Picture History : Anniversaries

Anniversaries

To illustrate the depth one can access in our collections, we have compiled relevant archival imagery to frame a diverse cultural, political and chronological retrospective of noteworthy anniversaries. Be sure to bookmark this section as the calendar is a work in progress and will continue to expand.

September	Year	Anniversary	Event
1	1807	201st	Aaron Burr acquitted on charges of treason for conspiring to create a new American republic.
1	1862	146th	At Second Bull Run, Confederates Lee and Jackson triumph when Union Gen. Pope withdraws from Chantilly.
1	1862	146th	Major General Philip Kearny, one of the most promising Union commanders, dies in battle at Chantilly, at age 48.
1	1862	146th	Union Major General and politician Isaac Ingalls Stevens, one of the U.S. Army's most promising leaders, dies in battle at Chantilly.
2	1837	171st	James H. Wilson, a major general only 5 years after graduating West Point and officer who managed to rout Nathan Forrest, born.
2	1862	146th	An unhappy Lincoln restores McClellan to full command after John Pope's disastrous failure at Second Bull Run.
2	1862	146th	Union Brigadier General Thornton Brodhead, lawyer and politician, dies at age 40, mortally wounded at 2nd Bull Run.
3	1777	231st	The "Stars and Stripes" flag flies in battle for the first time, at Cooch's Bridge, Maryland, during the Revolutionary War.
3	1937	71st	Orson Welles directs, produces and stars in "Les Miserables," based on the novel by Victor Hugo.
3	1902	106th	Sarah Orne Jewett, popular 19th-century novelist, is thrown from a carriage in an accident that ends her writing career.
4	1807	201st	Robert Fulton begins the first commercial steamboat service, charging $7 for a ticket from New York City to Albany.
4	1862	146th	Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army begins the Antietam Campaign by invading the North at Maryland.
4	1957	51st	Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus sends federal troops to block 9 black students from entering Little Rock's Central High School.
5	1842	166th	Jesse James, Confederate soldier, outlaw, and bank robber, is born.
5	1877	131st	Crazy Horse, a Dakota chief, is killed while in jail, by a U.S. soldier.
5	1882	126th	First Labor Day parade, called "The Grand Demonstration of Working Men," is held in New York City, with 10,000 workers.
6	1757	251st	The Marquis de LaFayette, French statesman who helped Washington during the American Revolution, born today.
6	1837	171st	Oberlin College, first U.S. college to accept both male and female students, opens in Oberlin, Ohio.
6	1847	161st	Writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau leaves Walden Pond and returns to the home of his mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson.
7	1927	81st	The first use of a television is demonstrated in San Francisco by Philo Farnsworth.
8	1847	161st	Led by Winfield Scott and William Worth, the U.S. triumphs at the Battle of Molino del Rey, during the Mexican War.
9	1862	146th	Lee issues the daring Special Order 191, splitting his Confederate Army, and sends William Jackson to capture Harpers Ferry.
10	1847	161st	Hawaii's first theater, The Thespian, a renovated adobe building, opens in Honolulu, with performances by local amateurs.
10	1897	111st	Nineteen unarmed coal miners are killed when police open fire on strikers in the "Latimer Massacre," in Latimer, PA.
10	1977	31st	The guillotine falls for the last time when convicted murderer Hamida Djandoubi is executed in France.
11	1777	231st	Gen. George Washington is defeated by British Gen. William Howe at the Battle of Brandywine.
11	1897	111st	Strike by 75,000 coal miners from PA, OH, and WV concludes after 10 weeks, winning 8-hour days and the end of company stores.
12	1812	196th	The U.S. inventor and industrialist who built the first successful rotary print press is born, Richard March Hoe.
12	1862	146th	During the Antietam Campaign, the battle for Harpers Ferry begins when William Jackson and 6 divisions converge on Harpers Ferry.
13	1847	161st	U.S. Gen. Winfield Scott storms the Chapultepec fortress in Mexico, during the Mexican War.
13	1862	146th	Union troops at Frederick, Maryland, find a copy of Lee's plan wrapped around a cigar pack.
13	1862	146th	McClellan has a unique opportunity when he learns of Lee's plan to invade Maryland, but Halleck convinces him Lee has set a trap.
13	1862	146th	Lee learns McClellan knows his plan and sends Longstreet to support Gen. Daniel Harvey Hill.
14	1847	161st	Gen. Winfield Scott, Chief of the U.S. Army, takes control of Mexico City.
14	1862	146th	At the Battles of South Mountain and Crampton's Gap, Maryland, Union troops overwhelm the Confederates.
14	1862	146th	Confederate General Samuel Garland is mortally wounded at Fox's Gap, Maryland.
15	1857	151st	William Howard Taft, 26th U.S. president and chief justice of the Supreme Court, is born.
15	1862	146th	The Confederates capture Harpers Ferry, MD, when Halleck foolishly orders the Union Army to hold its position.
15	1962	46th	The Soviet vessel "Poltava" travels to Cuba with Soviet missiles.
16	1782	226th	President George Washington first uses the Great Seal of the United States on a document.
16	1832	176th	Confederate Gen. George Washington Custis Lee, oldest son of Robert E. Lee and great grandson of George Washington, is born.
16	1892	116th	The Fifth Annual Convention of the National Republican League is held at Buffalo, NY.
17	1787	221st	The completed U.S. Constitution is signed by a majority of the Constitutional Convention delegates.
