1942 – World War II: The first successful test of the German V-2 rocket, the world's first ballistic missile and first human artifact to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight, occurred.
1951 – Korean War: The First Battle of Maryang San, primarily pitting Australian and British forces against communist China, began.
1967 Thurgood Marshall sworn in as 1st black Supreme Court Justice
1981 – The Hunger Strike by Irish Republican Army prisoners at the Maze jail in Belfast ended after seven months and 10 deaths.
1990 – The German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany officially joined to form the first fully sovereign united German state since the end of World War II.
