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)
September 14-20, 2026
September 14
1752 – Britain and the American colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar. There was no September 3 – September 13.
1807 – Former Vice President Aaron Burr was acquitted of treason and misdemeanor charges for trying to “raise and levy war” against the United States. Burr was also acquitted of murdering Alexander Hamilton in an 1804 duel.
1814 – Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the poem “Defense of Fort McHenry” while he was a prisoner on board a ship near Fort McHenry outside Baltimore, Maryland. The poem was renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner” and put to music written by English composer John Stafford Smith. The song became our national anthem in 1931. That original flag, now restored, is on display of the Museum of American History in Washington, DC.
1899 – Henry Bliss became the first automobile fatality in the U.S. He was struck and killed by a taxi when he stepped off a streetcar in New York City. Manslaughter charges against the taxi driver were dropped.
1940 – Congress passed the Selective Service Act, providing for the first peacetime military draft in the U.S. The last men were conscripted on June 30, 1973, during the Vietnam War.
1948 – The groundbreaking ceremony for the United Nations world headquarters building was held in New York City. The building was completed in 1952. Representatives from 50 member countries signed the U.N. Charter in June of 1945.
1975 – Pope Paul VI canonized Mother Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton as the first U.S.-born saint. She was the founder of the first American group of religious nuns, the Sisters of Charity.
1984 – Bette Midler and Dan Aykroyd hosted the first MTV awards (now called the VMAs) at Radio City Music Hall. Michael Jackson took home 3 awards for “Thriller.” Watch the show’s dramatic opening.
2001 – An historic National Prayer Service was held at the Washington National Cathedral for victims of the September 11 attacks.
2015 – Ahmed Mohamed, a 14-year-old Texas student, was arrested at school when his home-made clock was thought to be a bomb. It turned out to be a hoax. Mark Zuckerberg and President Barack Obama sent out tweets supporting the student. The Mohamed family moved to Qatar a month later.
September 15
1620 – The Mayflower departed Plymouth, England, with 102 pilgrims on board. They arrived at Plymouth Rock on December 21st.
1949 – “The Lone Ranger” premiered on TV and airs until 1957. The theme song was “March of the Swiss Soldiers,” Gioachino Rossini’s finale of the William Tell Overture. Watch the intro.
1966 – President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote a letter to Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation.
1982 – The Gannett Company published the first issue of the USA Today newspaper. It is now available in print or online.
1998 – Google.com was registered as a domain name.
2008 – Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection with $691 billion in assets. It is still the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
September 16
1782 – The Great Seal of United States was used for first time. In June 1782 Congress commissioned Charles Thomson to create the final design after three different committees failed to agree on a design.
1908 – Carriage-maker William Durant became the founder of General Motors with $2,000 of his own money.
1940 – Samuel T. Rayburn of Texas was elected Speaker of House of Representatives, where he served until his death in 1961. The Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC, completed in 1965, is named for him.
1968 – Presidential candidate Richard Nixon appeared on the “Laugh-in” TV show. Watch the 6-second video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzDu5Db_b7Q
1974 – President Gerald Ford announced conditional amnesty for U.S. Vietnam War deserters.
1994 – Exxon Corporation was ordered by a federal jury to pay $5 billion in punitive damages to the people harmed by the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill.
1998 – Universal paid $9 million for the rights to the Dr. Seuss classics “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Oh, the Places You’ll Go.” The Grinch movie opened in November 2000 and was directed by Ron Howard. The musical film “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” is scheduled for release in 2028.
2008 – The failure of numerous U.S. financial institutions was a result of the subprime loans and credit defaults and led to the “Panic of 2008.”
September 17
1778 – The first treaty between the United States and an Indian tribe was signed at Fort Pitt, Pennsylvania, with the Lenape Indians.
1787 – The U.S. constitution was adopted by the Philadelphia Convention. The Constitution was ratified in June 1788 and became effective May 1789.
1849 – Harriet Tubman escaped slavery in Maryland with two of her brothers. Over a ten-year time-span Tubman made 19 trips to the South and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom.
1908 – Army Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge became the first person to die in a plane crash. He was a passenger on a flight with Orville Wright.
1911 – Pilot Calbraith Perry Rodgers completed the first transcontinental airplane flight from New York to California is in 82 hours and 4 minutes. He was killed in a plane crash the following April at age 33.
1920 – The National Football League organized in Canton, Ohio. Twelve teams paid $100 each to join American Professional Football Association. The NFL Hall of Fame opened in Canton in 1963.
1934 – RCA Victor released the first 33 1/3 rpm recording. It was Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.
1947 – The U.S. Department of Defense was formed, with James Forrestal as the first Secretary of Defense. Pete Hegseth is the current Secretary of War.
