On this date

In 1608, having survived capture by Indians (reputedly through the efforts of Pocahontas, a chief’s daughter), John Smith became president of the Jamestown colony, the first permanent English settlement in North America.

In 1776, Washington receives clearer authority around the question of New York. John Hancock explains that Congress does not intend to keep the army in the city “a Moment longer” than Washington thinks proper for the public service. The decision on evacuation rests with Washington.

In 1813, U.S. naval forces under Oliver Hazard Perry defeated the British at the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812.

In 1846, American inventor Elias Howe was granted a patent for his sewing machine, which revolutionized garment manufacturing in factories and at home.

In 1846, Weeks behind schedule and with the massive Sierra Nevada mountains still to be crossed, on what was likely September 10th, the members of the ill-fated Donner Party realized they were running short of supplies and sent two men ahead to California to bring back food.

In 1849, Actor Edwin Booth made his stage debut at age 15 in Richard III in Boston.

In 1861, Confederate forces withdrew from the Kanawha Valley in western Virginia after fighting an indecisive battle at Carnifex Ferry in the early months of the war.

In 1864, an expedition from U.S.S. Wyalusing, led by Lieutenant Commander Earl English, landed at Elizabeth City on the Pasquotank River, North Carolina, and seized several of the leading citizens for interrogation regarding the burning of the mail steamer Fawn on the Albemarle and the Chesapeake Canal the night before.

In 1897, the Lattimer Massacre was the violent deaths of 19 unarmed striking immigrant anthracite coal miners at the Lattimer mine near Hazleton, Pennsylvania.

In 1919, Austria and the Allied powers signed the Treaty of Saint-Germain, concluding World War I.

In 1919, almost one year after an armistice officially ended the First World War, New York City holds a parade to welcome home General John J. Pershing, commander in chief of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), and some 25,000 soldiers who had served in the AEF’s 1st Division on the Western Front.

In 1920, F. Scott Fitzgerald published his first short story collection, Flappers and Philosophers. In a copy he sent to critic H.L. Mencken, Fitzgerald labels four stories “worth reading,” one “amusing,” and the remaining three “trash.”

In 1921, Fatty Arbuckle, a silent-film era performer at the height of his fame, is arrested in San Francisco for the rape and murder of aspiring actor Virginia Rappe. A jury later acquitted Arbuckle, but the scandal essentially ended his career.

In 1931, Salvatore Maranzano was murdered by one of Charles Luciano’s hitmen in the Helmsley Building in New York City.

In 1935, Italian immigrant Ettore “Hector” Boiardi patented a spaghetti-production cooker for his factory. It was an unglamorous piece of equipment, but it was a sign of how far Hector’s business had come. You may know the company better as Chef Boyardee. There really was a Chef Boyardee, and this was his American dream.

In 1942, following the example of several European nations, President Franklin D. Roosevelt mandated gasoline rationing in the U.S. as part of the country’s wartime efforts.

In 1945, General MacArthur ordered the dissolution of the Imperial General Headquarters and imposed censorship of the printed press and radio.

In 1945, Mike the Headless Chicken is decapitated in Fruita, Colorado, but survives for another 18 months before choking to death.

In 1948, Mildred Gillars, accused of being a Nazi wartime radio broadcaster, “Axis Sally,” was indicted in Washington, D.C., on treason charges. She was later convicted and served 12 years in prison.

In 1955, the TV show Gunsmoke began airing on CBS, and by the time it ended in 1975, the series was the longest-running western on American television.

In 1960, Hurricane Donna, a dangerous Category 4 storm blamed for 364 deaths, struck the Florida Keys.

In 1963, 20 Black students entered Alabama public schools following a standoff between federal authorities and Alabama Governor George C. Wallace.

In 1964, following the Tonkin Gulf incidents, in which North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked U.S. destroyers. The subsequent passage of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution empowering him to react to armed attacks, President Lyndon Johnson authorizes a series of measures “to assist morale in South Vietnam and show the Communists [in North Vietnam] we still mean business.”

In 1979, four Puerto Rican nationalists imprisoned for a 1954 attack on the U.S. House of Representatives and a 1950 attempt on the life of President Harry S. Truman were freed from prison after being granted clemency by President Jimmy Carter.

In 1984, Alex Trebek debuted as host of the TV game show Jeopardy!

In 1987, Pope John Paul II arrived in Miami, where President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan welcomed him as he began a 10-day tour of the United States.

In 1991, Seattle rock band Nirvana released its breakout single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” 

In 1991, the Senate Judiciary Committee opened hearings on Clarence Thomas’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. The proceedings would become a watershed moment in the discussion of sexual harassment when Anita Hill, a law professor who had previously worked under Thomas, came forward with allegations against him.

In 1993, the TV series The X-Files, starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, debuted on Fox, and it developed a huge cult following.

In 2000, the US federal government agreed to drop its case against Wen Ho Lee, a former Los Alamos scientist, in exchange for a single guilty plea for downloading classified material to an insecure computer. Lee was released 3 days later.

In 2000, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats closed after 7,485 performances; it was the longest-running show on Broadway until Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera surpassed it in 2006.

In 2005, teams of forensic workers and cadaver dogs fanned out across New Orleans to collect the corpses left behind by Hurricane Katrina.

In 2012, a new United States national strategy to prevent suicides is to be released by the Surgeon General, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Army Secretary. It will include, among other tactics, the use of social media, including Facebook.

In 2013, Barack Obama, the President of the United States, gave a televised address to the nation, saying that he had asked the United States Congress to postpone a vote on the use of force in Syria while he pursued a diplomatic solution.

In 2014, President Barack Obama authorized $25 million for “immediate military assistance” to the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government.

In 2017, Hurricane Irma made landfall in Florida.

In 2018, California passed a law to commit to carbon-free electricity sources by 2045.

In 2019, US President Donald Trump fired his third national security adviser, John Bolton.

In 2024, the second US presidential debate between new candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump was hosted by ABC in Philadelphia, with most commentators giving Harris the win

In 2025, Charlie Kirk, a conservative political activist, was shot and killed on a university campus in Utah.