Scholar and civil rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, later co-founding the NAACP and shaping Black intellectual thought.

The U.S. Army designated Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay as a long-term military prison, beginning its transformation into one of America's most infamous fortresses.

Union and Confederate cavalry fought the largest all-cavalry battle of the American Civil War at Trevilian Station, Virginia.

Christopher Latham Sholes received a U.S. patent for an early practical typewriter, a machine that would reshape offices, literature, and communication.

The United States Congress carved out Wyoming Territory from surrounding lands, a step toward statehood for a region soon famous for granting women the vote.

The United States and the Lakota Sioux signed a treaty guaranteeing the Black Hills to the tribe, a promise broken within a decade by gold prospectors.

French astronomer Georges Rayet and colleagues observe a bright yellow spectral line during a total solar eclipse, leading to the discovery of helium.

Cuban rebels led by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes declared independence from Spain in the town of Yara, igniting the Ten Years' War.