On this day in history...

1692 - The last people hanged for witchcraft in the American colonies.

1776 - Nathan Hale is hanged for spying during the American Revolution.  His last words were reported to be "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country". 

1789 - The office of United States Postmaster General is established.

1823 - Joseph Smith, Jr. states he found the golden plates on this date after being directed by God through the Angel Moroni to the place where they were buried.

1862 - A preliminary version of the Emancipation Proclamation is released.

1893 - The first American-made automobile, built by the Duryea Brothers, is displayed.

1919 - The steel strike of 1919, led by the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, begins in Pennsylvania before spreading across the Untied States.

1941 - On Jewish New Year Day, the German SS murder 6,000 Jews in Vinnytsya, Ukraine.  Those are the survivors of the previous killings that took place a few days earlier in which about 24,000 Jews were executed.

1944 -  World War II:  the Red Army enters Tallinn.

1975 -  Sara Jane Moore tries to assassinate President Gerald Ford but is foiled by Oliver Sipple.

1980 -  Iraq invades Iran.

1993 -  A barge strikes a railroad bridge near Mobile, Alabama, causing the deadliest train wreck in Amtrak history,  47 passengers are killed.    

1995 -  An E-3B AWACS crashes outside Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska after multiple bird strikes to two of the four engines soon after takeoff; all 24 on board are killed.

On this day in history...

1776 - Part of New York City is burned shortly after being occupied by British forces.

1780 - Benedict Arnold gives the British the plans to West Point.

1792 - The National Convention declares France a republic and abolishes the monarchy.

1827 - Joseph Smith, Jr. is reportedly visited by the angel Moroni, who gave him a record of gold plates, one-third of which Smith has translated into The Book of Mormon.

1897 - The "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" editorial is published in the New York Sun.

1937 - J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is published.     

1938 - The Great Hurricane of 1938 makes landfall on Long Island in New York.  The death toll is estimated at 500 - 700 people.

1942 - On the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, NAZIS send over 1,000 Jews of Pidhaytsi (west Ukraine) to Belzec extermination camp.

1942 -  In Poland, at the end of Yom Kippur, Germans order Jews to permanently evacuate Konstantynow and move to the Ghetto in Biala Podlaska, established to assemble Jews from seven nearby towns, including Janow Podlaski, Rossosz and Terespol.

1942 - In Dunaivtsi, Ukraine, NAZIS murder 2,588 Jews.

1942 - The B-29 Superfortress makes its maiden flight.

1961 - Maiden flight of the CH-47 Chinook transportation helicopter.

1964 - The North American XB-70 Valkyrie, the world's first Mach 3 bomber, makes its maiden flight from Palmdale, California.

1976 - Orlando Letelieris assassinated in Washington D.C.  He is a member of the Chilean socialist government of Salvador Allende, overthrown in 1973 by Augusto Pinochet.

1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor is unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate as the first female Supreme Court Justice.