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Today in History, September 5th

On September 5, 1774, the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. Plus the Munich Olympics attack and an attempt on Gerald Ford's life.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published September 5, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

September 5 is best known for 1774, when the First Continental Congress opened in Philadelphia with delegates from every colony except Georgia. The date also saw Gerald Ford survive an assassination attempt in 1975 and the start of the hostage crisis at the Munich Olympics in 1972.

The big story: The First Continental Congress convenes (1774)

Britain wanted to punish Boston for the Tea Party, and in 1774 Parliament passed a set of laws to do it. Colonists called them the Intolerable Acts. They shut Boston’s port to trade, put Massachusetts under British military rule, protected royal officials from trial in America and made colonists house British soldiers. The other colonies took the hint that they could be next. On September 5, 1774, 56 delegates gathered at Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia, representing every colony except Georgia. The guest list read like a future history quiz: George Washington, John Adams, Patrick Henry and John Jay among them. They picked Virginia’s Peyton Randolph as their president and set to work on a statement of the colonists’ rights and complaints. Independence was not yet the goal. But the meeting got the colonies in the habit of acting together, and the Congress that followed it would adopt the Declaration of Independence less than two years later.

More events on September 5

Year	What happened
1793	The Reign of Terror began in revolutionary France, bringing harsh measures against suspected enemies and a wave of executions in Paris.
1836	Sam Houston was elected president of the Republic of Texas.
1877	Oglala Sioux leader Crazy Horse was fatally wounded at Fort Robinson, Nebraska.
1957	The New York Times gave Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road a glowing review.
1960	Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali, won Olympic boxing gold in the 175-pound division at the Rome Games.
1969	Army Lt. William Calley was charged with murder over the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam.
1972	Palestinian militants of the Black September group attacked the Israeli team at the Munich Olympics, beginning a hostage crisis in which 11 Israeli team members were killed.
1975	Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford in Sacramento, California.
1976	The first episode of The Muppet Show aired.
2000	The Pacific island nation of Tuvalu became the 189th member of the United Nations.
2006	Katie Couric debuted as the first woman to anchor a weekday network evening newscast on her own.

Born on September 5

1847: Jesse James, American outlaw, born in Clay County, Missouri.
1912: John Cage, American avant-garde composer, born in Los Angeles.
1929: Bob Newhart, American stand-up comedian and sitcom star, born in Oak Park, Illinois.
1946: Freddie Mercury, British singer, songwriter and frontman of Queen, born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar.