of the power supply was knocked out and the station's Spektr module was severely damaged.

2000 ~  U.S. and British researchers announced that they had completed a rough draft of a map of the genetic makeup of human beings. The project was 10 years old at the time of the announcement.

2000 ~ A Florida judge approved a class-action lawsuit to be filed against American Online (AOL) on behalf of hourly subscribers who were forced to view "pop-up" advertisements.