At the Maryland State House in Annapolis, the Articles of Confederation Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris, ending the American Revolution and granting American sovereignty. Future presidents John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe were some of the delegates present to sign the treaty.
Casablanca Conference opens
President Franklin Roosevelt becomes the first sitting president to fly in an airplane when he travels to Morocco for the Casablanca Conference to meet with Winston Churchill and exiled French leaders. At the conference they decide to seek unconditional surrender from Germany and Italy and plan an invasion of Sicily and the Italian mainland.
Revolutionary War general Benedict Arnold is born in Norwich, Connecticut. Arnold, a successful businessman before the war, helped the Continental Army secure many strategic victories at Fort Ticonderoga and Saratoga. He later betrayed his country by offering to surrender West Point to the British, defecting to the British after the plot failed, and commanding raiding expeditions in Virginia and Connecticut.
