Dean Koontz 1945 - Author
- 1776 - The American Declaration of Independence was read aloud to Gen. George Washington's troops in New York.
- 1789 - In Versailles, the French National Assembly declared itself the Constituent Assembly and began to prepare a French constitution.
- 1816 - Argentina declared independence from Spain.
- 1868 - The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The amendment was designed to grant citizenship to and protect the civil liberties of recently freed slaves. It did this by prohibiting states from denying or abridging the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, depriving any person of his life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or denying to any person within their jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
- 1877 - Alexander Graham Bell, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, Thomas Sanders and Thomas Watson formed the Bell Telephone Company.
- 1997 - Mike Tyson was banned from the boxing ring and fined $3 million for biting the ear of opponent Evander Holyfield.