General James "Jimmy" Doolittle is born in Alameda, California. One of the most accomplished Army Air Corps pilots, he famously led the Doolittle Raid on Japanese targets in retaliation for the Attack on Pearl Harbor. For commanding the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt awarded Doolittle the Congressional Medal of Honor.
President George Washington dies in his Mount Vernon estate, most likely from acute laryngitis. Washington had left office in 1797, declining to serve a third term as chief executive, and had retired to Mount Vernon.
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