September 17
Today in America's Present Past
1574 | Explorer Pedro Menendez de Aviles died.
1691 | Massachusetts Bay Colony granted a charter.
1730 | Revolutionary War hero Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben was born.
1739 | SCOTUS: Justice John Rutledge was born.
1778 | First U.S.-Indian Tribe Treaty signed.
1787 | CONGRESS: The U.S. Constitution was signed.
1825 | SCOTUS: Justice Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar was born.
1842 | Dawson massacre.
1849 | Civil Rights: Harriet Tubman escapes slavery (for the first time).
1854 | Entrepreneur David Dunbar Buick was born.
1858 | Dred Scott died.
1859 | San Francisco resident declares himself Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I, Emperor of the U.S.A.
1861 | Civil Rights: First university class taught for escaped slaves at (now) Hampton University.
1862 | Civil War: Battle of Antietam.
1868 | Cheyenne leader Wiquini died.
1876 | Civil Rights: Race riots in South Carolina (related to redshirt Democrats).
1900 | Entrepreneur J. Willard Marriott was born.
1900 | Anthracite coal miners go on strike.
1907 | SCOTUS: Chief Justice Warren E. Burger was born.
1908 | Thomas Selfridge becomes the first fatality of powered flight.
1911 | First transcontinental airplane flight: New York to California (82 hours).
1916 | Engineer Oswald Garrison Villard Jr. was born.
1918 | Comedian Bud Abbott wed Betty Smith.
1923 | Country singer Hank Williams was born.
1931 | Actress Anne Bancroft was born.
1935 | Author Ken Kesey was born.
1937 | Economist John Kenneth Galbraith wed Catherine Atwater.
1939 | SCOTUS: Justice David Souter was born.
1947 | Civil Rights: Jackie Robinson was named Rookie of the Year.
1952 | Constitution Day was renamed “Citizenship Day.”
1954 | Rocky Marciano retains the world heavyweight championship title with the KO of Ezzard Charles.
1960 | Cuba nationalizes US banks.
1962 | U.S. Justice Department files first lawsuit to end segregation in government schools.
1962 | Director Paul Feig was born in Mt. Clemens, Michigan.
1964 | TV: “Bewitched” debuted.
1965 | Tennis pro Billie Jean King wed Larry King.
1967 | Music: Jim Morrison appears for the first and only time on the Ed Sullivan Show.
1978 | POTUS: Democrat President Carter, Anwar Sadat, and Menachem Begin signed the Camp David Accords.
1991 | Inventor John Thomas died.
1996 | Vice-President Spiro Agnew died.
1997 | Comedian Red Skelton died.
2014 | Singer George Hamilton IV died.
2019 | Journalist Corrine "Cokie" Roberts died.
2020 | Entrepreneur Robert W. Gore died.