On September 16th...

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1630 The Massachusetts village of Shawmut changed its name to Boston.

1782 The Great Seal of the United States was used for the first time.

1810 Mexico declared its independence from Spain.

1823 Historian Francis Parkman was born.

1838 James J. Hill, American railroad builder, was born.

1848 France abolished slavery in all of its colonies.

1858 An Overland Mail Company coach carrying both passengers and mail departed from Tipton, Missouri.

1863 Robert College was founded in Istanbul, Turkey.

1864 Tom Morris, Sr., won the British Golf Open.

1869 Tom Morris, Jr., won the British Golf Open.

1885 The U.S. yacht Puritan defeated the English yacht Genesta for the America's Cup.

1887 Willie Park, Jr., won the British Golf Open.

1890 Newswriter George Whitney Calhoun named Green Bay's professional football team the Packers.

1893 The Cherokee Strip Land Rush began.

1906 Roald Amundsen discovered the Magnetic South Pole.

1908 William Durant founded General Motors.

1919 The American Legion was incorporated by act of Congress.

1920 A horse-drawn wagon exploded on Wall Street in New York, New York, killing 38 persons and injuring 143 others.

1922 Bill Tilden won his third straight U.S. Men's National Tennis Championship.

1924 Actress Lauren Bacall was born.

1925 Charles James Haughey, Prime Minister of Ireland, was born..

1931 A blimp was moored to the Empire State Building.

1938 George E. T. Eyston set a world auto speed record of 357.5 miles per hour.

1940 The Selective Service Act was passed by Congress.
1940 Leo Durocher was suspended from Ebbetts Field for "inciting a riot."

1941 Mohammad Reza Pahlavi became the Shah of Iran following the forced abdication of his father.

1945 Operatic tenor John Francis McCormack died.

1947 Typhoon Kathleen killed more than 1,900 people in Japan.
1947 John Cobb set a world auto speed record of 394.2 miles per hour.

1950 The Cleveland Browns played their first NFL game (they beat Philadelphia 35-10).

1951 National League umpire Frank Dascoli cleared the Dogers bench by ejecting 15 players.
1951 Betsy Rawls won the U.S. Women's Open Golf Championship.

1953 The American League approved the St. Louis Browns move to become the Baltimore Orioles.
1953 The first movie in Cinemascope, The Robe, premiered.

1955 The US Auto Club (USAC) was formed to oversee four major auto racing categories.

1963 The Federation of Malaysia was formally inaugurated.

1966 The Metropolitan Opera House opened in Lincoln Center in New York City, New York.

1968 U.S. presidential candidate Richard Nixon appeared on the television show "Laugh-In."

1974 U.S. President Gerald Ford announced a conditional amnesty for Vietnam War draft dodgers and deserters.
1974 "Phog" Allen, long-time head basketball coach at the University of Kansas, died.

1975 Papua New Guinea gained independence from an Australian-administered UN trusteeship.

1976 The American Episcopal Church approved the ordination of women priests and bishops.

1978 A magnitude 7.7 earthquake killed 25,000 people in Tabar, Iran.

1981 "Miami Vice" premiered on NBC-TV.

1986 Fire in the Kinross gold mine in Transvaal, South Africa, killed 177 persons.

1991 The United States trial of former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega began.

1992 U.S. Congresswoman Millicent Fenwick died.

1993 "Frasier" premiered on NBC-TV.

1996 Presidential adviser McGeorge Bundy died.

2012 The National Hockey League locked out players after the expiration of a collective bargaining agreement.

2013 Hurricane Ingrid killed 21 persons in Mexico.
2013 A gunman killed 12 persons at a naval yard in Washington, D.C.

2015 A magnitude 8.3 earthquake off the coast of Illapel, Chile, killed 11 persons and prompted the evacuation of a million others.
2015 An oil tanker explosion killed 170 persons in Maridi, South Sudan.
2015 A military coup in Burkina Faso overthrew President Michel Kafando.

2016 Playwright Edward Albee died.
2016 Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, former President of Italy, died.

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This page was last updated on September 16, 2018.