September 21
Today in America's Present Past
1638 | Indian Wars: The Pequot War ends with the signing of the Treaty of Hartford.
1645 | Explorer Louis Jolliet was born.
1737 | Founder Francis Hopkinson was born.
1776 | War of Independence: Nathan Hale was arrested.
1780 | War of Independence: Benedict Arnold provides Great Britain with plans to West Point.
1784 | America’s first successful daily newspaper, the Pennsylvania Packet & Daily, launches.
1798 | Founder George Read died.
1820 | Poet Joseph Rodman Drake died.
1823 | Mormon founder Joseph Smith has his vision of Moroni.
1827 | Mormon founder Joseph Smith purports to have received a record of golden plates translated into the Book of Mormon.
1867 | Politician Henry L. Stimson was born.
1872 | Civil Rights: Annapolis admits its first black student, John Henry Conyers.
1895 | Duryea Motor Wagon Company, America’s first automotive producer, is founded.
1897 | The now-famous editorial, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” column runs in the New York Sun.
1904 | Nez Perce Chief Joseph died.
1907 | Journalist Helen Foster Snow was born.
1922 | POTUS: Republican President Harding signs a joint resolution supporting a Jewish homeland in the Lavant.
1924 | Entrepreneur and inventor Bernard Silver was born.
1926 | Physicist Donald A. Glaser was born.
1931 | Actor Larry Hagman was born.
1947 | Novelist Stephen King was born.
1950 | Actor Bill Murray was born.
1955 | Undefeated boxing heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano KO’s Archie Moore in his last fight.
1957 | Author, commentator, and lawyer Mark Levin was born.
1959 | POTUS: Republican President Eisenhower signed the first federal Food Stamp program.
1961 | Inventor Earle Dickson died.
1964 | The world’s first Mach 3 bomber, the XB-70 Valkyrie, makes its maiden flight.
1966 | Musician Hendrix changes his first name to “Jimi.”
1967 | Musician Faith Hill was born.
1970 | The New York Times models the first modern “op-ed” page.
1970 | TV: “Monday Night Football” premieres.
1971 | Actor Luke Wilson was born.
1976 | Chilean government leader Orlando Letelier is assassinated in Washington, D.C.
1985 | Cold War: CIA case officer Edward Lee Howard defects to the Soviets.
1996 | Scion John F. Kennedy, Jr. weds Caroline Bisset.
1998 | TV: “Will & Grace” debuted.
2007 | Cleric Rex Humbard died.
2013 | Investor George Soros weds Tamiko Bolton.
2021 | Actor, composer, and novelist Melvin Van Peebles died.