Whether you’re an historian or just someone who likes to connect the present to the past once in a while, it’s always interesting to see what happened on this day in history. There are many websites that allow you to look at the parallels between what is happening today and what has happened in the past. Here are some examples.
On September 17th in 1787, the Constitution was completed and signed in Philadelphia. In 1862 on this day, it was the bloodiest day in US military history when the Battle of Antietam took place and more than 23,000 soldiers were killed or wounded.
For sports enthusiasts, the American Professional Football Association (the precursor to the NFL) was formed in Canton, Ohio on this day. And in 2004, more recently, Barry Bonds hit his 700th career home run, joining the likes of Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth.
To learn more about what happened on a given day, you can look at sites like the Shapell Manuscript Foundation. They recently featured two interesting historic documents that they have in their possession about fugitive slaves and Abraham Lincoln. The links can be found at:
http://www.shapell.org/manuscript.aspx?prelude-to-lincoln-douglas-debates
They offer some great insights into historic events and into certain days in history.
