In 1861, Jefferson Davis was sworn in as president of the newly formed Confederacy. In 1885, Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published. In 1930, astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh discovered the dwarf planet Pluto. In 1930, as part of the St. Louis International Air Exposition, a cow known as "Elm Farm Ollie" became the first ever to fly in an airplane and to be milked midflight. In 1954, the Church of Scientology was formed in Los Angeles. In 1972, the California Supreme Court declared the state's death penalty "impermissibly cruel" and in violation of the state's constitution.

Alessandro Volta (1745-1827), inventor; Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933), artist/designer; Jack Palance (1919-2006), actor; Toni Morrison (1931-2019), writer; Yoko Ono (1933- ), artist; Audre Lorde (1934-92), writer/activist; Jean M. Auel (1936- ), writer; Cybill Shepherd (1950- ), actress; John Travolta (1954- ), actor; Vanna White (1957- ), TV personality; Matt Dillon (1964- ), actor; Dr. Dre (1965- ), rapper; Molly Ringwald (1968- ), actress; Jillian Michaels (1974- ), TV personality; Ike Barinholtz (1977- ), actor/comedian; Regina Spektor (1980- ), singer; Le'Veon Bell (1992- ), football player

In 2001, NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Sr. was fatally injured in a multi-car crash during the final lap of the Daytona 500.

The dwarf planet Eris is larger than Pluto—one of several reasons that astronomers reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet in 2006.

"There is really nothing more to say—except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how." – Toni Morrison