During Operation Red Dawn, a US Army detachment of the 4th Infantry Division captures Saddam Hussein in Ad-Dawr, a small Iraqi town outside Tikrit. Hussein had been hiding for nine months following the March 2003 American-led invasion of Iraq before being seized in a spider hole by American Task Force 121.
Confederate defenders turn back numerous Union attacks during the Battle of Fredericksburg. Federal forces faced significant obstacles before the battle, as they encountered heavy resistance while trying to cross the Rappahannock River and secure Fredericksburg before proceeding to attack heavily reinforced Confederate positions south of the town.
Future First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln is born in Lexington, Kentucky. Growing up in a wealthy Kentucky family, she later moved to Springfield, Illinois, where she met Abraham Lincoln, who was practicing law. She served as First Lady from 1861 until her husband's assassination in 1865.
