James Marshall discovers gold along Sutter's Creek near Sacramento, sparking the California Gold Rush. John Sutter, the owner of the property, was ruined as settlers and prospectors flocked to California in search of fortune.
The Department of Homeland Security begins operations two months after the passage of the Homeland Security Act of 2002. President George W. Bush appointed Tom Ridge, the former Governor of Pennsylvania, to be its first secretary. Employing more than 200,000 Americans, the department is the third largest Cabinet department.
Edith Wharton born
Pulitzer Prize-winning American author Edith Wharton is born Edith Newbold Jones in New York City. Wharton lived in France before, during, and after World War I, and later won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for The Age of Innocence.
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