Signaled by the boom of a cannon and the sharp report of carbines at exactly noon on Sept. 16, 1893, the “Cherokee Strip” land run began in Oklahoma, one of the wildest, most frenetic spectacles in American history. Over 100,000 impoverished, desperate men and women had been barely surviving in dirty “boomer” camps in southern Kansas for months, awaiting the magical moment when the government would throw open six and a half million acres of public land to anyone who wanted to dash in and claim it. read more...
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Even in today’s post-911 world, when innocent people are killed in markets, office buildings and schools, the horror of what happened 48 years ago is still shocking. On Sept. 15, 1963, four young African-American girls were killed when the Ku Klux Klan bombed their church in Birmingham, Alabama. This hate crime sickened the nation and galvanized the Civil Rights Movement. read more...
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Phineas P. Gage, a 25-year-old foreman for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad in Vermont, was working with his crew blasting rock outside the town of Cavendish on Sept. 13, 1848, when something astonishing and almost too incredible to believe occurred. Gage was packing blasting powder into a hole with his iron tamping bar when a spark caused an explosion. With terrific force, the thick, heavy, 3½ -foot-long iron bar smashed into his left cheek and up through his brain, blasted out the top of his head, shot high in the air and landed about 80 feet away. read more...
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It was 8:30 on a Thursday night, Sept. 8, 1966, when NBC-TV premiered a television series that became a cult phenomenon and a permanent part of popular culture: Star Trek. Creator Gene Roddenberry had pitched his idea to studio executives as a “wagon train to the stars.” They bought the concept, but surely they had no idea of the show’s lasting impact. Although the original Star Trek series was cancelled after only three seasons, the science fiction franchise it created has thrived ever since. read more...
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It did not take the Native Americans of the northern plains long to realize the value of treaties signed by the white men. The 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie sought to maintain peace by compensating the Plains tribes for allowing pioneers on the Oregon Trail to pass through their lands. However, soldiers from Fort Laramie broke the treaty and murdered a chief over the matter of a single cow. read more...
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On Sept. 2, 1864, Union General William T. Sherman marched into Atlanta and triumphantly telegraphed his superiors: “Atlanta is ours and fairly won.” The capture of this strategic Southern city was of great importance to the North, both militarily and politically. For the Confederacy, the loss of Atlanta was the beginning of the end. read more...
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When Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Western Allies and Russia on May 7, 1945, it seemed clear the death and destruction of WWII was finally coming to an end. The final task was to force Japan’s surrender, and then hostilities would cease. On June 21, after 82 days of some of the fiercest fighting of the war, the Battle of Okinawa ended, and with that victory the Allies gained a major base from which to launch an invasion of the Japanese homeland. One month later, on July 26, allied leaders including U.S. read more...
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When Martha, a passenger pigeon in the Cincinnati Zoo, drew her last breath on Sept. 1, 1914, her death marked the extinction of her species. A bird once so numerous its large flocks blotted out the sun during its migrations was decimated by humans. People shot down the birds by the thousands for sport or target practice, a commercial meat industry killed them by the hundreds of thousands, and deforestation deprived the passenger pigeon of its habitat and food supply. read more...
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In a cage in the Cincinnati Zoo on Sept. 1, 1914, Martha, a passenger pigeon, drew her last breath. With her passing something tragic happened: the passenger pigeon became extinct. Martha had been the last of her kind, the sole survivor of a species once so numerous only the buffalo and the locust could rival their staggering numbers. read more...
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As the summer of 1864 was drawing to a close, the Confederacy was holding onto a glimmer of hope that it could still “win” the Civil War. The South’s General Robert E. Lee was tying up the Union army under General Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia, and Union General William T. Sherman’s attempt to capture Atlanta was bogged down in a four-month-long siege that seemed to be going nowhere. Without a major Union victory before the fall’s presidential election, it appeared that President Lincoln would lose to his challenger and former general, George Brinton McClellan. read more...
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I understand that when writing a blog, it’s necessary to show a picture and say a few words about yourself, so that people don’t think a nameless, faceless committee or advisory board is running the show. Here I am, a real person. My name is Tony Pettinato, and I live in Deerfield, Mass. I did my undergraduate studies in English at Oberlin College, my graduate work in Journalism at UC Berkeley, and have been a reporter for six newspapers. For the past fourteen years I have worked at NewsBank, six of those as a managing editor for the U.S. Congressional Serial Set project – NewsBank’s acclaimed effort that digitized and indexed twelve million pages of primary source documents – that gratified my lifelong interest in American history. And that led me to editing this history blog!
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