September 4
Today in America's Present Past
1609 | Explorer Henry Hudson becomes the first European to discover the island of Manhattan.
1778 | War of Independence: Dutch bankers sign an agreement with Americans to support the fight for Independence.
1801 | Entrepreneur Cullen Whipple was born.
1803 | First Lady Sarah Childress Polk was born.
1804 | Naval officer Richard Somers was killed during an assault on Tripoli against Muslim pirates.
1807 | Entrepreneur Robert Fulton starts steamboat service.
1813 | Civil Rights: The first religious newspaper in the nation starts publication, The Religious Remembrancer.
1824 | Poet Phoebe Cary was born.
1834 | William Lloyd Garrison wed Helen Eliza Benson.
1864 | Civil Rights: Bread riots in Mobile, Alabama.
1851 | SCOTUS: Justice Levi Woodbury died.
1882 | Thomas Edison lights up NYC Pearl Street Station as a public demonstration of electric lighting.
1886 | Indian Wars: Apache Chief Geronimo surrenders.
1888 | George Eastman patents his brand-named “Kodak” roll-film camera.
1908 | Novelist Richard Nathanial Wright was born.
1909 | Playwright Clyde Fitch died.
1913 | Outlaw Mickey Cohen was born.
1913 | Biochemist Stanford Moore was born.
1917 | Henry Ford II was born.
1918 | Radio broadcaster Paul Harvey was born.
1923 | The first U.S. airship, U.S.S. Shenandoah, launches for its maiden flight.
1927 | Computer scientist John McCarthy was born.
1929 | Politician Thomas Eagleton was born.
1930 | SCOTUS: Justice Thurgood Marshall wed Vivian Burey.
1950 | Korean War: First use of a helicopter behind enemy lines to rescue a US pilot.
1950 | The cartoon strip “Beetle Bailey” debuted.
1950 | Cold War: U.S. Navy shoots down a Soviet bomber.
1957 | Democrat Governor Orval Faubus called out the National Guard to prevent nine black students from entering Little Rock’s Central High School.
1974 | General Creighton W. Abrams died.
1977 | Golden Dragon massacre.
1978 | Actor Wes Bentley was born.
1981 | Entertainer Beyoncé was born.
1986 | Baseball Pro Hank Greenberg died.
1998 | Google was incorporated.
2014 | Comedian Joan Rivers died.