Moments in Time – September 2, 2020

#Middlebury

• On Sept. 17, 1787, the Constitution of the United States is signed by 38 of 41 delegates present at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. It would not become binding until it was ratified by nine of the 13 states. Nine months later, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document.
• On Sept. 18, 1793, George Washington lays the cornerstone to the United States Capitol building. It would take nearly a century to complete, as architects came and went, the British set fire to it and it was called into use during the Civil War.
• On Sept. 16, 1893, the largest land run in history begins with more than 100,000 people pouring into the Cherokee Strip of Oklahoma to claim valuable land. Towns like Norman and Oklahoma City sprung up almost overnight.
• On Sept. 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key pens a poem that is later set to music and in 1931 becomes America’s national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The poem was written after Key witnessed Fort McHenry being bombarded by the British during the War of 1812.
• On Sept. 15, 1954, the famous picture of Marilyn Monroe, laughing as her skirt is blown up by the blast from a subway vent, is shot. The scene infuriated her husband, Joe DiMaggio.
• On Sept. 19, 1969, President Richard Nixon announces the cancellation of the draft calls for November and December. He reduced the call-up by 50,000 men as part of his program of turning the war over to the South Vietnamese.
• On Sept. 20, 1973, in a highly publicized “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match, top women’s player Billie Jean King, 29, beats Bobby Riggs, 55, a former No. 1 ranked men’s player. Riggs had boasted that women were inferior, and that even at his age he could beat any female player. King beat Riggs 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.

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