On this date:
In 1765, the Stamp Act Congress convened in New York to draw up colonial grievances against England.
In 1849, author Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore at age 40.
In 1858, the fifth debate between Illinois senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas took place in Galesburg.
In 1916, in the most lopsided victory in college football history, Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland University 222-0 in Atlanta.
In 1929, former Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall, one of the main figures of the Teapot Dome scandal, went on trial, charged with accepting a bribe from oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny. (Fall was found guilty and served nine months in prison; Doheny was acquitted at his own trial of offering the bribe Fall was convicted of taking.)
In 1949, the Republic of East Germany was formed.
In 1954, Marian Anderson became the first black singer hired by the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York.
In 1960, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy and Republican opponent Richard Nixon held their second televised debate, this one in Washington, D.C.
In 1982, the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical “Cats” opened on Broadway. (The show ended its original run on Sept. 10, 2000, after a then-record 7,485 performances.)
In 1985, Palestinian gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro (ah-KEE’-leh LOW’-roh) in the Mediterranean. (The hijackers killed Leon Klinghoffer, a Jewish-American tourist, before surrendering on Oct. 9.)
In 1991, University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill publicly accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of making sexually inappropriate comments when she worked for him; Thomas denied Hill’s allegations.
In 1992, trade representatives of the United States, Canada and Mexico initialed the North American Free Trade Agreement during a ceremony in San Antonio, Texas, in the presence of President George H.W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney (muhl-ROO’-nee) and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.
Ten years ago: A 20-year-old off-duty sheriff’s deputy went on a shooting rampage in Crandon, Wisconsin, killing six people, including his ex-girlfriend, before taking his own life as police closed in. Nine skydivers and a pilot were killed when their Cessna Caravan 208 crashed in Washington’s Cascade Range. In a race run in scorching heat that left one man dead because of a heart condition, Kenya’s Patrick Ivuti won the Chicago Marathon by a fraction of a second; another 250 runners were taken to hospitals because of heat-related ailments.
Five years ago: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez won re-election for the third time. (Chavez died in March 2013 at age 58 after a two-year battle