On Sept. 5, 1774, the first Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia.In 1864, voters in Louisiana approved a new state constitution abolishing slavery.

In 1836,, Sam Houston is elected as president of the Republic of Texas, which earned its independence from Mexico in a successful military rebellion.

In 1957, the novel “On the Road,” by Jack Kerouac, was first published.

In 1969, Lt. William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder in the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians at My Lai in March 1968.

In 1970, Janis Joplin started recording sessions recording a version of the Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster song ‘Me and Bobby McGee’. Joplin, (who was a lover and a friend of Kristofferson’s from the beginning of her career to her death), topped the US singles chart with the song in 1971 after her death, making the song the second posthumous No.1 single in US chart history after ‘(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay’ by Otis Redding.

In 1972, during the 1972 Summer Olympics at Munich, in the early morning, a group of Palestinian terrorists storms the Olympic Village apartment of the Israeli athletes, killing two and taking nine others hostage.

In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford escaped an attempt on his life by Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a disciple of Charles Manson, in Sacramento, California.

In 1984, the space shuttle Discovery ended its inaugural flight.

In 2006, Katie Couric makes headlines—and TV history—with her highly publicized debut as the first female solo anchor of a weekday network evening news broadcast, CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.

In 2018, The New York Times published an opinion piece from an anonymous administration official claiming to be part of a“resistance” working to thwart President Donald Trump’s “worst inclinations;” Trump responded that if such a “gutless” person exists, “the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to the government at once!”