This Week in History
by Dianne Hermann
“In the summer of 1776 our Founding Fathers sought to secure our independence and our liberties
that remain the foundation of our nation today.” Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA)
Sept. 28-Oct. 4, 2026
September 28
1904 – A woman was arrested for smoking a cigarette in a car on 5th Avenue in New York City.
1920 – Eight White Sox baseball players, including Shoeless Joe Jackson, were indicted for intentionally losing the 1919 World Series. The only player not indicted is third baseman George “Buck” Weaver, who batted .324 in the series. Although all 8 players are acquitted, baseball Commissioner Landis banned them from baseball for life.
1928 – The first music recording session in Nashville is by Paul Warmack’s Gully Jumpers. Listen to the recording.
1967 – President LBJ appointed Walter Washington as the first commissioner of Washington, DC. Walter Washington was elected mayor in 1975 and served until 1979.
1997 – Newscaster David Brinkley, at age 77, retired after 54 years in broadcasting. He hosted the Huntley-Brinkley report with Chet Huntley until 1970. Huntley died in 1974 at age 62. Brinkley died in 2003 at age 82. Watch Walter Cronkite on the departure of David and Chet.
2008 – SpaceX launched the first-ever private spacecraft, the Falcon 1, into orbit. The SpaceX vehicles had three unsuccessful launches between 2006 and 2008 until the first successful launch on this date.
September 29
1890 – In the first professional baseball game, the New York Metropolitans beat the Washington Nationals 4-2 in 5 innings at the Polo Grounds in New York City.
1907 – Construction began on the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. The Cathedral was completed after 83 years of construction and is the tallest structure in DC. Watch a short tour of the cathedral.
1916 – John D. Rockefeller became the world’s first billionaire. He founded Standard Oil, which by the 1880s, controlled about 90 percent of U.S. refineries and pipelines.
1943 – President Eisenhower and Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio signed an armistice during World War II.
1982 – Mary Kellerman, a 12-year-old girl from a suburb of Chicago, died after being given one extra-strength Tylenol capsule that, unbeknownst to her mother, was laced with the highly poisonous potassium cyanide. The drug-tampering case killed six other people and remains unsolved. James William Lewis was convicted of extortion for sending a letter taking credit for the deaths and demanding $1 million to stop them.
1983 – Congress invoked the War Powers Act for the first time when it authorizes the deployment of 1,600 American Marines in Beirut, Lebanon, for an additional 18 months.
2008 – Following the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 777.68 points or nearly 7 percent, the largest single-day point loss at the time. Eight of the top 20 greatest point or percentage losses occurred between September and December of 2008. Ironically, 7 of the largest point or percentage gains occurred during the same time period in 2008. The largest point drop of the Dow was 2,997 points on March 16, 2020.
September 30
1777 – Congress fled to Philadelphia to York, Pennsylvania, as British forces advanced during the Revolutionary War.
1864 – Following the Battle of New Market Heights in Virginia, 13 black soldiers earned the Medal of Honor for their valor in leading the charge against Confederate fortifications after many of their officers were killed or wounded.
1939 – The first televised college football game was broadcast when the Fordham Rams play the Waynesburg Yellow Jackets at Triborough Stadium in New York City. Fordham won the game 34-7.
1960 – On Howdy Doody’s last TV show Clarabell the Clown finally spoke saying, “Goodbye Kids.” Hear it for yourself.
2004 – The AIM-54 Phoenix, the primary missile for the F-14 Tomcat, was retired from service. Two years later the Tomcat, introduced in 1974, was retired.
October 1
1880 – John Philip Sousa, known as the March King, became the new director of the U.S. Marine Corps Band. Sousa died in 1932 at age 77.
1890 – Yosemite National Park was formed during the Benjamin Harrison administration through the efforts of John Muir. In June 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill ceding the Yosemite Valley area to the state of California with the requirement that it be held as a national public trust “for all time.”
1903 – The first baseball World Series was played between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Boston Pilgrims (now the Red Sox). Boston won the series 5-3.
1908 – Henry Ford introduced the Model T car. It cost $825 to $850.
1919 – The Chicago White Sox were accused of intentionally losing the World Series to satisfy gamblers in what is called the Black Sox Scandal. Eight players were eventually acquitted, but they were all kicked out of baseball anyway.
1932 – In the 5th inning of Game 3 of the World Series, Babe Ruth famously pointed to the outfield and hits a 2-strike pitch into center field bleachers for a home run. Watch the Babe call the shot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E6j5XdsgaA
1957 – “In God We Trust” first appeared on U.S. paper currency.
1958 – The U.S. space agency NASA began operations after incorporating the National Advisory Council on Aeronautics and other agencies.
1964 – The “Free Speech Movement” was launched at University of California at Berkley. Students demanded that the university administration lift the ban of on-campus political activities and acknowledge the students’ right to free speech and academic freedom.
1982 – EPCOT Center (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) in Orlando, Florida, opens to the public. Watch a preview video of EPCOT.
2004 – Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki got his 258th hit of the season, breaking George Sisler’s 84-year-old single-season baseball record. He ended the season with 262 hits, a record that still stands.
