On this date...

British Evacuation of Philadelphia

In 1778, after almost nine months of occupation, 15,000 British troops under General Sir Henry Clinton evacuate Philadelphia, the former U.S. capital.

In 1798, President John Adams oversees the passage of the Naturalization Act, the first of four pieces of controversial legislation known together as the Alien and Sedition Acts.

In 1812, the War of 1812 began as President James Madison signed the declaration that had been sent to him the previous day by Congress. Approximately 15,000 Americans would die in this war.

In 1873, American suffragist Susan B. Anthony was fined after being convicted for voting in the 1872 presidential election, though she refused to pay it; in 2020 President Donald Trump pardoned Anthony, but the move was criticized by those who argued that it validated the trial.

In 1905, Hiram Cronk, who was thought to have been the last surviving veteran of the War of 1812, at the age of 105.

In 1934, In a major reversal of federal policy toward Native Americans, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs the Indian Reorganization Act into law. Also known as the IRA, the Indian New Deal and the Wheeler-Howard Act, the act granted a new degree of autonomy to Native Americans in the United States, giving them greater control over their lands and allowing them to form legally recognized tribal governments.

In 1948, Columbia Records unveiled its new long playing 33 1/3 rpm phonograph record.

In 1979, The SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) II treaty was signed by U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.

In 1983, The first American woman to fly into outer space, Sally Ride, was launched with four other astronauts aboard the space shuttle Challenger.

In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Georgia v. McCollum, ruled that criminal defendants could not use race as a basis for excluding potential jurors from their trials.

In 2006, Prelate Katharine Jefferts Schori was elected presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, becoming the first woman chosen as a churchwide leader in the 400-year history of the Anglican Communion.