On this date...

In 1676, Rebels under Nathaniel Bacon set Jamestown, Virginia, on fire.

In 1768, The Royal Governor Francis Bernard formally announced that troops were coming to Boston. The Massachusetts Council spent many days arguing that troops should be housed outside the city in every available barracks before any should enter Boston and they believed they had carried the argument. The billeting of troops continued to be a problem, as it always becomes in an occupation, and is one of the complaints against the King listed in the Declaration of Independence.

In 1777, British General John Burgoyne launches a three-column attack against General Horatio Gates and his American forces in the First Battle of Saratoga, also known as the Battle of Freeman’s Farm.

In 1778, The Continental Congress passes the first budget of the United States

In 1796, George Washington's Farewell Address is printed in a Philadelphia newspaper , The first U.S. president, implored his country to maintain neutrality and avoid entangling alliances with Europe.

In 1827, After a duel turns into an all-out brawl, Jim Bowie disembowels a banker on a sandbar near the eastern shore of the Mississippi River, with an early version of his famous Bowie knife.

In 1849, First commercial laundry established in Oakland, California

In 1863, The Battle of Chickamauga Creek, an important engagement of the American Civil War that was fought over control of the railroad centre at nearby Chattanooga, Tennessee, began.

In 1881, President James Garfield dies from gunshot wounds.

In 1952, The United States bars Charlie Chaplin from re-entering the country after a trip to England

In 1957, First-ever underground nuclear test takes place in Nevada.

In 1959, In one of the more surreal moments in the history of the Cold War, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev explodes with anger when he learns that he cannot visit Disneyland.

In 1969, President Nixon announces the cancellation of the draft calls for November and December.

In 1970, The first episode of the sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show aired on American television; the groundbreaking series starred Mary Tyler Moore as a single independent working woman at a time when female characters were defined as the wife, girlfriend, or widow of a male counterpart.

In 1995, The Unabomber's manifesto—a 35,000-word antitechnology document written by Ted Kaczynski, who had launched a bombing campaign that killed 3 and wounded 23—was published in The New York Times and The Washington Post; the manifesto helped lead to his capture.

In 2008, struggling to stave off financial catastrophe, the Bush administration laid out a radical bailout plan calling for a takeover of a half-trillion dollars or more in worthless mortgages and other bad debt held by tottering institutions. Relieved investors sent stocks soaring on Wall Street and around the globe.  

In 2010, Deepwater Horizon oil spill is sealed after five-month oil leak.