On this date...

In 1766, St. Paul's Chapel in New York is consecrated. It is the oldest surviving church in Manhattan.

In 1775, In a letter to John Hancock, Washington warns that a third to half of his officers, especially captains and below, plan to leave service when their enlistments expire. He expresses “great anxieties” but hopes that increased pay and a sense of patriotism will persuade soldiers to remain.

In 1864, the town of Helena, Montana, is founded by four gold miners who struck it rich at the appropriately named “Last Chance Gulch.”

In 1866, Jesse James' gang robs bank in Lexington, Missouri ($2000).

In 1868, John Menard of Louisiana is the first African American elected to US Congress.

In 1873, P. T. Barnum's circus, "Greatest Show on Earth," debuts in New York City.

In 1896, The Boston Symphony Orchestra debuts "Gaelic Symphony" by Amy Beach, the first symphony by an American woman composer to gain public attention. She said it was inspired by the "simple, rugged, and unpretentious beauty" of Irish melodies.

In 1905, George Bernard Shaw’s play Mrs. Warren’s Profession, which dealt frankly with prostitution, is performed at the Garrick Theater in New York. The play, Shaw’s second, had been banned in Britain. After only one performance, puritanical authorities in New York had the play closed.

In 1912, Vice President James S. Sherman, running for a second term of office with President William Howard Taft, died six days before Election Day.

In 1938, Orson Welles broadcasts "The War of the Worlds" radio hoax, causing mass panic in US.

In 1948, killer smog hovering over Donora, Pennsylvania claims its first two victims. Over a five-day period, the smog killed about 20 people and made thousands more seriously ill.

In 1952, Clarence Birdseye sells first frozen peas.

In 1953, George C. Marshall, who, as secretary of state following World War II, engineered a massive economic aid program for Europe, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1972, 45 people were killed when an Illinois Central Gulf commuter train was struck from behind by another train on Chicago’s South Side.

In 1974, Muhammad Ali defeats George Foreman in historic Rumble in the Jungle.

In 1975, the New York Daily News ran the headline “Ford to City: Drop Dead” a day after President Gerald R. Ford said he would veto any proposed federal bailout of New York City.

In 1989, Smith Dairy in Orrville, Ohio, makes the largest milkshake, holding 1,891.69 gallons (7,158 liters)

In 1997, A jury in Cambridge, Mass., convicted British au pair Louise Woodward of second-degree murder in the death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen. The judge later reduced the verdict to manslaughter and set Woodward free.

In 2005, the late Rosa Parks became the first woman to lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda; President George W. Bush and congressional leaders paused to lay wreaths by the casket of the civil rights icon.

In 2018, American crime boss Whitey Bulger—who, as head of the Boston-area Winter Hill Gang, was a leading figure in organized crime from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s—was beaten to death by fellow inmates while in prison.