1847

The first rescuers reached members of the Donner Party, which had been snowbound in the Sierra Nevada near the California-Nevada border for nearly four months.

1878

Inventor Thomas Edison was issued a patent for the phonograph.

1942

During World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which paved the way for the internment of 125,000 people of Japanese ancestry, including U.S.-born citizens.