by Stephanie Petrovick

September 21

In 1780, the revered American general of the Revolutionary War, Benedict Arnold, betrayed America to the British. He had made plans with the British Major John Andre to hand West Point over to British control for a high position in the British army and a sum of money. Luckily, the plot was discovered, and Arnold went on to lead forces in the British army.

September 22

In 1862, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the famous Emancipation Proclamation, which would free any slaves in the rebelling states. This Proclamation stated that, 100 days later, the slaves in any states that were still rebelling would be free, and there would be the establishment of black units in the armed forces of the Union. This proclamation ensured that any states that had slaves and could not decide whether to fight for the Confederates or the Union, had to side with the Union. It also meant that countries against slavery had to side with the Union.

September 23

In 1981 the murdering writer Jack Henry Abbott was captured after a two month long manhunt. He was caught in the oil fields of Louisiana. Abbott had been in prison since he was 9, getting out multiple times and being sent back for various offences – robbery, forgery, murder. He had been released to follow his promising writing career, having already written and published the book In the Belly of the Beast. He got into a fight with a waiter, Richard Adan, in the Binibon restaurant in New York City. He stabbed Adan in the chest, killing him instantly, and fled to a Mexican village before moving to Louisiana.

September 24

Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789, and President George Washington signed it, creating the first Supreme Court. On the same day, Washington nominated John Jay as Chief Justice, and John Rutledge, John Blair, William Cushing, James Wilson, and Robert Harrison to be associate judges. On February 1, 1790, the Supreme Court held their first session in New York City’s Royal Exchange Building.

September 25

In 1957, Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, integrated. The nine black students were escorted into the building under the guard of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division. Three weeks earlier Governor Orval Faubus had tried to prevent the federal court ordered integration by surrounding the school with National Guard troops. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had to federalize the Arkansas National Guard, and then went a step further by sending 1,000 army paratroopers to enforce the integration. The desegregation was implemented as a response to the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka court case.