September 4 in History

Forty-four settlers, recruited from the Mexican provinces of Sonora and Sinaloa, established El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles del Rio Porciuncula on September 4, 1781. The group included people of Indigenous, African, and Spanish descent, reflecting the multiethnic reality of Spain's colonial frontier. Governor Felipe de Neve selected the site near the Porciuncula River (now the Los Angeles River) for its fertile soil and reliable water supply. The pueblo grew slowly, numbering just 315 residents by 1820. After American conquest in 1847, the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1876, and the discovery of oil in the 1890s, the settlement exploded into the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles, now home to over 13 million people.

Geronimo, the most feared Apache leader in the American Southwest, surrendered to General Nelson Miles at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona, on September 4, 1886, ending the last significant armed resistance by Native Americans against the United States government. Geronimo had been fighting since the 1850s, leading a band that never numbered more than 38 warriors but tied down 5,000 U.S. troops and 3,000 Mexican soldiers. His surrender marked the end of the Apache Wars and the Indian Wars more broadly. Geronimo and his followers were sent as prisoners of war to Florida, then Alabama, then Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He was never allowed to return to Arizona. He died in 1909 at Fort Sill, still technically a prisoner of war.

George Eastman patented his roll-film camera and registered the trademark "Kodak" on September 4, 1888. The camera came preloaded with a 100-exposure roll of film, and when the roll was finished, the customer mailed the entire camera to Eastman's factory in Rochester, New York, which developed the film, printed the photographs, reloaded the camera with fresh film, and mailed everything back. Eastman's advertising slogan was "You press the button, we do the rest." The $25 camera (roughly $800 today) eliminated the need for chemical knowledge, darkrooms, and heavy glass plates, transforming photography from a specialized technical craft into something anyone could do. Kodak would dominate photography for a century.

The first live transcontinental television broadcast aired on September 4, 1951, carrying the opening ceremonies of the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco to viewers across the United States. AT&T had just completed a coaxial cable and microwave relay network linking the East and West coasts, making coast-to-coast live television possible for the first time. President Truman addressed the conference via television from Washington, becoming the first president to be seen live simultaneously on both coasts. The broadcast proved that television could unite a continental nation around a single event in real time. Within months, networks shifted from regional to national programming, and television replaced radio as America's dominant mass medium.

Thomas Edison switched on the Pearl Street Station in lower Manhattan at 3:00 p.m. on September 4, 1882, delivering direct current electricity to 85 customers through a network of underground copper wires. The station powered 400 lamps spread across a one-square-mile area, including the offices of the New York Times and J.P. Morgan's home. Edison had spent three years building the entire system from scratch: the generator, the wiring, the meters, even the light bulbs. The station burned coal to drive six "Jumbo" dynamos, each weighing 27 tons. This was the first investor-owned electric utility in the world. Within two years, Edison had built similar stations in several American cities and in London, launching the electrification of urban civilization.

Robert E. Lee led 55,000 Confederate soldiers across the Potomac River at White's Ford on September 4-7, 1862, carrying the war onto Northern soil for the first time. His goals were ambitious: win a decisive victory on Union territory, encourage European recognition of the Confederacy, and undermine Northern morale before the November elections. Lee issued Special Order 191 dividing his army into four parts to capture Harpers Ferry. A copy of the order was found wrapped around three cigars by a Union soldier and delivered to General McClellan, who learned Lee's entire plan. Despite this extraordinary intelligence windfall, McClellan moved so cautiously that Lee had time to reunite most of his forces before the Battle of Antietam on September 17.