1802 – The United States Military Academy
West Point is established.
1945 – The
Battle of Iwo Jima, one of the biggest confrontations between American and Japanese forces fighting in the
Pacific Theatre of
World War II, officially ends. Small pockets of Japanese resistance persist.
1958 –
Ford Motor Company produces its 50 millionth automobile, the
Thunderbird (pictured), averaging almost a million cars a year since the company's founding.
1968 – In the
My Lai massacre, between 350 and 500 Vietnamese villagers are killed by American troops in one of the worst atrocities of the
Vietnam War.
1995 -
Mississippi formally ratifies the
Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of
slavery. The thirteenth amendment was officially ratified in 1865.