1565 – A Spanish expedition established the first permanent European settlement in North America at present-day St. Augustine, FL.

1664 – The Dutch surrendered New Amsterdam to the British, who then renamed it New York.

1866 – The first recorded birth of sextuplets took place in Chicago, IL. The parents were James and Jennie Bushnell.

1892 – An early version of “The Pledge of Allegiance” appeared in “The Youth’s Companion.”

1893 – In New Zealand, the Electoral Act 1893 was passed by the Legislative Council. It was consented by the governor on September 19 giving all women in New Zealand the right to vote.

1935 – U.S. Senator Huey P. Long, “The Kingfish” of Louisiana politics, was shot and mortally wounded. He died two days later.

1945 – In Washington, DC, a bus equipped with a two-way radio was put into service for the first time.

1945 – Bess Myerson of New York was crowned Miss America. She was the first Jewish contestant to win the title.

1951 – A peace treaty with Japan was signed by 48 other nations in San Francisco, CA.

1960 – NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, was dedicated by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The facility had been activated in July earlier that year.

1966 – NBC-TV aired the first episode of “Star Trek” entitled “The Man Trap”. The show was canceled on September 2, 1969.

1971 – In Washington, DC, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was inaugurated. The opening featured the premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass.”

1973 – Hank Aaron hit his 709th home run.

1974 – U.S. President Ford granted an unconditional pardon to former U.S. President Nixon.

1975 – In Boston, MA, public schools began their court-ordered citywide busing program amid scattered incidents of violence.

1999 – Russia’s Mission Control switched off the Mir space station’s central computer and other systems to save energy during a planned six months of unmanned flights.

2015 – British researchers announced that evidence of a larger version of Stonehenge had been located about 2 miles from the Stonehenge location. There were 90 buried stones that had been found by ground penetrating radar.

On September 8, 1957, 30-year-old Althea Gibson becomes the first African American to win the U.S. Open, beating Louise Brough, 6-3, 6-2. Afterward, vice president Richard Nixon presents her with the championship trophy. “Now I have been doubly honored,” Gibson says. “I won …read more

Citation Information

Article Title

Althea Gibson becomes first African American to win U.S. Open tennis title

AuthorHistory.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/althea-gibson-first-african-american-us-open-tennis

Access Date

September 8, 2022

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

August 26, 2021

Original Published Date

August 26, 2021

SPORTS HISTORY

2015 – British researchers announced that evidence of a larger version of Stonehenge had been located about 2 miles from the Stonehenge location. There were 90 buried stones that had been found by ground penetrating radar.

For more … history.com

1858 Abraham Lincoln supposedly says in a speech “You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all the time”

So, the first Monday in September is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country. 

Labor Day Legislation

Through the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From these, a movement developed to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887. During the year four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.

Founder of Labor Day

More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers.

Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those “who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold.”

But Peter McGuire’s place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.

The First Labor Day

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.

In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a “workingmen’s holiday” on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.

A Nationwide Holiday

The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take was outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the public “the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations” of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.

The character of the Labor Day celebration has undergone a change in recent years, especially in large industrial centers where mass displays and huge parades have proved a problem. This change, however, is more a shift in emphasis and medium of expression. Labor Day addresses by leading union officials, industrialists, educators, clerics and government officials are given wide coverage in newspapers, radio, and television.

The vital force of labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation’s strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker.

Source: Department of Labor