September 17
At a New York convention of the National Labor Congress, Susan B. Anthony calls for the formation of a Working Women’s Association. As a delegate to the Congress, she persuades the committee on female labor to call for votes for women and equal pay for equal work. But male delegates delete the reference to the vote – 1868.
NASA publicly unveils its first space shuttle, the Enterprise, during a ceremony in Palmdale, Calif.. Development of the aircraft-like spacecraft cost almost $10 Billion and took nearly a decade. – 1976.
September 18
George Washington lays the cornerstone to the United States Capitol building, the home of the legislative branch of American government. The building took nearly 70 years to complete, because architects came and went, the British set fire to it, and it was called into use during the Civil War. – 1793.
September 19
Between 400,000 to 500,000 unionists converge on Washington, D.C. for a Solidarity Day march and rally to protest Republican policies. – 1981.
A powerful earthquake strikes Mexico City and leaves 10,000 residents dead, 30,000 injured, and thousands more homeless. – 1985.
September 20
Portuguese navigator, Ferdinand Magellan, sets sail from Spain in an effort to find a western sea route to the rich Spice Islands of Indonesia. In command of five ships and 270 men, Magellan sailed to West Africa and then to Brazil, where he searched the South American coast for a strait that would take him to the Pacific. – 1519.
September 21
During the American Revolution, American General Benedict Arnold meets with British Major John Andre to discuss handing over West Point to the British, in return for the promise of a large sum of money and a high position in the British army. The plot was foiled and Arnold, a former American hero, became synonymous with the word traitor. – 1780.
In Revolutionary France, the Legislative Assembly votes to abolish the monarchy and establish the First Republic. – 1792.
September 22
The Emancipation Proclamation is signed by United States president Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War to outlaw slavery. – 1862.
Eighteen-year-old Hannah (Annie) Shapiro leads a spontaneous walkout of 17 women at a Hart Schaffner & Marx garment factory in Chicago. It grows into a months-long mass strike involving 40,000 garment workers across the city in protest of 10-hour days, bullying bosses, and cuts in already-low wages. – 1910.
Approximately 400,000 coal miners strike for higher wages in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Illinois, and Ohio. – 1935.
A would-be female assassin aims a gun at U.S. president Gerald Ford when he leaves the Saint Francis Hotel in San Francisco, Calif.. The attempt on the president’s life came only 17 days after another woman tried to assassinate Ford. The attempt was thwarted by a bystander, Oliver Sipple. – 1975.
Long-standing border disputes and political turmoil in Iran prompt Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to launch an invasion of Iran’s oil-producing province of Khuzestan. After initial advances, the Iraqi offense was repulsed. In 1982, Iraq voluntarily withdrew and sought a peace agreement, but the Ayatollah Khomeini renewed fighting. Stalemates and the deaths of thousands of young Iranian conscripts in Iraq followed. Population centers in both countries were bombed, and Iraq employed chemical weapons. In 1988, Iran agreed to a cease-fire. – 1980.
September 23
Amid much public excitement, American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark return to St. Louis, Mo., from the first recorded overland journey from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Coast and back. The Lewis and Clark Expedition had set off more than two years earlier to explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase. – 1806.
In a surprisingly low-key and carefully worded statement, president Harry S Truman informs the American people that the Soviets have exploded a nuclear bomb. The Soviet accomplishment, years ahead of what was thought possible by most U.S. officials, caused a panic in the American government. – 1949.
California governor Gray Davis (D) signs legislation making the state the first to offer workers paid family leave. – 2002.