Vaclav Havel (Czechoslovakia) 1936
- 1813 - Chief Tecumseh of the Shawnee Indians was killed at the Battle of Thames when American forced defeated the British and the allied Indian warriors.
- 1921 - The World Series was broadcast on the radio for the first time. The game was between the New York Giants and the New York Yankees.
- 1947 - U.S. President Harry S Truman held the first televised presidential address from the White House. The subject was the current international food crisis.
- 1955 - The play "The Diary of Anne Frank" opened at the Cort Theatre in New York.
- 1989 - The Dalai Lama (Lhama Dhondrub, Tenzin Gyatso) was named the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent campaign to end the Chinese domination of Tibet. Gyatso was the 15th Dalai Lama. (Obama won soon after)
- 1998 - The U.S. paid $60 million for Russia's (Clinton president) research time on the international space station to keep the cash-strapped Russian space agency afloat.