In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that slaves in rebel states shall be "forever free."
1660: Englishman Samuel Pepys (peeps) began keeping his famous diary.
1913: The U.S. Parcel Post system went into operation.
1945: France was admitted to the United Nations.
1979: The United States and China held celebrations in Washington and Beijing to mark the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
1994: The North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect.
1995: The World Trade Organization (WTO) came into being, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Sweden, Finland and Austria joined the European Union.
2014: The nation's first legal recreational pot shops opened in Colorado at 8 a.m. Mountain time.