"No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true." - Nathaniel Hawthorne, from The Scarlet Letter
- Great fire in Moscow, a third of the largely wooden city destroyed and 2-3,000 killed
- US Constitution comes into effect when New Hampshire is the 9th state to ratify it
- Lord Mountbatten resigns as Governor General of India (formerly the last Viceroy)
- US Senator Daniel K. Inouye and 19 other Japanese-American WWII veterans of the 442nd Regiment belatedly awarded the Medal of Honor by President Bill Clinton
- Mexican artist Frida Kahlo becomes the first Hispanic woman honored on a US postage stamp
- Jean Chacornac, French astronomer, born in Lyon, France (d. 1873)
- Josiah Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp, British civil servant, industrialist, economist, statistician and banker, born in Hampstead, London (d. 1941)
- Joe Bamford, British manufacturer and multi-millionaire, born in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, England (d. 2001)
- Lex van Delden, Dutch actor (Soldier of Orange), born in Amsterdam (d. 2010)
- Andrew Dismukes, American comedian, actor, and writer (Saturday Night Live, The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy), born in Houston, Texas
