Today:
1630: The city of Boston, Massachusetts, was founded by Puritan colonists from England.
1787: The United States Constitution was signed by 39 delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1849: Abolitionist Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery in Maryland. She would later become a famous conductor on the Underground Railroad, helping many others to freedom.
1862: The Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, was fought during the Civil War near Sharpsburg, Maryland.
1908: Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge became the first person to die in an airplane crash while flying as a passenger with Orville Wright.
1920: The American Professional Football Association, a precursor to the National Football League (NFL), was formed in Canton, Ohio.
1939: The Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, sixteen days after Nazi Germany’s invasion from the west, marking a significant escalation of World War II.
1976: NASA publicly unveiled its first space shuttle, the Enterprise, at a ceremony in Palmdale, California.
1978: The Camp David Accords, a framework for peace between Israel and Egypt, were signed at the White House following negotiations led by U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
2011: The Occupy Wall Street movement began in Zuccotti Park in New York City, protesting social and economic inequality.