History Today

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on September 14th. She was both a Hollywood star and a real-life princess: On this day in 1982, Princess Grace of Monaco--also known as the American-born actress Grace Kelly--died from injuries sustained in a car crash the previous day.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on September 13th. As Americans grapple with the legacy of systemic racism, some have called for the replacement of the Star Spangled Banner as the national anthem. It was on this day in 1814 that attorney Francis Scott Key began to write the poem that would become the anthem, while watching the British attack Baltimore’s Fort McHenry during the War of 1812.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on September 12th. As children across the nation begin a new school year, whether in person or virtually, we look back to this day in 1974, when protests over court-ordered integration of public schools turned violent in Boston, Massachusetts.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on September 11th. At 8:45am on this day in 2001, terrorists flew an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The U.S. was under attack, and by the end of that morning, both of the Twin Towers had collapsed, a plane had crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and passengers had diverted a fourth plane into a Pennsylvania field.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on September 10th. When you hear the word “guillotine,” it likely calls to mind the French Revolution, which ended in 1799. But the guillotine actually remained a legal form of execution in France for centuries, and it was on this day in 1977, that Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian immigrant convicted of murder, became the last person executed by guillotine in the country.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on September 9th. The state of California has the world’s fifth largest economy. And as the largest state by population, with over 37 million people, it could easily be its own country. Instead, on this day in 1850, it became the 31st U.S. state. The U.S. had only acquired California from Mexico two years earlier, and with a tiny population of less than 10,000 people, it wasn’t expected to become a state right away.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on September 8th. A full, free, and absolute pardon. That’s what newly sworn in U.S. President Gerald Ford delivered to his disgraced predecessor Richard Nixon on this day in 1974. The pardon applied to any crimes Nixon might have committed or participated in while in office.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on September 7th. Hip hop fans may remember just where they were when they heard the news, on this day in 1996, that rapper Tupac Shakur had been shot. After attending a boxing match in Las Vegas, Shakur was riding in a black BMW with Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight when another car pulled alongside them and fired into the car. Knight was only grazed in the head, but Shakur was hit several times.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on September 6th. Four U.S. presidents have been assassinated--Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, John F. Kennedy, and William McKinley, who was shot by a 28-year-old anarchist named Leon Czolgosz on this day in 1901. The president was rushed into surgery but died six days later when the wound developed gangrene.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on September 5th. In South Dakota, work continues on what will one day be the largest sculpture in the world--a memorial to the Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse, who was fatally bayoneted by a U.S. soldier on this day in 1877. A year earlier, Crazy Horse had been among the Sioux leaders who defeated the U.S. Seventh Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn. After the Sioux victory, the U.S. Army pursued Crazy Horse and his followers.