On this day in 1777, Vermont becomes the first American territory to abolish slavery.
***
On this day in
1839, twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves led by
Joseph Cinqué take over the slave ship Amistad. Spielberg eventually makes a movie about it.
***
On this day in
1881, Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President
James Garfield, who eventually dies from an infection on September 19.
***
On this day in
1897, Italian scientist
Guglielmo Marconi obtains a patent for radio in London.
***
On this day in
1934, the Night of the Long Knives ends with the death of Brownshirts leader
Ernst Röhm.
***
On this day in
1937, an over-ambitious
Amelia Earhart disappears over the Pacific ocean while attempting to be the first woman to circumnavigate the globe, inadvertently proving once and for all that chicks have no sense of direction.
***
On this day in
1950, the
Ed Wood science fiction classic
Plan 9 From Outer Space debuts in a single Hollywood theater. One of the worst films ever made, it still beats the hell out of
Battlefield Earth.
***
On this day in
1962, the first ever
Wal-Mart store opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas.
***
On this day in
1964, US President
Lyndon B. Johnson signs the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places. At the time, LBJ said "The Democrats have just lost the South for a generation." Turns out he was under-estimating the damage by a couple generations.
***
On this day in
1966, the French military explodes a nuclear test bomb code-named
Aldébaran in Mururoa, their first nuclear test in the Pacific.
***
On this day in
1976, after the fall of "free" South Vietnam, Communist North Vietnam declares their union to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
***
On this day in
1986,
Rodrigo Rojas and
Carmen Gloria Quintana are burnt alive during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of General
Augusto Pinochet in Chile.
***
On this day in
2000, Vicente Fox Quesada is elected the first President of México from an opposition party, the Partido Acción Nacional, after more than 70 years of continuous rule by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional.
***
On this day in
2001, the AbioCor self-contained artificial heart is first implanted.
***
On this day in
2002, millionaire adventurer
Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon.
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