On this date...

Soldiers at the Siege of Yorktown

In 1633, Massachusetts Bay Colony forms its first government.

In 1775, Officers decide to bar enslaved and free Black individuals from the Continental Army.

In 1778, The Continental troops, under the command of Colonel William Butler, made a retaliatory attack on Chief Joseph Brant’s home village of Unadilla ,on the Susquehanna River in what is now Otsego County, New York.

In 1871, Great Chicago Fire begins, killing about 300 people and destroying most of the city.

In 1871, The city of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, burned to the ground in hours, killing 1,152 people.

In 1873, First women's prison run by women opens at Indiana Reformatory Institution.

In 1895, Ohio Valley Improvement Association forms.

In 1918, Tennessee native Alvin York killed two dozen Germans and captured another 132. In April 1919, he was awarded the Medal of Honor. He died in 1964.

In 1927, "The Second Hundred Years" silent short film is released, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, the first Laurel and Hardy film with them appearing as a team.

In 1934, Bruno Hauptmann is indicted for the murder of Charles Lindbergh's son

In 1944, "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" debuted on CBS Radio.

In 1945, President Harry S. Truman announced that the secret of the atomic bomb would be shared only with Britain and Canada.

In 1945, Raytheon Manufacturing Company filed a patent for what's now a staple kitchen appliance in homes around the world: the microwave oven.

In 1956, the nation’s first enclosed shopping mall opens in a Minneapolis suburb.

In 1956, Don Larsen of the New York Yankees throws the only perfect game in World Series history.

In 1970, The Communist delegation in Paris rejects President Richard Nixon’s October 7 proposal as “a maneuver to deceive world opinion.”

In 1974, Franklin National Bank collapses due to fraud and mismanagement; at the time, it is the largest bank failure in the history of the United States.

In 1982, "Cats" debuts on Broadway.

In 1997, scientists reported the Mars Pathfinder had yielded what could be the strongest evidence yet that Mars might once have been hospitable to life.

In 1998, US House of Representatives votes to begin impeachment hearings against President Bill Clinton on charges of lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

In 2001, Office of Homeland Security is created in the wake of 9/11 attacks.

In 2001, Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge was sworn in as the first director of the new Office of Homeland Security.

In 2002, a federal judge approved President George W. Bush’s request to reopen West Coast ports, ending a 10-day labor lockout that was costing the U.S. economy an estimated $1 billion to $2 billion a day.

In 2004, American domestic lifestyle innovator Martha Stewart reported to a federal prison in West Virginia to begin her five-month sentence for insider trading.

In 2017, Wildfires ignite in Northern California wine country, killing at least 41 people over the following week and leading to the evacuation of 20,000 people.

In 2019, Montgomery, Alabama, home of the US civil rights movement, elects Steven Reed as its first Black mayor in 200 years.

In 2020, authorities in Michigan said six men had been charged with conspiring to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in reaction to what they viewed as her “uncontrolled power.”