| 1979: | | At 4:00 AM an automatic valve mistakenly closed at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, culminating in radioactive leakage. |
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| 1969: | | | Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States, died in Washington, D.C. |
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| 1939: | | Francisco Franco, leader of the Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War, captured the capital city of Madrid en route to his overthrow of the democratic Spanish republic. |
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| 1920: | | | American motion-picture actors Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks were wed. |
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| 1890: | | American bandleader Paul Whiteman, called the “King of Jazz” for popularizing a musical style that helped to introduce jazz to mainstream audiences during the 1920s and '30s, was born. |
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