In 1790, President George Washington signed legislation designating the District of Columbia as the permanent capital of the United States. In 1951, J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye was published. In 1979, Saddam Hussein became the president of Iraq. In 2004, Chicago's Millennium Park officially opened.

Andrea del Sarto (1486-1530), painter; Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910), religious leader; Ida B. Wells (1862-1931), journalist/activist; Roald Amundsen (1872-1928), explorer; "Shoeless" Joe Jackson (1887-1951), baseball player; Barbara Stanwyck (1907-90), actress; Ginger Rogers (1911-95), dancer/actress; Margaret Smith Court (1942- ), tennis player; Tony Kushner (1956- ), playwright; Will Ferrell (1967- ), actor; Barry Sanders (1968- ), football player/sportscaster; Corey Feldman (1971- ), actor; Adam Scott (1980- ), golfer; Carli Lloyd (1982- ), soccer player

In 1932, Babe Didrikson singlehandedly won the Amateur Athletic Union's national women's team championship; she competed in 8 of the 10 events and set four world records over the course of competition.

The world's first parking meter, installed on this day in 1935 in Oklahoma City, charged five cents per hour.

"When two people love each other, they don't look at each other, they look in the same direction." – Ginger Rogers