September 30 U.S. president Woodrow Wilson gives a speech in Congress in support of guaranteeing women the right to vote. – 1918. Black farmers meet in Elaine, Ark. to establish the Progressive Farmers and Householders Union to fight for better pay and higher cotton prices. They are shot at by
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
September 16 In his cell at Yerovda Jail near Bombay, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi begins a hunger strike in protest of the British government’s decision to separate India’s electoral system by caste. – 1932. U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Selective Service and Training Act, which requires all male citizens
September 9 Though it only had been a part of the United States for less than two years, California becomes the 31st state in the union, without ever even having been a territory. – 1850. A Japanese floatplane drops incendiary bombs on an Oregon state forest, the only air attack
September 2 The Great Fire of London breaks out in the house of King Charles II’s baker on Pudding Lane near London Bridge. When the Great Fire finally was extinguished September 6, more than 80% of London was destroyed. Only 16 persons were known to have died. – 1666. Aftershocks
August 26 With America in the depths of the Great Depression, the Comptroller of the Currency announces a temporary halt on foreclosures of first mortgages. – 1932. The first televised Major League Baseball game is broadcast on station W2XBS, the station that was to become WNBC-TV. Announcer Red Barber called
August 19 The Iranian military, with the support and financial assistance of the United States government, overthrows the government of premier Mohammed Mosaddeq and reinstates the Shah of Iran. Iran remained a solid Cold War ally of the United States until a revolution ended the Shah’s rule in 1979. –
August 12 The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was concluded between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. It went into effect in January 1994. – 1992. What was to become a 232-day strike by Major League Baseball players over owners’ demands for team salary caps begins; ultimately 938 games
August 5 U.S. president Abraham Lincoln imposes the first federal income tax by signing the Revenue Act. Strapped for cash with which to pursue the Civil War, Lincoln and Congress agree to impose a three percent tax on annual incomes more than $800.. – 1861. After several unsuccessful attempts, the
July 29 The U.S. Congress passes legislation to establish the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a civilian agency responsible for coordinating America’s activities in space. – 1958. Nearly one billion television viewers in 74 countries watch the marriage of Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, to Lady Diana
July 22 Outside Chicago’s Biograph Theatre, notorious criminal John Dillinger, America’s “Public Enemy No. 1,” is killed in a hail of bullets fired by federal agents. In a bank-robbing career that lasted just over one year, Dillinger and his associates robbed 11 banks for more than $300,000, which in today’s
July 15 During a live television and radio broadcast, president Richard Nixon stuns the nation by announcing that he will visit communist China the following year. The statement marked a dramatic turning point in U.S.-China relations, as well as a major shift in American foreign policy. – 1971. July 16
July 8 Paris, the capital city of France, officially celebrates turning 2,000 years old. In fact, a few more candles technically would have been required on the birthday cake, because the City of Lights was most likely founded around 250 B.C.E.. – 1951. In Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell rings out
We do not know precisely how or when the Native Americans first settled here. The theory is that people migrated from Eurasia across Beringia, a land bridge that connected Siberia to Alaska during the Last Glacial Period and then spread southward throughout the Americas over subsequent generations. Deglaciation along the
July 1 The largest military conflict in North American history begins when Union and Confederate forces collide at Gettysburg, Pa.. The epic battle lasts three days with casualties from both sides totaling approximately 51,000 soldiers. The battle results in a retreat to Virginia by Robert E. Lee’s Army of northern
June 24 U.S. Air Force officials release a 231-page report dismissing long-standing claims of an alien spacecraft crash in Roswell, N.M., almost exactly 50 years earlier. – 1997. June 25 Virginia becomes the 10th U.S. state. – 1788. Native American forces, led by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, defeat
July 17 U.S. president Harry S Truman, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and British prime minister Winston Churchill, meet in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam to discuss issues relating to postwar Europe and plans to deal with the ongoing conflict with Japan. The meeting was marked by growing suspicion and tension
June 10 Benjamin Franklin flies a kite during a thunderstorm and collects a charge in a Leyden jar when the kite is struck by lightning, to enable him to demonstrate the electrical nature of lightning. He coined a number of terms used today, including battery, conductor, and electrician and invented
June 3 One-hundred-twenty miles above the earth, Major Edward H. White II opens the hatch of the Gemini 4 and steps out of the capsule, to become the first American astronaut to walk in space. – 1965. June 4 The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to guarantee women the
May 20 The U.S. Congress passes the Homestead Act which allows adults over the age of 21, male and female, to claim 160 acres of land from the public domain. Eligible persons had to cultivate the land and improve it by building a barn or house, and live on the
