- In 1614, Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia.
- In 1621, the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth on a return trip to England.
- In 1792, President George Washington exercised his veto power for the first time.
- In 1949, a fire in a hospital in Effingham, Ill., killed 77 and led to improvements in the U.S. fire code.
- In 1951, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were sentenced to death for spying for the Soviet Union.
- In 1992, Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori dissolved the country’s congress by military force.