On the plains near Valencia, Simón Bolívar led a mixed army of Venezuelan patriots, Llanero cavalry, and a British Legion against Spanish royalist forces. The decisive victory effectively ended Spanish colonial rule in Venezuela and became a foundational myth of national identity, later commemorated on the country's coat of arms and currency.

On San Juan Island in the disputed waters between Vancouver Island and Washington Territory, American settler Lyman Cutlar shot a pig belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company after it dug up his potatoes. The killing escalated into a tense standoff involving hundreds of American and British troops, resolved without bloodshed through arbitration that eventually awarded the island to the United States.

Congress formally created Wyoming Territory on July 25, 1868 out of portions of Dakota, Idaho, and Utah territories, though this event has sometimes been misdated. Wyoming would go on to become the first US territory to grant women full voting rights in 1869, earning its nickname as the Equality State.