Today:
1788 – The Congress of the Confederation selected New York City as the temporary capital of the newly established United States government under the Constitution.
1814 – British forces bombarded Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor during the War of 1812. Watching the attack from a nearby ship inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem that became “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
1848 – Railroad worker Phineas Gage survived an extraordinary accident in Vermont when an iron tamping rod was driven completely through his skull. His survival and subsequent personality changes became one of the most famous cases in neuroscience.
1899 – Henry Bliss was struck by an electric taxicab in New York City. He died the following day and is generally regarded as the first recorded pedestrian killed by an automobile in the United States.
1940 – Buckingham Palace was struck by German bombs during the Blitz. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were at the palace but escaped injury.
1948 – Margaret Chase Smith was elected to the U.S. Senate from Maine, becoming the first woman to serve in both houses of the United States Congress.
1965 – The Beatles released “Yesterday” as a single in the United States. Written primarily by Paul McCartney, it became one of the most recorded songs in popular-music history.
1971 – A nine-day prison uprising began at Attica Correctional Facility in New York. The confrontation ended when authorities retook the prison, leaving 43 people dead, including inmates and hostages.
1985 – Nintendo released Super Mario Bros. for the Famicom in Japan. The game became one of the most influential video games ever made and helped establish Mario as one of the world’s best-known fictional characters.
1993 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat shook hands at the White House after signing the Oslo I Accord. President Bill Clinton presided over the ceremony, which represented a major attempt to establish a framework for Israeli-Palestinian peace.