Sept. 19
Today in history
Today is Sept. 19. On this day in:
1676: Nathaniel Bacon and his rebels set fire to Jamestown, the capital of the Virginia colony. Bacon’s Rebellion, a civil uprising against Gov. Sir William Berkeley, was driven by frustrations over government policies and conflicts with Native Americans.
1796: President George Washington’s Farewell Address was published in David C. Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser. In the letter, Washington announced his decision not to seek a third term and emphasized the importance of national unity, the dangers of political parties and the need for neutrality in foreign affairs.
1957: The United States conducted its first-ever underground nuclear test, dubbed the Rainier test, at the Nevada Test
Site. The 1.7-kiloton explosion and a segment of Operation Plumbbob – a series of 29 tests executed by the U.S. military from May 28 to Oct. 7, 1957 – was fully contained underground, producing no radioactive fallout.
1970: The first Glastonbury Festival, originally called the Pilton Pop, Blues & Folk Festival, took place on the dairy farm of organizer Michael Eavis in Pilton, Somerset, in England. The one-day event drew about 1,500 people and featured performances by Marc Bolan, Keith Christmas, Stackridge and Al Stewart.
1970: The first episode of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” was broadcast on CBS. The show was groundbreaking for its time, starring Moore as a single, independent woman pursuing her career at a Minneapolis TV station. The series earned 29 Emmy awards.
1976: Two F-4 Phantom II jets of the Imperial Iranian Air Force encountered an unidentified flying object over Tehran. They reported that when they got close, their aircraft’s instrumentation and communications systems failed, adding to the mystery of the encounter.
1985: Tipper Gore testified at congressional hearings addressing the issue of obscenity in rock music and advocating for parental advisory labels. The hearings, which included testimony from musicians Dee Snider and Frank Zappa, led to the eventual implementation of the “Parental Advisory” sticker on albums.
1995: The Washington Post and The New York Times published the Unabomber’s manifesto, titled “Industrial Society and Its Future.” The publication was part of an effort to identify the Unabomber, who had been sending deadly mail bombs for 17 years. It ultimately led to the arrest of Theodore Kaczynski after his brother recognized his writing style.
2008: Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker survived a plane crash involving a Learjet 60 that overran a runway in South Carolina. The accident claimed four lives, among them Barker’s assistant and security guard. Both Barker and DJ AM (Adam Goldstein) were critically injured.
2010: The leaking oil well from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest marine oil spill in history, was declared sealed after a successful “bottom kill” maneuver. It involved pumping mud and cement into the well through a relief well, effectively stopping the flow of oil.
– USA TODAY Network
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Today in history, September 19