1997 – Dr. Sam Sheppard’s body was exhumed for DNA test, which proved he did not murder his pregnant wife in 1954. Sheppard served 10 years of a life sentence and was freed after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the conviction citing the “carnival atmosphere” of the trial. Sheppard was acquitted in a 1966 retrial. The case was the basis for the TV show “The Fugitive.” Sheppard died in 1970 at age 46.
2007 – AOL, once the largest Internet service provider in the U.S., officially announced plans to refocus the company as an advertising business and to relocate its corporate headquarters from Dulles, Virginia, to New York City, New York. Now, AOL doesn’t even crack the top 20 ISP list.
2011 – The Occupy Wall Street movement began in Zuccotti Park, New York City. The idea was proposed by Adbusters, a Canadian group. Watch young people try to explain what they are doing.
2015 – The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that the 2015 Northern Hemisphere summer was the hottest on record (based on only 150 years of records). NOAA since reported that July 2024 and July 2026 tied for the hottest months on record.
September 18
1793 – President George Washington laid the cornerstone of the Capitol building. It wasn’t completed until 1826 because of construction issues and the War of 1812.
1850 – Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Acts as part of the Compromise of 1850. It allowed for the capture and return of escaped slaves. Congress repealed the laws in 1864.
1932 – Actress Peg Entwistle committed suicide by jumping from the letter “H” in the Hollywoodland sign in California. She was 24 years old. The word “land” was removed during renovations in 1949.
1947 – The United States Air Force became a separate branch of the military.
1955 – The “Ed Sullivan Show” premiered on TV and airs until 1971. The show had been called “The Toast of the Town” since 1948. Watch Bo Diddley from one of Ed’s earliest shows.
2001 – The first in a series of anthrax letters was mailed from Trenton, New Jersey, in the anthrax attacks. Five people died and 17 others were infected from anthrax exposure.
2009 – The soap opera “The Guiding Light” aired its final episode after 72 years (19 years on the radio before airing on TV in 1956).
September 19
1778 – The Continental Congress passed the first budget of the U.S.
1928 – Mickey Mouse made his screen debut as Steamboat Willie at New York City’s Colony Theater. Watch the primitive animated movie. Mickey Mouse movie debut
1934 – Bruno Hauptmann was arrested for the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby. The body of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s baby was found two months after the kidnapping. Hauptmann was convicted and then executed in 1936.
1947 – Jackie Robinson was named baseball’s “Rookie of Year.” In 1949, he was named the most valuable player (MVP). Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. He died in 1972 at age 53.
1959 – Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was denied access to Disneyland during his visit to the U.S. Watch Walt Disney describe what the tour would have included.
1961 – Betty and Barney Hill claimed they saw a mysterious craft in the sky and that the UFO abducted them. The Hills were interviewed extensively by the Air Force and the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. They were also hypnotized by Boston psychiatrist Benjamin Simon, who concluded their case was a singular psychological aberration. Barney died in 1969 at age 46, while Betty died in 2004 at age 85.
1988 – U.S. Olympic diver Greg Louganis cut his head on diving board at the Seoul Summer Olympics, causing a concussion. Louganis did not reveal at the time that he was HIV positive. Louganis is now 66 years old. Watch the accident.
1995 – The Senate passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act welfare overhaul bill. President Clinton signed the bill in 1996 fulfilling his 1992 campaign promise to “end welfare as we have come to know it.”
2017 – President Trump, in a speech at the United Nations, vowed to “Totally destroy North Korea” if they threaten the U.S. The same day, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani in his speech criticized comments Trump also made about Iran.
September 20
1797 – The U.S. frigate Constitution (Old Ironsides) was launched in Boston. The Constitution was retired from service in 1881 and designated a museum ship in 1907. It sailed under its own power in 1997 to commemorate its 200th anniversary and is berthed in Boston.
1814 – “The Star-Spangled Banner” was published as a song. Francis Scott Key wrote the poem “The Defense of Fort McHenry” during the War of 1812. John Stafford Smith wrote the tune. It became our National Anthem in 1929.
1884 – The Equal Rights Party was the first political party to nominate female candidates for both President (Belva Ann Lockwood) and Vice President (Marieta Stow). Belva Ann Lockwood, a lawyer, was also the first woman to argue before the Supreme Court.
1924 – Carl Mays became the first pitcher to win 20 games in each season for 3 different teams. He also holds the dubious distinction of being the only player to cause the death of another player. In 1920, Mays hit batter Ray Chapman in the head with a pitch and Chapman died the next day.
1973 – Billie Jean King (age 29) beat Bobby Riggs (age 55) in the “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match. King is now 82 years old. Riggs died in 1995 at age 77. Watch a report about the match.
2001 – President George W. Bush declared a “war on terror” in an address to a joint session of Congress and the American people.
2011 – The U.S. ended its “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly in the military for the first time. The policy was initiated by the Clinton Administration in 1994.
Image from: www.proteanmag.com