1862 – Bloodiest Single Day of the American Civil War takes place
The Battle of Antietam was fought near the Antietam Creek in Sharpsburg, Maryland. Thought to be the deadliest single day of the American Civil War – at least 4000 soldiers on both sides died – the battle ended Confederate General Robert E. Lee incursion into the North. While there were no clear victors, many believed that the withdrawal of Confederate soldiers from the battlefield before the Union Army did meant that the Union had won the battle
1156 – Emperor Frederick Barbarossa issues the ‘Privilegium Minus’ decree, which elevated Austria to a duchy
1394 – In France, Charles VI published an ordinance that expelled all Jews from France.
1595 – Pope Clemens VIII recognizes Henry IV as King of France
1683 – Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek is the first to report the existence of bacteria
1776 – The Presidio of San Francisco is founded in New Spain.
1778 – The United States signed its first treaty with a Native American tribe, the Delaware Nation.
1787 – The US Constitution is signed by delegates at the Philadelphia Convention
1789 – William Herschel discovers Mimas, satellite of Saturn
1796 – U.S. President George Washington’s Farewell Address was read before the U.S. Congress.
1809 – Peace between Sweden and Russia in the Finnish War. The territory to become Finland is ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Fredrikshamn.
1849 – Harriet Tubman 1st escapes slavery in Maryland with two of her brothers
1859 – Joshua Abraham Norton, English-born resident of San Francisco, proclaims himself his Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I, Emperor of the United States of America
1859 – James Donnelly is sentenced to hang for murdering Patrick Farrell, but a petition for clemency reduces his sentence to 7 years in Kingston Penitentiary
1862 – Bloodiest Single Day of the American Civil War takes place
The Battle of Antietam was fought near the Antietam Creek in Sharpsburg, Maryland. Thought to be the deadliest single day of the American Civil War – at least 4000 soldiers on both sides died – the battle ended Confederate General Robert E. Lee incursion into the North. While there were no clear victors, many believed that the withdrawal of Confederate soldiers from the battlefield before the Union Army did meant that the Union had won the battle.
1862 – American Civil War: The Allegheny Arsenal explosion results in the single largest civilian disaster during the war; 78 workers killed.
1876 – Race riots in South Carolina
1894 – A day after Japan wins the Battle of Pyongyang it defeats China in the Battle of the Yalu River
1900 – USA, Anthracite coal miners go out on strike for better wages until the October 25, by which time the owners are persuaded that their stand is harming President McKinley’s campaign
1909 – Denis Peyrony and Louis Capitan discover the skull of an adult male Neanderthal (La Ferrassie 1) during excavations in a rock shelter near La Ferrassie, France
1916 – 40,000 Amsterdam demonstrators demand general voting right
1930 – Construction on Boulder Dam, later renamed Hoover Dam, began in Black Canyon, near Las Vegas, NV.
1937 – At Mount Rushmore, Abraham Lincoln’s face was dedicated.
1939 – German U-29 sinks British aircraft carrier Courageous, 519 die
1939 – The Soviet Union invaded Poland. Germany had invaded Poland on September 1.
1941 – The New Zealand Labour Party abolishes the death penalty (It is reintroduced by the National government in 1950 before being finally removed from the statute book in 1961)
1944 – Operation “Market Garden” was launched by Allied paratroopers during World War II. The landing point was behind German lines in the Netherlands.
1947 – The first U.S. Secretary of Defense, James V. Forrestal, was sworn in to office.
1952 – “I am an American Day” & “Constitution Day” renamed “Citizenship Day”
1953 – The Ochsner Foundation Hospital in New Orleans, LA, successfully separated Siamese twins. Carolyn Anne and Catherine Anne Mouton were connected at the waist when born.
1954 – “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding is published by Faber and Faber in London
1962 – U.S. space officials announced the selection of Neil A. Armstrong and eight others as new astronauts.
1962 – Justice Department files 1st suit to end segregation in public schools
1972 – Tanzania troops march in to Uganda
1976 – NASA unveiled the space shuttle Enterprise in Palmdale, CA.
1978 – Camp David Accords are signed, The Camp David Accords were signed by Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. The accords were the precursor to the 1974 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty
1980 – Polish workers under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa found the Solidarity movement at the Gdańsk Shipyard
1984 – 9,706 immigrants became naturalized citizens when they were sworn in by U.S. Vice-President George Bush in Miami, FL. It was the largest group to become U.S. citizens.
1984 – Gordon P. Getty was named the richest person in the U.S. His fortune was $4.1 billion.
1986 – US Senate confirms William Rehnquist as 16th chief justice
1988 – Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril declared himself president of Haiti after President Henri Hamphy was ousted.
1991 – The United Nations General Assembly opened its 46th session. The new members were Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, North and South Korea, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.
1992 – Theodore (Ted) Weiss wins democratic primary for NYC congressional seat despite having died on 14th
1992 – Lawrence Walsh called a halt to his probe of the Iran-Contra scandal. The investigation had lasted 5 1/2 years.
1995 – Hong Kong held its last legislative election before being taken over by China in 1997.
1997 – Northern Ireland’s main Protestant party joined in peace talks. It was the first time that all of the major players had come together.
1998 – The United States government offered a reward for the capture of Haroun Fazil for his role in the U.S. bombing in Kenya on August 7, 1998.
1998 – The U.S. announced a plan that would compensate victims in the Kenya and Tanzania U.S. Embassy bombings on August 7, 1998.
2001 – Major trading markets in the United States, including the New York Stock Exchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), reopen for the first time since September 11
2007 – AOL, once the largest ISP in the U.S., officially announces plans to refocus the company as an advertising business and to relocate its corporate headquarters from Dulles, Virginia to New York City
2012 – United States and Japanese government officials agree to put a second missile defence system in Japan
2016 – Terror bomb in Chelsea, New York injures 29
2018 – 50 girls treated in hospital in Kaya, Burkina Faso after illegal botched circumcisions
2018 – US border control agent confesses to the murder of four women and assault of another in Laredo, Texas
2019 – Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg tells US Congress “I know you are trying but just not hard enough. Sorry.”
2021 – France recalls its ambassadors to the US and Australia, describing their new Aukus pact and the cancellation of a major military contract as a ‘stab in the back’
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
