Also on this day
American Revolution
1777
On this day in 1777, the Continental Congress receives a letter from Continental Army General George Washington informing them of the Patriot defeat at Brandywine, Pennsylvania.
On the afternoon of the previous day, British Generals Sir William Howe and Charles Cornwallis had launched a full-scale attack on General George Washington and...
Automotive
1993
On September 12, 1993, the rebuilt Lacey V. Murrow Bridge over Lake Washington opens in Seattle. The new bridge, which was actually the eastbound lanes of Interstate 90 (the westbound lanes cross the lake on a separate bridge), connects the city and its eastern suburbs. It replaced the original Murrow...
Civil War
1861
Confederate General Sterling Price continues his campaign to secure Missouri in the early days of the war by converging on a Union garrison at Lexington, Missouri. The First Battle of Lexington ended after a week with the surrender of the Federals.
The Battle of Lexington followed shortly after the much larger...
Cold War
1990
Representatives from the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union sign an agreement giving up all occupation rights in Germany. The largely symbolic action cleared the way for East and West Germany to reunite. In 1945, the Allied Powers–America, England, France, and the Soviet Union–agreed that defeated Nazi...
Crime
2002
Three former executives from Tyco International, including the CEO and CFO, are indicted in New York on charges that they stole hundreds of millions of dollars from the company. Two of the men, CEO Dennis Kozlowski and CFO Mark Swartz, were later convicted and given lengthy prison sentences. The case...
Disaster
1988
Hurricane Gilbert slams into Jamaica, killing hundreds of people, on this day in 1988. The storm went on to cause death and destruction in Mexico and spur a batch of tornadoes in Texas.
On September 10, Gilbert attained hurricane status west of the Dominican Republic....
General Interest
1953
Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy of Massachusetts marries Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, a photographer for the Washington Times-Herald, at St. Mary’s Church in Newport, Rhode Island. More than 750 guests attended the ceremony presided over by Boston Archbishop Richard Cushing and featuring Boston tenor Luigi Vena, who sang “Ave Maria.” A crowd...
1953
Six months after the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev succeeds him with his election as first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.Born into a Ukrainian peasant family in 1894, Khrushchev worked as a mine mechanic before joining the Soviet Communist Party in 1918. In...
1974
In Boston, Massachusetts, opposition to court-ordered school “busing” turns violent on the opening day of classes. School buses carrying African American children were pelted with eggs, bricks, and bottles, and police in combat gear fought to control angry white protesters besieging the schools.U.S. District Judge Arthur Garrity ordered the busing...
1977
Steven Biko, leader of South Africa’s “Black Consciousness Movement,” dies of severe head trauma on the stone floor of a prison cell in Pretoria. Six days earlier, he had suffered a major blow to his skull during a police interrogation in Port Elizabeth. Instead of receiving medical attention, he was...
Hollywood
2004
On this day in 2004, the first season finale of the television comedy series Entourage, about a hot young actor in Hollywood and the posse of people surrounding him, premieres on HBO. Entourage, which debuted on July 18, 2004, stars Adrian Grenier as the up-and-coming movie heartthrob Vincent Chase, who...
Literary
1846
On this day in 1846, Elizabeth Barrett eloped with Robert Browing.
Barrett was already a respected poet who had published literary criticism and Greek translations in addition to poetry. Her first volume of poetry, The Seraphim and Other Poems, appeared in 1838, followed by Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Barrett...
Music
1944
Born in Galveston, Texas, on this day in 1944, Barry White–or “the Maestro”–went on to stunningly successful career as a pop singer that spanned five decades, and made him a star of the disco era.
Having written several new songs and recorded his vocals for demo purposes only, White was surprised...
Old West
1972
After nearly 40 years of riding across millions of American TV and movie screens, the cowboy actor William Boyd, best known for his role as Hopalong Cassidy, dies on this day in 1972 at the age of 77.
Boyd’s greatest achievement was to be the first cowboy actor to make the...
Presidential
1953
On this day in 1953, Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy, the future 35th president of the United States, marries Jacqueline Bouvier in Newport, Rhode Island. Seven years later, the couple would become the youngest president and first lady in American history.
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy was born into a prominent New York...
Sports
1951
On September 12, 1951, former middleweight champion Sugar Ray Robinson defeats Randy Turpin to win back the belt in front of 61,370 spectators at the Polo Grounds in New York City. Robinson, a New York City native, had lost the belt to Turpin two months prior in Turpin’s native London.
By...
Vietnam War
1959
North Vietnamese Premier Pham Van Dong tells the French Consul: “You must remember we will be in Saigon tomorrow.” In November, he would tell the Canadian Commissioner: “We will drive the Americans into the sea.” The U.S. Embassy in Saigon eventually passed these remarks along to Washington as...
1972
U.S. intelligence agencies (the Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency) report to the National Security Council that the North Vietnamese have 100,000 regular troops in South Vietnam and can sustain fighting “at the present rate” for two years.
The report further stated that while U.S. bombing had caused heavy casualties...
World War I
1918
On this day in 1918, the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) under the command of General John J. Pershing launches its first major offensive operation as an independent army during World War I.
After lending much-needed support to the exhausted French forces at Belleau Wood in June 1918 and in the Second...
World War II
1942
On this day in 1942, a German U-boat sinks a British troop ship, the Laconia, killing more than 1,400 men. The commander of the German sub,...
