On March 6, 1820, President James Monroe signed the Missouri Compromise, which allowed Missouri to join the Union as a slave state and Maine to join as a free state, while banning slavery in the northern portion of the Louisiana Territory.

In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, ruled 7-2 that Scott, an enslaved person, was not an American citizen and therefore could not sue for his freedom in Federal court; it also ruled that slavery could not be banned from any Federal territory. The decision deepened the national divide over slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War.

In 1912, Oreo cookies were first introduced by the National Biscuit Company (later known as Nabisco).

In 1964, heavyweight boxing champion Cassius Clay took a new name given to him by Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammed: Muhammad Ali.