17	1862	146th	The bloodiest day in U.S. military history, the Battle of Antietam, took the lives of more than 23,000 soldiers.
17	1942	66th	British Prime Minister Winston Churchill meets with Soviet Premier Josef Stalin in Moscow, as Stalingrad is attacked by Germany.
17	1957	51st	Jazz musician Louis Armstrong cancels his U.S. sponsored trip to Russia due to U.S. indifference to violence in Little Rock.
18	1862	146th	Confederate generals Jackson and Longstreet convince Robert E. Lee to retreat from Antietam.
18	1862	146th	George McClellan, his Union troops too crippled to renew an attack, allows Lee to retreat from Antietam.
18	1947	61st	The Air Force becomes a separate branch of the military when the National Security Act is passed.
19	1777	231st	Generals Lincoln and Arnold yield the field but inflict heavy casualties at the Battle of Freeman's Farm, the first Battle of Saratoga.
19	1777	231st	The Continental Congress flees the U.S. capital, Philadelphia, as the British approach.
19	1827	181st	Jim Bowie stabs a Louisiana banker with the famous knife invented by his brother, Rezin Bowie.
19	1862	146th	At the Battle of Iuka, Grant, Rosecrans and Ord thwart Bragg, Price and Van Dorn, when Price strikes prematurely.
20	1777	231st	The British conduct a surprise attack on colonists, known as the Paoli Massacre, during the Revolutionary War.
20	1927	81st	New York Yankee player Babe Ruth hits his record-setting 60th home run of the season.
20	1932	76th	Mohandas K. Gandhi begins a hunger strike to protest the treatment of untouchables in India.
21	1832	176th	Walter Scott, Scottish novelist and poet who wrote "The Lady of the Lake," dies.
21	1897	111st	The New York "Evening Sun" publishes a famous editorial entitled "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus."
21	1922	86th	Pres. Warren Harding signs a joint resolution to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine, approving the Balfour Declaration.
22	1692	316th	At the close of the Salem Witchcraft Trials, Mary Towne is the last of eight people hanged for witchcraft.
22	1817	191st	John Quincy Adams becomes Secretary of State under President Monroe.
22	1862	146th	After the Antietam tragedy, Lincoln issues a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, to free all slaves owned by Southerners.
23	1642	366th	Harvard College holds its first commencement.
23	1862	146th	Russian novelist Count Leo Tolstoy marries Sophie Andreyevna Behrs, who later copied "War and Peace" seven times for him.
23	1952	56th	Richard Nixon, Republican vice presidential candidate, gives his "Checkers" speech, refuting charges of improper campaign finances.
24	1742	266th	Faneuil Hall, built by John Smibert and funded by wealthy Peter Faneuil, opens in Boston.
24	1827	181st	Henry W. Slocum, who made major general after one year in the Union Army, becoming the second youngest major general, born.
24	1862	146th	The Confederate States of America's Congress adopts the Confederate seal.
24	1957	51st	Pres. Eisenhower orders U.S. troops to desegregate Little Rock Schools, telling the nation "Mob rule cannot be allowed."
25	1847	161st	Gen. Zachary Taylor's troops capture Monterey, Mexico, after four days of fighting.
25	1867	141st	The first all-black university in America, Howard University in Washington, DC, is created by the U.S. Congress.
25	1937	71st	German Chancellor Adolf Hitler holds a meeting with Italian Premier Benito Mussolini in Munich.
25	1957	51st	Nine black children are escorted to Little Rock Central High school by U.S. Army troops.
26	1777	231st	Cornwallis's British troops occupy Philadelphia because Howe had recently defeated Washington and the capital was undefended.
26	1937	71st	Great blues singer Bessie Smith dies needlessly after a car accident because emergency care is denied to African Americans.
26	1972	36th	Emperor Hirohito meets with Richard Nixon in Alaska, at the first meeting of a Japanese monarch with a U.S. president.
27	1722	286th	Samuel Adams, American revolutionary, politician, and brewer, is born.
27	1871	137th	Former Confederate General James Clanton, who fought in the U.S. Army during the Mexican War, is killed.
27	1927	81st	Franklin Roosevelt arrives in Warm Springs, Georgia, for warm water treatment of his polio in the town that became his second home.
28	1787	221st	Congress orders that copies of the U.S. Constitution be submitted to each state for ratification
28	1912	96th	Musician William Christopher Handy publishes the first blues song, his "Memphis Blues," introducing his 12-bar blues to America.
28	1932	76th	With Babe Ruth pitching, the New York Yankees win the World Series by beating the Red Sox.
29	1547	461st	Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish writer and author of "Don Quixote," novel of the Man of La Mancha, born.
29	1867	141st	Sterling Price, Confederate general and Missouri governor, dies after a self-imposed exile in Mexico.
29	1902	106th	David Belasco, actor and silent film writer, director and producer, opens the first Belasco Theater, near Times Square in New York.
30	1827	181st	Ellis H. Roberts, U.S. journalist, politician, cabinet member and financier, born.
30	1927	81st	Babe Ruth hits his 60th home run of the season, a major league record until 1961.
30	1942	66th	Admiral Nimitz's B-17 plane gets lost on way to Guadalcanal and the crew uses a "National Geographic" map to find the island.
30	1962	46th	Cesar Chavez, Mexican-American labor leader, founds the United Farm Workers.
30	1997	11st	The Catholic Church in France apologizes for its silence when Jews were deported under Vichy's pro-Nazi regime.