1789, George Washington was inaugurated in New York as the first president of the United States.
1803, the United States more than doubled its size with the $15 million Louisiana Purchase from France.
1939, the New York World’s Fair, billed as a look at “the world of tomorrow,” officially opened.
1939, New York Yankee Lou Gehrig, the “Iron Horse” of baseball, played in his 2,130th consecutive game, which was also his last. He retired because he was suffering from a degenerative muscle condition, later named Lou Gehrig’s disease, that killed him a few years later.
1945, As Russian troops approached his Berlin bunker, Adolf Hitler committed suicide along with his wife of one day, Eva Braun.
1947, President Truman signed a measure officially changing the name of Boulder Dam to Hoover Dam.
1964, The FCC ruled that all TV receivers should be equipped to receive both VHF (channels 2-13) and the new UHF (channels 14-83).
1967, heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali was stripped of his title after he refused to be inducted into the army because of his religion.
1970, President Richard Nixon announced that the U.S. was sending troops into Cambodia.
1973, during the Watergate scandal, President Nixon announced the resignations of Chief Of Staff H.R. Haldeman, aide John Ehrlichman, and Attorney General Richard G. Kleindienst, along with the dismissal of White House counsel John Dean.
1975, the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to Communist forces, ending the Vietnam War.
1988, Molloko, the first California condor chick to be conceived in captivity, was hatched at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.
1993, top-ranked tennis player Monica Seles was stabbed in the back during a break in a match againstSteffi Graf in Hamburg, Germany, by a deranged man who described himself as a Graf fan.
1996, President Bill Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres signed an accord in Washington extending U.S. help to Israel in countering terrorism.
1997, after a year’s build-up, the character played by Ellen Degeneres came out as a lesbian in “The Puppy Episode” of Ellen.
2008, Two skeletal remains found outside Ekaterinburg, Russia were confirmed by scientists to be the remains of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia and one of his sisters.