2010 – American writer J.D. Salinger—who was best known for The Catcher in the Rye (1951), which uses humour and colourful language to portray the sensitive, rebellious adolescent Holden Caulfield—died at age 91.

American inventor Thomas Edison patented the incandescent lamp.

1976 – The first episode of the sitcom Laverne and Shirley, a spin-off of Happy Days, aired on ABC; it starred Cindy Williams and Penny Marshall, who later became one of the first women to achieve consistent commercial success as a movie director.