2013 – Another partial U.S. federal government shutdown occurred as a result of political deadlock over operational spending.
October 2
1871 – The Mormon leader Brigham Young was arrested for “lewd and lascivious cohabitation” because of his 16 wives. President Lincoln signed the Anti-Bigamy Law in 1862. Young was reported to have had 55 wives.
1916 – Dr. Harry Wegeforth established the San Diego Zoo as a result of the abandonment of exotic animals following the 1915 Panama-California Exposition.
1936 – The first alcohol power plant formed in Atchison, Kansas. It produced a corn-based biofuel called Agrol.
1980 – Larry Holmes (age 30) TKO’d Muhammad Ali (age 38) in 11 rounds for the heavyweight boxing title. This fight was said to have contributed to Ali’s Parkinson’s disease. Ali fought only one more time in December 1981 in the Bahamas. Ali died in 2016 at age 74. Holmes is now 76 years old.
2002 – The Beltway Sniper attacks began in the Washington, DC area, extending over three weeks. Ten people were killed and three others wounded before John Allen Muhammad and 17-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo were arrested. In 2003, Malvo was sentenced to six consecutive life terms without possibility of parole and Muhammed was sentenced to death. Muhammed was executed in 2009. Malvo, now 41 years old, had his sentence overturned in May 2017 after the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that life sentences for juveniles were unconstitutional. Boyd was later sentenced to multiple life sentences. In March 2020, Malvo married heiress Sable Noel Knapp, now 30, in a prison ceremony. The self-described “trust-fund-baby” was arrested in 2016 during a BLM protest. Watch a report about Malvo on the 10-year anniversary of the attacks.
2005 – The National Football League played its first regular season game outside United States. The Arizona Cardinals defeated the San Francisco 49ers 31-14 in Mexico City, Mexico. Its predecessor, the American Football League, played the first ever game outside the U.S. in November 1926 in Toronto, Canada, when the New York Yankees defeated the Los Angeles Wildcats 28-0.
October 3
1789 – George Washington proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving Day will be on November 26th. In 1863, President Lincoln changed Thanksgiving to the last Thursday in November. In 1941, FDR changed Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday.
1849 – American author Edgar Allan Poe was found delirious in a gutter in Baltimore, Maryland, under mysterious circumstances. It was the last time he was seen in public before his death on October 7th at age 40.
1904 – Educator and activist Mary McLeod Bethune opened the Daytona Normal & Industrial School in Florida, which later becomes Bethune-Cookman College. She was also the founder of the National Council of Negro Women in 1935 and served as an advisor to FDR. Mary died in 1955 at age 79.
1945 – Elvis Presley made his first public appearance at age 10 in a singing contest at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show. He sang “Old Shep.”
1955 – “Captain Kangaroo” premiered on TV and airs until 1992. Bob Keeshan (a.k.a. Captain Kangaroo) was also the original Clarabelle on the Howdy Doody Show. Bob served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves during World War II. The Captain died in 2004 at age 76.
1955 – The “Mickey Mouse Club” premiered on TV with 39 kids and 3 adults in the cast. The show aired until 1959, but was revived in the 1970, and again in the 1990s. Among the original cast were actress Annette Funicello and future Lawrence Welk dancer Bobby Burgess. Watch part of the first episode.
1967 – Air Force pilot William Knight set the highest speed ever recorded by a manned, powered aircraft when he flew the X-15 at 4,520 miles per hour (Mach 6.72). The record still stands.
1984 – The government shut down (again) due to lack of Congressional agreement over the passage of bills. The bills were passed the following day. The U.S. government has shut down a total of 21 times due to budgetary or funding issues.
1995 – OJ Simpson was found not guilty in the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in Los Angeles, California. On this day in 2008, OJ Simpson was found guilty of charges of kidnapping and armed robbery. He was paroled after serving 9 years in prison. OJ died in 2024 at age 76. Watch the not guilty verdict being read and OJ’s reaction.
2003 – Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy was attacked by one of the show’s tigers. His severe injuries led to the permanent cancelation of their Las Vegas show. The team reunited for one show in 1999. The tiger died of an illness in 2014 at age 17. Roy Horn died in May 2020 at age 75. Siegfried Fischbacher died in 2021 at age 81.
2008 – President George W. Bush signed the $700 billion bailout bill for the U.S. financial system.
October 4
1648 – Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New Amsterdam (later New York), established America’s first volunteer firemen when he appoints four men to act as fire wardens.
1924 – The New York Giants became first baseball team to appear in four consecutive World Series.
1965 – Pope Paul VI became the first Pope to visit the Western Hemisphere when he addresses the General Assembly at the United Nations in New York City.
1976 – The Supreme Court lifted a 1972 ban on the death penalty for convicted murderers.
2004 – SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan, won the $10 million Ansari X Prize. This prize was awarded to a privately built spacecraft that could safely carry a pilot and the equivalent weight of two passengers to the edge of space and then repeat the feat within two weeks. SpaceShipOne cost over $20 million to design and build. Watch a video of the flight.
2011 – The State Department listed ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist with a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture. He was killed in October 2019 by order of the Trump administration.
Image from: space.skyrocket.de