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 21-27, 2026
September 21
1780 – Benedict Arnold gave British Major John Andre the plans for an attack on West Point. Major Andre was captured and then hanged on October 2nd. He was 30 years old. Benedict Arnold escaped and became an officer in the British Army. He died in London in 1801 at age 80.
1897 – The New York Sun ran the famous “Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus” editorial in response to a letter written by 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon. Virginia met Santa Claus in 1969. She died in 1971 at age 81. Santa Claus is still living.
1922 – President Warren G. Harding signed a joint resolution of approval to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
1954 – The first nuclear submarine, USS Nautilus, was commissioned under the Command of Eugene P. Wilkinson. It was named for Jules Verne’s fictional submarine in “Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea.” The Nautilus was the first vessel to navigate the North Pole. It was decommissioned in 1980 and is now a museum ship at the Submarine Force Library Museum in Groton, Connecticut.
1981 – Sandra Day O’Connor became the first female Supreme Court Justice. She served until retirement on January 31, 2006. O’Connor died in 2023 at age 93. Watch a brief bio.
1981 – The IBM-PC computer was introduced. When it went on sale to the public in August it cost $1,565.
2008 – Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the two last remaining independent investment banks on Wall Street, became bank holding companies as a result of the subprime mortgage crisis.
September 22
1789 – The Office of Postmaster General was created under the Treasury Department. Ben Franklin was the first Postmaster General.
1862 – President Lincoln issued a warning that enslaved people in any state that was still rebelling against the Union on January 1, 1963, would be declared free. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1963.
1911 – Baseball pitcher Cy Young, age 44, won his 511th and final game. The best pitcher of the year award is named for Cy Young, who died in 1955. Don Newcombe was first Cy Young winner in 1956.
1922 – Congress passed the Cable Act, under which an American woman who married an “alien” will not lose her citizenship, neither will a women marrying an American automatically become a U.S. citizen.
1975 – Sara Jane Moore tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford in San Francisco, California, just 17 days after Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme’s assassination attempt. Moore was convicted and given a life sentence. She was released in 2007 after serving 32 years. Moore died in 2025 at age 95.
1985 – Willie Nelson’s first Farm Aid concert was held in Champaign, Illinois. The concert was attended by 80,000 people and raised $9 million. There had been a total of 40 concerts with various performers at different venues. This year’s concert is scheduled for September 26th. Watch Willie perform at the first concert.
1993 – Nolan Ryan pitched his last game at age 46. He holds the record for the most strikeouts of all time (5,714), the most no-hitters of all time (7), and the fastest “officially recorded” pitch thrown in a baseball game (100.9 miles per hour). Ryan is the only player to have his number retired by three baseball teams (Angels, Astros, and Rangers). He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999 with the second highest percentage of votes of all time (98.7% of ballots). Amazingly, Nolan Ryan never won the Cy Young Award.
2016 – Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby was charged with manslaughter for fatally shooting Terence Crutcher during a traffic stop. Autopsy results showed Crutcher had PCP and TCP in his system. Shelby was found not guilty of “unlawfully and unnecessarily” shooting Crutcher. She later resigned from the Tulsa Police Department and became an Oklahoma Sheriff’s Deputy.
September 23
1806 – Meriwether Lewis and William Clark returned to St. Louis from the first overland journey from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Northwest and back.
1845 – The first official baseball team, the New York Knickerbockers, organized and adopted a 20-rule code. The club started playing in Manhattan in 1842.
1938 – A time capsule was buried at World’s Fair in New York City. It is to be opened in 6939, some 5,000 years after it was buried. The capsule contains such items as a Life Magazine, kewpie doll, slide rule, Sears Roebuck catalog, a pack of Camel cigarettes, seeds, and microfilm. Watch the burial.
1961 – “How to Marry a Millionaire” aired on TV as the first movie to become a TV series. The movie starred Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, and Lauren Bacall. The TV show starred Barbara Eden, Merry Anders, and Lori Nelson and lasted for two seasons.
1992 – Manon Rheaume, at age 20, was the first female to play in a National Hockey League exhibition game. She played goalie for the Tampa Bay Lightning and gave up 2 goals on 9 attempts in 1 period. Watch her debut in a regular season game.
2012 – Twenty Iranian visas were denied by the U.S., including diplomats and ministers, ahead of the UN general assembly meeting in New York City.
September 24
1789 – President George Washington nominated John Jay as the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He served until 1795, when he resigned to become the second governor of New York.
1869 – Panic on Wall Street resulted from Jay Gould and Jim Fisk’s attempt to corner the gold market on the New York Gold Exchange. The price of gold plummeted in what is referred to as Black Friday.
1929 – Lt. James H. Doolittle flew a Consolidated N-Y-2 Biplane over Mitchell Field in New York in the first all-instrument (IFR) flight, using aeronautical technology he developed. Doolittle received the Medal of Honor for planning and leading bombing raids over Tokyo, Japan, during WWII, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1989. Doolittle was the first American to receive both awards.
