Detonation of Nuclear Device "Fizeau" During Operation Plumbbob

1957

Nevada is site of first-ever underground nuclear explosion

Born on This Day

Cass Elliot Portrait

Cass Elliot

1941 - 1974

Standout singer in the '60s group the Mamas & the Papas, widely known as Mama Cass. Hits include "California Dreamin'."

Author William Golding Posing in Front of His Home

William Golding

1911 - 1993

Nobel-winning British author best known for the 1954 novel "Lord of the Flies."

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - Season 10

Jimmy Fallon

1974 -

"Saturday Night Live" alum who took over for Jay Leno as host of "The Tonight Show."

Cass Elliot

Getty Images

William Golding

Bettmann Archive

Jimmy Fallon

Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Image

1893

SEP

19

New Zealand becomes the first self-governing nation to grant women the right to vote in national elections. It would be 27 more years before American women are granted the same right.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on September 19th

1777

Arnold and Gates argue at First Battle of Saratoga

In the early morning hours of September 19, 1777, British General John Burgoyne launches a three-column attack against General Horatio Gates and his American forces in the First Battle of Saratoga, also known as the Battle of Freeman’s Farm. Coming under heavy cannon fire from the approaching British troops, General Gates initially ordered the Northern […]

2:02m read read

1827

Jim Bowie stabs a Louisiana banker with his famous knife

After a duel turns into an all-out brawl on September 19, 1827, Jim Bowie disembowels a banker on a sandbar near the eastern shore of the Mississippi River, with an early version of his famous Bowie knife. The actual inventor of the Bowie knife, however, was probably not Jim Bowie, but rather his equally belligerent […]

1:22m read read

1881

President James Garfield dies

On September 19, 1881, President James A. Garfield, who had been in office just under four months, succumbs to wounds inflicted by an assassin 80 days earlier, on July 2. Garfield’s assassin was an attorney and political office-seeker named Charles Guiteau. Guiteau was a relative stranger to the president and his administration in an era […]

1893

New Zealand first in women’s vote

With the signing of the Electoral Bill by Governor Lord Glasgow, New Zealand becomes the first country in the world to grant national voting rights to women. The bill was the outcome of years of suffragette meetings in towns and cities across the country, with women often traveling considerable distances to hear lectures and speeches, […]

0:40m read read

1941

Germans bombard Leningrad

On September 19, 1941, as part of their offensive campaign in the Soviet Union, German bombers blast through Leningrad’s antiaircraft defenses, and kill more than 1,000 Russians. Hitler’s armies had been in Soviet territory since June. An attempt by the Germans to take Leningrad (formerly St. Petersburg) in August by a massive panzer invasion had […]

2:04m read read

1955

Perón deposed in Argentina

After a decade of rule, Argentine President Juan Domingo Perón is deposed in a military coup. Perón, a demagogue who came to power in 1946 with the backing of the working classes, became increasingly authoritarian as Argentina’s economy declined in the early 1950s. His greatest political resource was his charismatic wife, Eva “Evita” Perón, but she died in 1952, […]

3:46m read read

1959

Khrushchev barred from visiting Disneyland

In one of the more surreal moments in the history of the Cold War, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev explodes with anger when he learns that he cannot visit Disneyland. The incident marked the climax of Khrushchev’s day in Los Angeles, one that was marked by both frivolity and tension. Khrushchev arrived in the United States […]

2:56m read read

1969

Nixon cancels draft calls for November and December

President Nixon announces the cancellation of the draft calls for November and December. He reduced the draft call by 50,000 (32,000 in November and 18,000 in December). This move accompanied his twin program of turning the war over to the South Vietnamese concurrent with U.S. troop withdrawals and was calculated to quell antiwar protests by […]

0:28m read read

1973

Country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons dies

On September 19, 1973, 26-year-old musician Gram Parsons dies of “multiple drug use” (morphine and tequila) in a California motel room. His death inspired one of the more bizarre automobile-related crimes on record: Two of his friends stashed his body in a borrowed hearse and drove it into the middle of the Joshua Tree National […]

1:48m read read

1985

Earthquake shakes Mexico City

On September 19, 1985, a powerful earthquake strikes Mexico City and leaves 10,000 people dead, 30,000 injured and thousands more homeless. At 7:18 in the morning, the residents of Mexico City were jolted awake by an 8.1-magnitude earthquake, one of the strongest to ever hit the area. The effects of the quake were particularly devastating […]

1:22m read read

1995

Unabomber manifesto published

On September 19, 1995, a manifesto by the Unabomber, an anti-technology terrorist, is published by The New York Times and Washington Post in the hope that someone will recognize the person who, for 17 years, had been sending homemade bombs through the mail that had killed and maimed innocent people around the United States. After reading […]

2:32m read read

2000

Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel debuts

Michael Chabon’s third novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is published on September 19, 2000. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction the following year. Chabon, who was born in Washington, D.C., in 1963, graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and earned a master’s degree in creative writing from the […]

0:42m read read

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