Sept 3, 1833. Benjamin H. Day launched the New York Sun, the first truly successful penny newspaper in the US, on this date. The Sun was sold on sidewalks by newspaper boys. By 1836 the paper was the largest seller in the country with a circulation of 30,000. It was possibly Days concentration on human interest stories and sensationalism that made his publication a success while efforts at penny papers at Philadelphia and Boston had failed.
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Sept 3, 1939. British ultimatum to Germany, demanding halt to the invasion of Poland (which had started at dawn on Sept 1), expired at 11 AM, GMT, Sept 3, 1939. At 11: 15 AM, in a radio broadcast, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced the declaration of war against Germany. France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa quickly issued separate declarations of war. Winston Churchill was named First Lord of the Admiralty. Read more at http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/britain-and-france-declare-war-on-germany.
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Sept 3, 1856. An American architect responsible for the modern, steel-framed skyscraper, his designs are characterized by rich ornamentation, plain outer surfaces and cubic forms. His famous motto was form follows function. Frank Lloyd Wright was a student of Sullivan’s before the two quarreled. Born at Boston, MA, Sullivan died Apr 14, 1924, at Chicago, IL.
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Sept 3, 1803. Born to a Quaker family at Hopkinton, RI, this American schoolteacher sparked controversy in the 1830s with her efforts to educate black girls. When her private academy for girls was boycotted because she admitted a black girl, she started a school for young ladies and misses of colour. Died Jan 28, 1890, at Elk Falls, KS.
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Sept 3, 1783. Treaty between Britain and the US, ending the Revolutionary War, signed at Paris, France. American signatories: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and John Jay.
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Sept 4, 1882. Four hundred electric lights came on in offices on Spruce, Wall, Nassau and Pearl Streets in lower Manhattan as Thomas Edison hooked up light bulbs to an underground cable carrying direct-current electrical power. Edison had demonstrated his first incandescent light bulb in 1879.
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Sept 4 25, 1957. Governor Orval Faubus called out the Arkansas National Guard to turn away nine black students who had been trying to attend Central High School in Little Rock. President Eisenhower sent in the 101st Army Airborne to enforce the law allowing the students to integrate the school, and on Sept 25, national troops escorted the nine into the school.
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Anniversary of the hiring of the first newsboy in the US, 10-year-old Barney Flaherty, who is said to have answered the following classified advertisement, which appeared in the New York Sun in 1833: To the Unemployed a number of steady men can find employment by vending this paper. A liberal discount is allowed to those who buy to sell again.
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Sept 4, 1918. Legendary radio broadcaster and newsman, born at Tulsa, OK, he is best remembered for his syndicated features that ran twice per day on the ABC Radio Network. The Rest of the Story was a behind-the-scenes look at the rise to prominence of famous people from all walks of life, and his morning news program was opinionated, occasionally sarcastic and full of offbeat human interest stories. Harvey died at Phoenix, AZ, Feb 28, 2009.
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Sept 5- 6, 1972. Eleven members of the Israeli Olympic Team were killed in an attack on the Olympic Village at Munich and attempted kidnapping of team members. Four of seven guerrillas, members of the Black September faction of the Palestinian Liberation Army, were also killed. In retaliation, Israeli jets bombed Palestinian positions at Lebanon and Syria on Sept 8, 1972. Read more at http://life.time.com/history/munich-massacre-1972-olympics-photos/.
Plaque in front of the Israeli athletes’ quarters commemorating the victims of the Munich massacre. The inscription, in German and en:Hebrew, reads: The team of the State of Israel lived in this building during the 20th Olympic Summer Games from 21 August to 5 September 1972. On 5 September, [list of victims] died a violent death. Honor to their memory.
Sept 5, 1847. Western legend and bandit Jesse Woodson James was born at Centerville (now Kearney), MO. His criminal exploits were glorified and romanticized by writers for Eastern readers looking for stories of Western adventure and heroism. After the Civil War, James and his brother, Frank, formed a group of eight outlaws who robbed banks, stagecoaches and stores. In 1873 the James gang began holding up trains. The original James gang was put out of business Sept 7, 1876, while attempting to rob a bank at Northfield, MN. Every member of the gang except for the James brothers was killed or captured. The brothers formed a new gang and resumed their criminal careers in 1879. Two years later, the governor of Missouri offered a $ 10,000 reward for their capture, dead or alive. On Apr 3, 1882,at St. Joseph, MO, Robert Ford, a member of the gang, shot 34-year-oldJesse in the back of the head and claimed the reward.
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Legal public holiday. Public Law 90 363 sets Labor Day on the first Monday in September. Observed in all states. First observance was a parade on Tuesday, Sept 5, 1882, at New York, NY, probably organized by Peter McGuire, a Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners secretary. In 1883a union resolution declared the first Monday in September of each year a Labor Day. By 1893 more than half of the states were observing Labor Day on one or another day and a bill to establish Labor Day as a federal holiday was introduced in Congress. On June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed into law an act making the first Monday in September a legal holiday for federal employees and the District of Columbia. Canada also celebrates Labor Day on the first Monday in September. In most other countries, Labor Day is observed May 1. Read more at http://www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/laborday.htm.
