On September 2, 1901, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt used a phrase at the Minnesota State Fair that would become closely associated with his presidency: “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.” The address, delivered less than two weeks before he entered the White House, outlined his belief that national power should support restrained but firm diplomacy.
More than 70 years after the Titanic sank, a joint American-French expedition located its wreck on the North Atlantic floor on September 1, 1985. The discovery ended decades of failed searches and revealed that the ship still rested nearly 12,500 feet below the surface.
On August 31, 1997, the world was shocked when Princess Diana was involved in a car crash that took her life.
On August 30, 1967, the US Senate confirmed Thurgood Marshall as the first African American justice of the Supreme Court. His appointment followed three decades in which he used the law to challenge racial segregation and expand constitutional rights.
On August 29, 1960, the Fifth World Forestry Congress opened in Seattle, Washington. Nearly 2,000 participants gathered to consider how forests could supply timber while also protecting water, wildlife, grazing land, and places for outdoor recreation.
Though he had been in poor health for some time, President Warren G. Harding’s death on August 2, 1923, shocked a nation that had watched him greet cheering crowds only days earlier. The lack of an autopsy, combined with scandals emerging from his administration, soon encouraged rumors that lasted for decades.
On July 14, 1853, President Franklin Pierce opened a glass-and-iron palace in New York City filled with machinery, art, and manufactured goods from around the world. The Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations became the first major world’s fair in the United States and tested whether New York could rival London as a center of industry and culture.
On July 9, 1850, President Zachary Taylor died just 16 months after taking office. His sudden death ended the presidency of a career soldier who had won national fame on the battlefield, then faced one of the most dangerous political crises in the nation’s history.
On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress ratified the Declaration of Independence. One of America’s founding documents, it explained why the 13 colonies were at war with Great Britain and that they declared themselves to be independent sovereign states no longer under British rule.
In the wake of the American Revolution, Congress established the Treasury Department on September 2, 1789.
On September 2, 1871, the first Proprietary stamps with their own Scott designation (RB) were issued. These stamps paid the taxes on consumer goods, such as medicines, matches, perfumes, playing cards, canned foods, and more.
On September 2, 1988, the USPS issued its first coil stamp printed by two totally different procedures. The Honeybee stamp was lithographed and engraved.
Missionary Frank Charles Laubach was born on September 2, 1884, in Benton, Pennsylvania. He dedicated his life to teaching people around the world to read, visiting more than 100 countries and developing books for 312 different languages.
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