Today in history
On September 24, 1789, President George Washington signed a Judiciary Act establishing America’s federal court system and creating the post of attorney general.
In 1869, thousands of businessmen were ruined in a Wall Street panic known as “Black Friday” after financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk attempted to corner the gold market.
In 1890, the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Wilford Woodruff, wrote a manifesto renouncing the practice of plural marriage, or polygamy.
In 1896, author F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota.
In 1934, Babe Ruth made his farewell appearance as a player with the New York Yankees in a game against the Boston Red Sox. (The Sox won, 5-0.)
In 1960, the USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, was launched at Newport News, Virginia. “The Howdy Doody Show” ended a nearly 13-year run with its final telecast on NBC.
In 1968, the TV news magazine “60 Minutes” premiered on CBS; the undercover police drama “The Mod Squad” premiered on ABC.
In 1976, former hostage Patricia Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison for her part in a 1974 bank robbery in San Francisco carried out by the Symbionese Liberation Army. (Hearst was released after 22 months after receiving clemency from President Jimmy Carter.)
In 1988, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson won the men’s 100-meter dash at the Seoul Summer Olympics — but he was disqualified three days later for using anabolic steroids. Members of the eastern Massachusetts Episcopal diocese elected Barbara C. Harris the first female bishop in the church’s history.
In 1991, children’s author Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, died in La Jolla, Calif., at age 87.
In 1996, the United States and 70 other countries became the first to sign a treaty at the United Nations to end all testing and development of nuclear weapons. (The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty has yet to enter into force because of the refusal so far of eight nations — including the United States — to ratify it.)
In 2007, United Auto Workers walked off the job at General Motors plants in the first nationwide strike during auto contract negotiations since 1976; a tentative pact ended the walkout two days later.
Ten years ago: Officials reopened Galveston, Texas, to residents who were warned about Hurricane Ike’s debris and disruption of utilities.
Five years ago: President Barack Obama and new Iranian President Hasan Rouhani appeared separately before the U.N. General Assembly, with both leaders speaking up for improved relations and a resumption of stalled nuclear talks, but giving no ground on long-held positions that had scuttled previous attempts to break the impasse. Tea party conservative Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, began an old-style filibuster lasting nearly 22 hours over President Barack Obama’s health care law.
One year ago: More than 200 NFL players kneeled or sat during the national anthem after President Donald Trump criticized the players’ protests in a speech and a series of tweets. Trump signed a proclamation to replace his expiring travel ban on visitors from six Muslim-majority countries; citizens from eight countries would now face new restrictions on entry to the country. German Chancellor Angela Merkel won a fourth term in office, but voters weakened her conservatives and a nationalist, anti-migrant party surged into Germany’s parliament.