Today in History, September 19th
On September 19, 1881, President James Garfield died, 80 days after he was shot. Plus New Zealand's women's vote and the 1985 Mexico City quake.
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September 19 is best known for 1881, when President James Garfield died, about 80 days after he was shot in a Washington train station. The date also saw New Zealand become the first country to give women the national vote in 1893 and a deadly earthquake strike Mexico City in 1985.
The big story: President James Garfield dies (1881)
Garfield had been president for only four months when he walked into the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station in Washington on July 2, 1881, on his way out of town for a short vacation. Charles Guiteau was waiting. Guiteau was a lawyer and office-seeker who had pestered the administration for a government job and been ignored, and he shot the president. Garfield did not die right away. He lingered for weeks while infection took hold, and he was moved to a seaside retreat in New Jersey to recover. He never did. He died at Elberon, New Jersey, on September 19, 1881, at 49. His presidency, from March 4 to September 19, was among the shortest in U.S. history. The weeks when he was alive but unable to do the job also raised a hard constitutional question that had no clear answer at the time: who runs the country when the president cannot?
More events on September 19
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1777 | British General John Burgoyne attacked Horatio Gates’s American army at Freeman’s Farm, the first Battle of Saratoga. The Americans fell back but inflicted heavy losses. |
| 1796 | George Washington’s Farewell Address, announcing that he would step down as president, was printed in a Philadelphia newspaper. |
| 1893 | New Zealand’s governor signed the Electoral Bill, making it the first country to give women the right to vote in national elections. |
| 1955 | An army and navy revolt overthrew Argentine President Juan Perón, who fled to Paraguay. |
| 1985 | A magnitude 8.1 earthquake struck Mexico City, killing about 10,000 people and damaging around 100,000 buildings. |
| 1991 | German hikers Erika and Helmut Simon found a body in the ice of the Ötztal Alps. It turned out to be Ötzi, a prehistoric man thousands of years old. |
| 1995 | The New York Times and The Washington Post published the Unabomber’s manifesto. Ted Kaczynski’s brother recognized the writing, which led to his arrest. |
| 2017 | A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck central Mexico on the anniversary of the 1985 disaster. |
Born on September 19
- 1911: William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies and 1983 Nobel laureate, born in Newquay, England.
- 1926: Masatoshi Koshiba, Japanese physicist who shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics, born in Toyohashi, Japan.
- 1974: Jimmy Fallon, comedian and host of The Tonight Show, born in New York City.
Sources
- President James Garfield dies, History.com
- James A. Garfield, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Arnold and Gates argue at first Battle of Saratoga, History.com
- Washington prepares final draft of Farewell Address, History.com
- New Zealand first in women’s vote, History.com
- Perón deposed in Argentina, History.com
- M 7.1, 1 km S of Matzaco, Mexico, U.S. Geological Survey
- Earthquake shakes Mexico City, History.com
- The discovery, South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology
- Unabomber manifesto published, History.com
2013: Kristen Oster passed her nursing boards.
Awww snap, Kristen making history…