On this date...

In 1776, The Second Continental Congress, assembled in Philadelphia voted for and formally adopted Richard Henry Lee’s resolution for independence from Great Britain. The vote was considered unanimous 12 for, none against, New York abstaining. After a dramatic all-night ride, Delaware delegate Caesar Rodney arrived just in time to cast the decisive vote approving the Declaration of Independence.

In 1777, Patrick Henry is sworn in as Governor of Virginia. He served a total of 5 one year terms.

In 1822, Denmark Vesey was hanged in Charleston, South Carolina, for planning the most extensive slave revolt in U.S. history.

In 1839, A slave rebellion occurred on the ship Amistad, and in their trial the following year the mutineers, who were deemed to be kidnap victims rather than merchandise, were acquitted—a victory for American abolitionism.

In 1863, the lines of the Battle of Gettysburg, now in its second day, were drawn in two sweeping parallel arcs. The Confederate and Union armies faced each other a mile apart. The Union forces extending along Cemetery Ridge to Culp’s Hill, formed the shape of a fish-hook, and the Confederate forces were spread along Seminary Ridge.

In 1881, Charles J. Guiteau shot and fatally wounded the newly inaugurated U.S. President James A. Garfield in the lobby of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Depot in Washington, D.C., as he yelled, “I am a stalwart and Arthur is now President of the United States!” Guiteau blamed the president for not selecting him for a job at the U.S. Consulate in Paris. Garfield would die several weeks later on September 19th.

In 1890, The Sherman Anti-Trust Act is passed by Congress

In 1917, rioting erupted in East St. Louis, Illinois, as white mobs attacked Black residents; at least 50 and as many as 200 people, most of them Black, are believed to have died in the violence.

In 1932, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt coined the term “New Deal” in his acceptance speech for the Democratic presidential nomination.

In 1937, The airplane piloted by American aviator Amelia Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean during her attempt to fly around the world.

In 1962, American businessman Sam Walton opened the first Walmart (then known as Wal-Mart) store, in Rogers, Arkansas; it was the start of what would become the largest retail sales chain in the United States.

In 1964, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, perhaps the most important U.S. law on civil rights since Reconstruction (1865–77) and a hallmark of the American civil rights movement.

In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Gregg v. Georgia, ruled 7-2 that the death penalty was not inherently cruel or unusual.

In 1979, The United States first issued the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin, making Anthony the first woman to be depicted on U.S. currency.

In 1986, ruling in a pair of cases, the Supreme Court upheld affirmative action as a remedy for past job discrimination.

In 1992, The one-millionth Chevrolet Corvette rolls off the assembly line in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Swallowed by a sinkhole there in 2014, the sports car has since been restored to its former glory.

In 2002, American adventurer Steve Fossett became the first balloonist to circumnavigate the world alone.

In 2021, the United States vacates Bagram Airfield, the U.S. Air Force Base north of Kabul, and turns it over to Afghan forces, a major milestone in the longest war in U.S. military history.