1642 - Montreal, Canada, was founded.

1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed emperor by the French Senate.

1897 - A public reading of Bram Stoker's new novel, "Dracula, or, The Un-dead," was performed in London.

1917 – The U.S. Congress passed the Selective Service act, which called up soldiers to fight in World War I.

1934 – The U.S. Congress approved an act, known as the "Lindberg Act," that called for the death penalty in interstate kidnapping cases.

1942 - New York ended night baseball games for the duration of World War II.

1951 - The United Nations moved its headquarters to New York City.

1953 - The first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound, Jacqueline Cochran, piloted an F-86 Sabrejet over California at an average speed of 652.337 miles-per-hour.

1980 - Mt. Saint Helens erupted in Washington State. 57 people were killed and 3 billion in damage was done.

1998 – The U.S. federal government and 20 states filed a sweeping antitrust case against Microsoft Corp., saying the computer software company had a "choke hold" on competitors which denied consumer choices by controlling 90% of the software market.