On This Day September 8

In 1624 the Dutch established a settlement, New Amsterdam, at the southern tip of Manhattan Island, which served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. It was designated the capital of the New Netherland province the following year. On September 8, 1664, Dutch Director-General Peter Stuyvesant surrendered New Amsterdam to the British.. It was renamed New York in honor of the Duke of York, future King James II of England, who had organized the mission.

New Amsterdam in 1664 (looking approximately due north)

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On This Day September 7

The poet Emily Dickinson started attending Amherst Academy on September 7, 1840. It was a former boys' school that had opened to female students just two years earlier. Dickinson spent seven years at the Academy, taking classes in English and classical literature, Latin, botany, geology, history, "mental philosophy," and arithmetic. Daniel Taggart Fiske, the school's principal at the time, later recalled that Dickinson was "very bright" and "an excellent scholar, of exemplary deportment, faithful in all school duties.”

Emily (left) and her brother and sister

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On This Day September 6

President William McKinley was shot at the Temple of Music at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York on September 6, 1901 during a public handshaking reception. The shooter was an anarchist named Leon Czolgosz, who claimed the President committed war crimes in the Philippines and was an enemy of the people.  McKinley's wounds were not properly dressed and he died of gangrene a week later. Polish immigrant Czolgosz was executed in the electric chair.

Artist's conception of the shooting of McKinley

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On This Day September 5

A fear of flying meant Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) tried to withdraw from the 1960 Olympic Games just weeks before the US team traveled to Rome. He was eventually persuaded to go but spent the entire flight with a parachute strapped to his back. It was worth it as Clay won the gold medal in the light heavyweight boxing competition on September 5, 1960. Clay sent his medal to his high school teacher who once taunted him, "you ain't never gonna be nuthin."

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On This Day September 4

The first paperboy is said to have been 10-year-old Barney Flaherty, who was hired by the New York Sun on September 4, 1833 to deliver newspapers. Barney had responded to an advert in the newspaper, which read "To the Unemployed a number of steady men can find employment by vending this paper." The Oxford Dictionary gives the earliest use of the word 'paperboy' in 1876 and 'papergirl' in 1937.

A paperboy for the Toronto Star in Whitby, Ontario, Canada, 1940

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On This Day September 3

Until 1967, driving was done on the left-hand sideon roads in Sweden. The conversion to right-hand was done on a weekday at 5 p.m. On September 3, 1967 all traffic stopped as the Swedes switched sides. The later time in the day was chosen out of concern that the drivers would have got up in the morning and been too sleepy to realize 'this' was the day of the changeover. The day was called Dagen H, the "H" standing for "Högertrafik", the Swedish word for "right traffic".

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On This Day September 2

President George H. W. Bush served as a naval aviator during World War II. He was one of nine airmen who escaped from their planes after being shot down during bombing raids on Chichi Jima, a small island 700 miles (1,100 km) south of Tokyo, on September 2, 1944. Bush was the lone survivor, as a result of being rescued by the lifeguard submarine USS Finback. This experience shaped Bush profoundly, leading him to ask, "Why had I been spared and what did God have for me?"

Bush in his Grumman TBM Avenger 1944

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