On September 28, 1066, William the Conqueror invaded England from Normandy, France. After successfully conquering the country, William ushered in a series of political and legal reforms that still define the United Kingdom and its former colonies to this day, including, centralization of state power, a census, and the infusion of French and Latin into [...]
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On September 28, 1850, President Millard Filmore signed the 1851 naval appropriations bill, which abolished flogging as a form of punishment in the US Navy. Learn more about the history of flogging in the Navy.
On September 27, 1940, Chancellor Adolf Hitler of Germany, Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano of Italy and Ambassador Saburo Kurusu of Japan signed the Tripartite Pact, creating the World War II alliance of the Axis Powers. The Pact was later assented to by other members of the Axis, including Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and the [...]
On September 27, 1964, the report of the Warren Commission chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren on the Kennedy assassination was released. The report essentially concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone. Review the Report of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy.
On September 26, 2000, police in Prague scuffled with and arrested dozens of violent protesters who were attempting to disrupt the G-20 economic summit taking place there. Despite hurling stones and Molotov cocktails at security forces, the activists failed to prevent meetings as they did in Seattle during the 1999 G-20 conference.
On September 26, 1789, John Jay was commissioned as the first Chief Justice of the United States following his confirmation by the Senate.
On September 25, 1555, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V signed the Peace of Augsburg, allowing princes within the Empire to choose whether their lands would be Catholic or Protestant. People living in a given principality were then permitted to move to a different region within the Empire if their faith differed from the one chosen [...]
On September 25, 1789, the United States Congress sent twelve proposed constitutional amendments to the state legislatures for ratification. Ten of these were adopted in 1791 and became known as the Bill of Rights. A proposed amendment on Congressional representation was never ratified, and another on Congressional pay was not ratified until 1992 when it [...]
On September 24, 1664, the Netherlands surrendered New Amsterdam to Great Britain, which changed the city’s name to New York. Learn more about New Amsterdam from the New Amsterdam Project.
On September 24, 1789, Congress instituted a three-tiered federal judicial structure topped by a Supreme Court with the passage of “An Act to establish the Judicial Courts of the United States”, later known as the Judiciary Act of 1789. Learn more about the Act from the National Archives.