1969 – The trial of the “Chicago 8” began (protesters at the 1968 Democrat National Convention). The case of Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panthers, was declared a mistrial and the remaining group becomes the “Chicago 7.” On February 19, 1970, they were found not guilty of conspiracy, five were convicted of lesser crimes, and all (plus two of their attorneys) were cited for criminal contempt and sentenced to anywhere from three months to four years in prison.
2007 – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave a controversial speech on the campus of Columbia University in New York City. His comments included, “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals, like in your country.” The university defended its decision citing “free speech.” Watch an AP report on the speech and protests.
September 25
1789 – Congress voted to propose 12 amendments to the Constitution. The Bill of Rights, written largely by James Madison, was ratified in 1791 when three-fourths of the states ratified 10 of the 12 amendments.
1867 – Congress created Howard University in Washington, DC, the first all-black university in America.
1919 – President Woodrow Wilson was paralyzed by a stroke but served the rest of his second term (1917-1921). Wilson died in 1924 at age 67.
1933 – “Tom Mix” premiered on the radio and airs until 1950. Tom Mix was a real cowboy and silent screen actor, but his character was played on the radio by Art Dickson. The real Tom Mix died in an auto accident in 1940 at age 60. Watch a biography of the incomparable Tom Mix.
1957 – About 300 U.S. Army troops from the 101st Airborne Division guard 9 black students who return to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. President Eisenhower had ordered U.S. troops to desegregate Arkansas schools. Desegregation had been blocked by the Democrat Arkansas governor Orval Faubus when he denied entrance to the high school three weeks earlier.
1992 – Gregory Kingsley, age 12, was the first American child to win the right to divorce his parents. He sued because of parental neglect and abandonment. He went to live with his foster parents and changed his name to Shawn Russ.
2018 – Bill Cosby was sentenced to 3-10 years for a 2004 sexual assault. Cosby, now 88, was the first celebrity to be sentenced to prison in the #MeToo era. Cosby was released from prison in June after his conviction was overturned.
September 26
1892 – John Philip Sousa’s band made its first public appearance at Stillman Music Hall in Plainfield, New Jersey. The March King died in 1932 at the age of 77. In 1987, “The Stars and Stripes Forever” was designated as the national march of the U.S. when President Reagan signed it into law.
1955 – The New York Stock Exchange suffered its worst decline since 1929 when the word was released concerning President Eisenhower’s heart attack.
1960 – The first of four presidential TV debates between Richard Nixon and John Kennedy took place in Chicago. They were the first televised presidential debates. Kennedy won the election in 1960. Nixon went on to become president in 1972.
1985 – Shamu was born at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, and becomes the first killer whale to survive being born in captivity. SeaWorld announced in 2016 that it would end the controversial breeding and public shows of killer whales. Watch the birth of Shamu.
1991 – Four men and four women began their two-year stay inside the “Biosphere II” in Oracle, Arizona. The 3.14-acre project was intended to develop technology for future space colonies. After being plagued with problems, the mission ended prematurely in September 1994. Management of the Biosphere was transferred to Columbia University in 1995, then to the University of Arizona in 2007.
2000 – The House of Representatives passed the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. The act states that an infant is considered to have been born alive if he or she is completely extracted or expelled from the mother, breathes, has a beating heart, and definite movement of the voluntary muscles.
2006 – Facebook, founded in 2004, officially opened to everyone at least 13 years or older with a valid email address. Facebook currently has over 3 billion monthly active users. Facebook is now known as Meta.
September 27
1908 – The first Ford Model T automobile was built at the Piquette Plant in Detroit, Michigan. The last one came off the assembly line in 1927. About 15 million of the Tin Lizzies were built.
1909 – President Taft set aside about 3 million acres of oil-rich public land (including Teapot Dome, Wyoming) for conservation purposes. The Teapot Dome Scandal, bribes for oil leases, took place in 1921-1922 during the Warren G. Harding administration.
1937 – Charles W. Howard, an actor and teacher who portrayed Santa Claus in department stores, opened the first Santa Claus School in Albion, New York. The Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School is the oldest continuously-operating Santa Claus school in the world. Howard died in 1966 at age 69.
1954 – Steve Allen’s “Tonight Show” premiered on TV with Allen as the host until 1957. Jack Parr hosted the show 1957-1962, Johnny Carson hosted 1962-1992, and Jay Leno hosted 1992-2014 (except for 2009-2010 when Conan O’Brian hosted). Jimmy Fallon is the current host. It is the longest-running talk show in TV history. Watch the opening of the first episode.
1964 – The Warren Commission released its findings on the Kennedy assassination and determined that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby on November 24, 1963, as police transferred Oswald to another jail. Ruby (Jacob Rubenstein) died in 1967 at age 55 while awaiting a new trial.
1973 – Vice President Spiro Agnew said he would not resign after pleading “no contest” to a charge of tax evasion. He resigned on October 10th.
2012 – NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover discovered evidence of a fast-moving streambed in Mars. A Curiosity scientist said, “From the size of gravel it carried, we can interpret the water was moving about 3 feet per second.”
Image from: www.nytimes.com