1814 – Britain & allies march into Paris after defeating Napoleon. How many foreign armies have paraded through Paris?

1842 – Anesthesia is used for the first time in an operation by Dr. Crawford Long.

1858 – Hymen Lipman patents a pencil with an attached eraser.

1867 – Alaska is purchased for $7.2 million, about 2 cent/acre ($4.19/km²), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward. The news media call this Seward’s Folly.

1870 – Texas becomes last Confederate state readmitted to Union. Lately they’re asking about a do-over on that.

1932 – Amelia Earhart is first woman to fly solo cross the Atlantic, spends first half of trip with left blinker on, applying mascara.

1951 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau. 5,200 vacuum tubes, weighed 29,000 pounds (13 metric tons), consumed 125 kW in electricity.

1981 – President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr., who is trying to impress Jodie Foster.

1991 – William Kennedy Smith allegedly rapes a woman, in keeping with his family’s high tradition. Also in keeping with his family’s high tradition, he’s found “not guilty”.