George Washington, the first president of the United States, was inaugurated this day in 1789 in Federal Hall in New York City, addressing his constituency on “the proceedings of a new and free government.”
| 1980: | | | Queen Beatrix ascended the throne of The Netherlands. |
|
| 1975: | | The South Vietnamese capital of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) fell to North Vietnamese troops during the Vietnam War. |
|
| 1945: | | | German dictator Adolf Hitler and his wife committed suicide in a bunker in Berlin. |
|
| 1939: | | The National Broadcasting Company made the first public television broadcast in the United States, at the New York World's Fair. |
|
| 1900: | | American railroad engineer Casey Jones, later made famous in song, died in a train wreck. |
|