On September 14, 1918, socialist and labor activist Eugene Debs was sentenced to ten years in prison for violating the Espionage Act and opposing the entry of the United States into World War I. Incarcerated in the Atlanta Penitentiary, he was still there when he ran for President as the Socialist Party candidate in the [...]
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On September 13, 1953, Nikita Khrushchev was appointed General Secretary of the USSR Communist Party, taking over leadership of the country after the death of Joseph Stalin. Soon after taking office, Khrushchev exposed many of the crimes of his predecessor. He was later forced from power in 1964, largely in response to his handling of [...]
On September 13, 1971, National Guardsmen stormed the Attica Correctional Facility in New York state after a four-day standoff with rioting prisoners. This photo, released by New York state authorities, shows Corrections Commissioner Russell Oswald in the Attica prison yard after it was retaken. Thirty-two prisoners and nine guards died in the final assault. Learn [...]
On September 12, 1958, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected a state government challenge to Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, which had overturned segregation. In Cooper vs. Aaron, the State Government of Arkansas challenged the authority of the Court to implement desegregation. The Court responded by forcefully re-asserting its authority and the [...]
On September 12, 1977, South African anti-apartheid activist Stephen Biko died in police custody after having suffered a massive head injury during interrogation following his arrest. The story of journalist Donald Woods’ investigation into the circumstances of Biko’s death was the basis of the 1987 film Cry Freedom. Read an address on Stephen Biko delivered [...]
On September 11, 1978, Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel and President Anwar Sadat of Egypt agreed to the Camp David Accords, a plan for peace between the two countries. This led to the signing of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty. U.S. President Jimmy Carter played a major role in the negotiations.
On September 11, 2001, terrorists allegedly associated with al Qaeda hijacked four US commercial airliners, two of which were crashed into the World Trade Center Towers in New York City, with a third hitting the Pentagon in Washington DC. The fourth plane went down in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The attacks spawned an immediate [...]
On September 10, 1977, Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian immigrant convicted of murder, became the last person executed by guillotine in France. The French death penalty was formally abolished by President Francois Mitterand in 1981. Learn more about the history of the guillotine.
On September 10, 1846, United States patent number 3640 was awarded to Elias Howe for his sewing machine. In 1854, Howe brought legal action against Isaac Singer, because he alleged Singer’s machine infringed upon the patent. Howe won the case and was awarded royalties from the Singer sewing machines. Learn more about Elias Howe from [...]
On September 9, 1993, the Palestinian Liberation Organization recognized Israel after decades of conflict and terror attacks.
