Today In History

TODAY IN HISTORY

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The Shelby County Historical Society & Museum is open Monday through Friday from 8 to 4. They’re ready to take you back in time, located on the corner of Morse Avenue and Pine Street in Harlan. Call 755-2437 for more information

September 18th - 261st Day of the Year

1758
James Abercromby is replaced as supreme commander of British forces after his defeat by French commander the Marquis of Montcalm at Fort Ticonderoga during the French and Indian War.

1759
Quebec surrenders to the British after a battle which sees the deaths of both James Wolfe and Louis Montcalm, the British and French commanders.

1793
George Washington lays the foundation stone for the U.S. Capitol.

1830
Tom Thumb, the first locomotive built in the United States, loses a nine-mile race in Maryland to a horse.

1846
Weeks behind schedule and the massive Sierra Nevada mountains still to be crossed, the members of the ill-fated Donner party realize they are running short of supplies and send two men ahead to California to bring back food.

1850
Congress passes the second Fugitive Slave Bill into law (the first was enacted in 1793), requiring the return of escaped slaves to their owners.

1862
After waiting all day for a Union attack which never came at Antietam, Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins a retreat out of Maryland and back to Virginia.

1863
Union cavalry troops clash with a group of Confederates at Chickamauga Creek.

1874
The Nebraska Relief and Aid Society is formed to help farmers whose crops were destroyed by grasshoppers swarming throughout the American West.

1911
Russian Premier Pyotr Stolypin dies four days after being shot at the Kiev opera house by socialist lawyer Dimitri Bogroff.

1914
The Irish Home Rule Bill becomes law, but is delayed until after World War I.

1929
Charles Lindbergh takes off on a 10,000 mile air tour of South America.

1934
The League of Nations admits the Soviet Union.

1939
A German U-boat sinks the British aircraft carrier Courageous, killing 500 people.

1947
The United States Air Force became a separate military service with the implementation of the National Security Act of 1947.

1948
Margaret Chase Smith becomes the first woman elected to the Senate without completing another senator's term when she defeats Democratic opponent Adrian Scolten. Smith is also the only woman to be elected to and serve in both houses of Congress.

1960
Two thousand cheer Fidel Castro's arrival in New York for the United Nations session.

1961
UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold is killed in a plane crash while attempting to negotiate peace in the Congo.

1964
U.S. destroyers fire on hostile targets in Vietnam.

1973
East and West Germany and The Bahamas are admitted to United Nations.

1975
Patty Hearst, granddaughter of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped by violent radical group SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army); she will later take part in some of the group's militant activities and will be captured by FBI agents.

1976
More than one million people gather at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing for the funeral of Mao Zedong, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party and chairman of the People’s Republic of China since 1949.

1977
Voyager I takes first photo of Earth and the Moon together.

1980
Cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo, a Cuban, becomes the first black to be sent on a mission in space.

1998
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is formed to coordinate unique identifying addresses for Websites worldwide.

2009
The US television soap opera The Guiding Light broadcasts its final episode, ending a 72-year run that began on radio.

The Shelby County Historical Society would like to thank the following area businesses for their support:
KNOD, Harlan Newspaper, Hy-Vee, Milk & Honey, Farm Table Delivery, Nelson Farm Supply, Shelby County Physical Therapy, Shelby County State Bank, State Farm-EJ Leinen, Town & Country Credit Union, Ouren Real Estate, and ThinkSpace IT.