In 1817, Mississippi was admitted as the 20th state.
In 1830, Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts.
In 1864, Union General William T. Sherman completed his "March to the Sea" when he arrives in front of Savannah, Georgia.
In 1869, motivated more by interest in free publicity than a commitment to gender equality, Wyoming territorial legislators passed a bill that is signed into law granting women the right to vote.
In 1898, a treaty was signed in Paris officially ending the Spanish-American War.
In 1901, the first Nobel Prizes were awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. The ceremony came on the fifth anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite and other high explosives.
In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for helping to mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
In 1931, Jane Addams became a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, the first American woman so honored.
In 1948, the U.N. General Assembly adopted its Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
In 1950, for his peace mediation during the first Arab-Israeli war, American diplomat Ralph Joseph Bunche received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. Bunche was the first African American to win the prestigious award.
In 1958, the first domestic passenger jet flight took place in the U.S. as a National Airlines Boeing 707 flew 111 passengers from New York to Miami in about 2 1/2 hours.
Forty years ago, in 1964, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize during ceremonies in Oslo, Norway.
In 1967, singer Otis Redding died in the crash of his private plane in Wisconsin.
In 1984, South African Bishop Desmond Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Ten years ago today: Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin received the Nobel Peace Prize, pledging to pursue their mission of healing the anguished Middle East. Advertising executive Thomas Mosser of North Caldwell, N.J., was killed by a mail bomb blamed on the Unabomber.
Five years ago today: After three years under suspicion as a spy for China, computer scientist Wen Ho Lee was arrested and charged with removing secrets from secure computers at the Los Alamos weapons lab. More than 2 million people marched in Cuba to demand the return of Elian Gonzalez.
One year ago today: A divided Supreme Court upheld the broadest restrictions on campaign donations in nearly 30 years. An appeals court ordered a new trial for Lionel Tate, a Florida teen sentenced to life for causing the death of a 6-year-old playmate, Tiffany Eunick. (Originally convicted of first-degree murder, Tate pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and went free last January.) Iranian democracy activist Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, accepted the award in Oslo, Norway.
Today's Birthdays: Actor Harold Gould is 81. Actress Jean Byron is 79. Former Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter is 74. Actor Tommy Kirk is 63. Actress Fionnula Flanagan is 63. Pop singer Chad Stuart (Chad and Jeremy) is 61. Actress-singer Gloria Loring is 58. Pop-funk musician Walter "Clyde" Orange (The Commodores) is 58. R&B singer Ralph Tavares is 56. R&B singer Jessica Cleaves (Friends of Distinction) is 56. Country singer Johnny Rodriguez is 53. Actress Susan Dey is 52. Jazz musician Paul Hardcastle is 47. Actor-director Kenneth Branagh is 44. Actress Nia Peeples is 43. Actor Michael Clarke Duncan is 41. Rock singer-musician J Mascis is 39. Country singer Kevin Sharp is 34. Rock musician Scot Alexander (Dishwalla) is 33. Rapper Kuniva (D12) is 26. Violinist Sarah Chang is 24. Actress Raven is 19.
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