This Day In History

George Gershwin was born Jacob Gershwine on September 26, 1898, in Brooklyn, New York. A successful composer and pianist, he created beloved orchestral compositions, popular jazz standards, as well as Broadway and Hollywood hits.

Shel Silverstein was born Sheldon Allan Silverstein on September 25, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois. Before he became known for children’s poetry, he had worked as a military cartoonist, a magazine illustrator, a playwright, a recording artist, and a songwriter.

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He would become one of the best-known writers of the Jazz Age, recording its energy, wealth, restlessness, and disappointments in novels and short stories.

Mary Church Terrell was born on September 23, 1863, in Memphis, Tennessee. Over the next nine decades, she used education, writing, public speaking, and direct protest to challenge racial discrimination and support women’s voting rights.

Shel Silverstein was born Sheldon Allan Silverstein on September 25, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois. Before he became known for children’s poetry, he had worked as a military cartoonist, a magazine illustrator, a playwright, a recording artist, and a songwriter.

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He would become one of the best-known writers of the Jazz Age, recording its energy, wealth, restlessness, and disappointments in novels and short stories.

Marguerite Higgins Hall was born on September 3, 1920, in Hong Kong, China. A war correspondent for World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, she was the first woman awarded a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting.

Writer Francis Bret Harte was born on August 25, 1836, in Albany, New York. His stories of California mining camps later brought him national fame and gave eastern readers a vivid, if literary, picture of life in the American West.

After more than a decade of brutal fighting and over 20,000 casualties, Mexico officially gained its independence from Spain on September 27, 1821. This moment marked the end of three centuries of Spanish rule. The road to independence, however, was long, complicated, and filled with both triumphs and setbacks.

On September 27, 1825, the Stockton-Darlington Railway inaugurated its first steam engine-powered trip, carrying passengers and coal. The success of that trip proved the rails could be used for transporting more than coal and helped to popularize steam locomotives in Europe and the US.

On September 27, 1777, Lancaster, Pennsylvania served as the nation’s capital for a single day. During and after the Revolutionary War, the nation’s capital changed several times before settling in Washington, DC in 1800.

On September 27, 1916, the US Post Office issued its first postage stamp on unwatermarked paper in over 20 years.  The change was in response to war-time constraints, but would become permanent.