On this date...

Cynthia Parker as an adult

In 1836, a raiding party of Comanche, Kiowa, and Kichai warriors attacked Fort Parker (in modern-day Limestone County). Two women and three children—including 9-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker—were taken captive.

In 1863, General Ulysses S. Grant attempted to take the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, Mississippi. After making a daring run past Confederate batteries, Union naval forces joined troops several miles down river. Working together, they detained Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston in Jackson, preventing him from assisting General John C. Pemberton at Vicksburg.

In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln writes to anti-slavery Congressional leader Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts proposing that widows and children of soldiers should be given equal treatment regardless of race.

In 1883, William Cody held the first of his “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” shows in Omaha, Nebraska.

In 1884, The Ringling Brothers opened a small circus in Baraboo, Wisconsin and by the early 20th century had transformed it into the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the leading American circus.

In 1920, ten people were killed in a gun battle between coal miners, who were led by a local police chief, and a group of private security guards hired to evict them for joining a union in Matewan, West Virginia.

In 1921, President Warren G. Harding signed the Emergency Quota Act, which established national quotas for immigrants.

In 1943, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchil plot the cross channel invasion that would become the D-Day Invasion.

In 1962, Marilyn Monroe sings "Happy Birthday" to John F. Kennedy during his birthday gala at Madison Square Gardens. Her iconic sequined dress from the performance becomes the priciest dress ever sold at auction in 2016, fetching $4.8 million.