- Jo Shelby's cavalry in action at Moffat's Station, Arkansas
- The physics journal Annalen der Physik publishes Albert Einstein's paper "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", introducing the equation E=mc².
- White Sox host 1st "day-night" doubleheader, lose to Cleve, 5-2 and 7-5
- Marvin Hagler defeats Alan Minter to claim boxing's world Middleweight championship in London. They have to be escorted away by police after a riot forms.
- Senate votes for major federal tax code changes
- Atlanta Braves clinch their 14th straight division title thanks to Philadelphia's loss to the New York Mets
- Agustin I de Iturbide, General and 1st Emperor of Mexico (1822-23), born in Valladolid, Michoacán, Mexico (d. 1824)
- James Wilson, composer
- Peter Holmes, CEO (Shell Transport and Trading Company
- Thelma Aldana, Guatemalan judge and 11th Guatemalan Attorney General, born in Gualán, Zacapa