The American-led coalition begins bombing campaigns and ground assaults in Iraq against Saddam Hussein's Republic Guard. Operation Iraqi Freedom sought to remove Hussein from power and topple the Ba'athist government in Baghdad.
Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin is published in the United States. The anti-slavery novel became the second best-selling book in the United States behind the Bible, and was quickly translated and published around the world.
The modern Republican Party is founded at a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin. Nicknamed the "Grand Old Party," it combined elements of the Free Soil Democrat and Whig platforms, winning strong support in the North and helping Abraham Lincoln win the presidency in 1860.
