On this date...

John Andre - Self Portrait

In 1780, British spy John André is court-martialed, found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging.

In 1789, Congress officially established a regular army under the U.S. Constitution.

In 1849, First passenger train service to Peekskill, New York, operated by the New Haven Railroad

In 1904, First monument honoring Spanish–American War is erected in Monroeville, Ohio

In 1906, The United States occupied Cuba after the rebellion surrounding the reelection of Tomás Estrada Palma.

In 1916, John D. Rockefeller becomes world’s first billionaire.

In 1940, Booker T. Washington, the first US merchant ship commanded by a Black captain (Hugh Mulzac), is launched in Wilmington, Delaware

In 1953, An article in the New York Times claims that Russian citizens want the “American dream”: private property and a home of their own. The article was one of many that appeared during the 1950s and 1960s, as the American media attempted to portray the average Russian as someone not much different from the average American.

In 1954, Outfielder Willie Mays of the then-New York Giants makes a seemingly impossible over-the-shoulder catch of a long fly ball to deep center during the World Series. It becomes forever known as “The Catch.”

In 1962, JFK authorizes the use of federal troops to integrate the University of Mississippi

In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed an act creating the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts.

In 1982, Cyanide-laced Tylenol kills first three of seven victims

In 1988, Stacy Allison becomes first American woman to climb Mount Everest.

In 1988, Discovery was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, marking a resumption of NASA's space shuttle program, which had been suspended following the Challenger explosion in 1986.

In 1990, the construction of Washington National Cathedral concluded, 83 years to the day after its foundation stone was laid in a ceremony attended by President Theodore Roosevelt.

In 1995, On September 29, 1995, voting rights advocate Willie Velasquez is posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In 2005, American jurist John G. Roberts, Jr., was sworn in as the 17th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 2005, New York Times reporter Judith Miller is released from a federal detention center in Alexandria, Virginia, after agreeing to testify in the investigation into the leaking of the identity of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame.

In 2008, after Congress failed to pass a $700 billion bank bailout plan, the Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points—at the time, the largest single-day point loss in its history.

In 2017, Tom Price resigned as President Donald Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services amid investigations into his use of costly charter flights for official travel at taxpayer expense.

In 2018, Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk, agreed to pay a total of $40 million to settle a government lawsuit alleging that Musk had duped investors with misleading statements about a proposed buyout of the company.