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George Washington resigned as Commander-in-Chief of the army and retired to his Mount Vernon, Virginian home.

Maryland voted to cede a 10-square-mile area for the seat of the national government. The area became the District of Columbia.

The poem “A visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement C. Moore was published anonymously in the Troy (New York) Sentinel.

The Federal Reserve System was created as President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act.

The National Broadcasting Company set up a permanent coast-to-coast network.

The University of Tennessee refused to play a scheduled basketball game against Duquesne University because Duquesne had a black player on the team, Chuck Cooper.

The Transistor, a major breakthrough in electronics, was invented by Walter H. Brattain, John Bordeen and William Shockley of Bell Laboratories. It replaced the much bulkier vacuum tube, and paved the way to the more compact integrated circuit.

The National Football League Championship game at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was the first coast-to-coast televised NFL title game; The Los Angeles Rams beat the Cleveland Browns, 24-17.

The first successful human kidney transplant took place at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts as a surgical team led by Dr. Joseph Murray removed a kidney from 23-year-old Ronald Herrick and implanted it in Herrick’s twin brother, Richard, who was dying of chronic nephritis.

Cuba began releasing prisoners from the failed Bay of Pigs invasion under an agreement in which Cuba received more than $50 million worth of food and medical supplies.

82 crew members of the U.S. intelligence ship Pueblo were released by North Korea, 11 months after their capture by the North Koreans.

An earthquake near Managua, Nicaragua occurred heavily damaging Managua and surrounding area.

In a playoff game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Oakland Raiders, Franco Harris caught a deflected pass and ran for a touchdown which resulted in the play being dubbed “The Immaculate Reception.”