President McKinley Assassinated
1901

President William McKinley was shot today, in 1901, by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. McKinley had traveled to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY to give vent to his new-found global open market policies, and was greeting visitors at the time of the assault.

He died from then-incurable gangrene on September 10 and was succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt.

McKinley's was the third assassination of a U. S. President, Lincoln and Garfield having preceded him.

Magellan's Fleet Completes Circumnavigation
1522

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Birth of General the Marquis de Lafayette
1757

The Marquis de Lafayette, well-known French aristocrat serving under General Washington in the Revolution, was born on this date in 1757 in Chauvaniac, France. After attaining the rank of Captain in the French army, he arrived in America in 1777 to aid the Colonial cause, and was specially commissioned by Congress as a Major General. He served valiantly as a general staff officer and division commander, and was with Washington at Yorktown to accept Cornwallis' surrender in 1781.

Although a monarchist at heart, Lafayette favored a constitutional monarchy and democratic principles, even suggesting, upon his return to France in 1781, the adoption of a statement of rights based upon the Declaration of Independence. However, things moved quickly in France, and it's post-revolutionary flirtation with constitutional monarchy was short-lived, tossed out by the radicals in 1792.

Lafayette was first denounced by the French revolutionary government as being only partly in support of their radicalism, and was imprisoned in exile from 1792 to 1799. In the Napoleonic period, he was denounced by his own aristocratic class as being too much of a social liberal. But he was welcomed as a hero in the United States on visits in 1784 and 1824, and given a stipend by Congress.

Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette nonetheless served the country of his birth variously as a politician and as a general until his death in 1834.

When the first American troops landed in France in 1917, during the depths of the brutal trench warfare there, someone uttered the memorable words: "Lafayette, we are here!"

Nazis Order Jews to Wear Star of David
1941

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Labor Day

The idea of Peter J. McGuire, then-president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, Labor Day was recognized as a national holiday by Act of Congress on June 28, 1894

The first Labor Day parade was held on September 5, 1882 in New York City.