Image: Public Domain, PublicDomain.net
Sept 5, 1881. According to the Michigan Historical Commission, Small fires were burning in the forests of the Thumb area of Michigan, tinder-dry after a long, hot summer, when a gale swept in from the southwest on Sept 5, 1881. Fanned into an inferno, the fire raged for three days. A million acres were devastated in Sanilac and Huron counties alone. At least 125 persons died, and thousands more were left destitute. The new American Red Cross won support for its prompt aid to the fire victims. This was the first disaster relief furnished by this great organization.
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Sept 6, 1860. American worker for peace, social welfare, rights of women; founder of Hull House (Chicago); co-winner of Nobel Prize, 1931. Born at Cedarville, IL, she died May 21, 1935, at Chicago, IL.
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Sept 6, 1757. The French general and aristocrat, whose full name was Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, came to America to assist in the revolutionary cause. Lafayette, who had convinced Louis XVI to send 6,000 French soldiers to assist the Americans, was given command of an army at Virginia and was instrumental in forcing the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. He was called The Hero of Two Worlds and was appointed a brigadier general on his return to France in 1782. He became a leader of the liberal aristocrats during the early days of the French revolution. As the commander of the newly formed national guard of Paris, he rescued Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette from a crowd that stormed Versailles Oct6, 1789. His popularity waned after his guards opened fire on angry demonstrators demanding abdication of the king in 1791. He fled to Austria with the overthrow of the monarchy in 1792, returning when Napoleon Bonaparte came to power. Born at Chavaniac, he died at Paris, May 20, 1834.
Image: First meeting of Washington and Lafayette, Public Domain, by Currier & Ives, Library of Congress
Sept 7, 1914. Anniversary of the opening to the public on Labor Day 1914 of the New York Post Office Building at Eighth Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets. On the front of this building was an inscription supplied by William M. Kendall of the architectural firm that planned the building. The inscription, a free translation from Herodotus, reads: Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. This has long been believed to be the motto of the US Post Office and Postal Service. They have, in fact, no motto but the legend remains. Read more at http://www.history.com/news/neither-snow-nor-rain-nor-heat-nor-gloom-can-stop-the-u-s-postal-service-but-saturdays-soon-will.
Image: Public Domain via Pixabay.com
Sept 7, 1967. This sitcom, about a nun at a convent in PuertoRico who discovers that she can fly, starred Sally Field as Elsie Ethrington (Sister Bertrille) and featured Madeleine Sherwood, Marge Redmond, Shelley Morrison, Alejandro Rey and Vito Scotti.
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Sept 7, 1950. This game show lasted for many years on both radio and TV. The half-hour show was based on a parlor game: contestants who failed to answer a question before the buzzer (nicknamed Beulah) went off had to perform stunts (i.e., pay the consequences). Ralph Edwards created and hosted the show until 1954, then it became a prime-time show hosted by Jack Bailey. Bob Barker succeeded him in 1966 and hosted it through its syndicated run. In 1977 the show was revived as The New Truth or Consequenceswith Bob Hilton as host.
Sept 7, 1998. Sergey Brin and Larry Page incorporated the Internet search engine company Google on this date at Menlo Park, CA. Although still in beta, Google.com was receiving 10,000 queries a day at that time. Within a year, the company was doing 3 million searches a day. Before long, Google entered the pop culture zeitgeist by becoming a verb meaning Internet searching.
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Anna Mary Robertson Moses, modern primitive American painter born at Greenwich, NY, Sept 7, 1860. Started painting at the age of 78. Her 100th birthday was proclaimed Grandma Moses Day in New York state. Died at Hoosick Falls, NY, Dec 13, 1961.
The undamaged St Paul’s Cathedral surrounded by smoke and bombed-out buildings and houses in December 1940 in the iconic photo “St Paul’s Survives.”
ANNIVERSARY. Sept 7, 1940. During WWII, Hitler, who had prohibited attacks on London, England, lifted his ban after an Aug 24 25 RAFattack on Berlin. So on this date, The Blitz began: nighttime bombing raids on London for 57 consecutive nights and then sporadically until May 1941. The Blitz claimed 40,000 lives and left half a million Londoners homeless.
Image: Public Domain, Imperial War Museum
Sept 8, 1966. The first of 79 episodes of the TV series Star Trek was aired on the NBC network. Although the science fiction show set in the future only lasted a few seasons, it has remained enormously popular through syndication reruns. It has been given new life through many motion pictures, a cartoon TV series and popular spin-off TV series such as Star Trek: The Next Generation, Enterprise and others. It has consistently ranked among the biggest titles in the motion picture, television, home video and licensing divisions of Paramount Pictures.
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Sept 8, 1921. Margaret Gorman of Washington, DC, was crowned the first Miss America at the end of a two-day pageant at Atlantic City, NJ. Read more…
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Sept 8, 1900. The worst national disaster in US history in terms of lives lost. More than 6,000 people were killed when a hurricane struck Galveston, TX, with winds of more than 120 mph, followed by a huge tidal wave. More than 2,500 buildings were destroyed. Read more at http://www.1900storm.com/.
Photo: Photo: Griffith & Griffith; Restoration: Lise Broer
Sept 8, 1974. Anniversary of the full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon, for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969, through August 9, 1974. (Presidential Proclamation 4311, Sept 8, 1974, by Gerald R. Ford.)
Image: National Archives
