Celebrations Today – September 8
Holidays and observances
- Christian Feast Day:
- Earliest day on which Auditor’s Day can fall, while September 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Sunday in September. (Church of Scientology)
- Earliest day on which Day of the Workers in the Oil, Gas, Power, and Geological Industry can fall, while September 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Saturday in September. (Turkmenistan)
- Earliest day on which Grandparents Day (Estonia) can fall, while September 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Sunday in September. (Estonia)
- Earliest day on which Mid-Autumn Festival can fall, while October 8 is the latest; celebrated on the 15th day in the 8th month of Chinese calendar. (China, Chinese diaspora)
- Earliest day on which Turkmen Bakhshi Day can fall, while September 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Sunday in September. (Turkmenistan)
- Day of the Battle of Borodino (Russia)
- Feast of ‘Izzat – First day of the tenth month of the Bahá’í calendar. (Bahá’í Faith)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Macedonia from Yugoslavia in 1991.
- International Literacy Day (International)
- Martyrs’ Day (Afghanistan) (date may fall on September 9, follows a non-Gregorian calendar)
- National Day (Andorra), also the feast of Our Lady of Meritxell
- Victory Day (Pakistan)
- Victory Day, also the feast of Our Lady of Victories or il-Vittorja (Malta)
- World Physical Therapy Day
Celebrations Today – USA: September 8
National Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses Day
National Ampersand Day
Stand Up To Cancer Day – Second Friday in September
International Literacy Day
National Pledge of Allegiance Day
National Pardon Day
National Virgin Mary Day
World Physical Therapy Day
Today in US History: September 8
The Galveston Storm
Water Front, Galveston, Texas,
1910.
Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs, 1851-1991
On September 8, 1900, hurricane winds estimated at speeds of up to 120 miles per hour ripped across the Texas coastline of the Gulf of Mexico, killing more than 6,000 people and decimating the city of Galveston. During the storm, water swept through sea-level streets; destroyed homes and buildings; and wiped out electricity, roads, and communication systems. As news of the disaster spread, supplies for the residents left homeless poured into Galveston from across the nation. Clara Barton and workers from the American National Red Cross arrived soon after the storm to help coordinate relief efforts.
Seawall and Beach, Galveston, Texas,
circa 1910-20.
Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920
Rebuilding Galveston involved constructing a reinforced concrete seawall and raising the city above sea level, to protect it against future flooding. Seventeen feet high, and initially over three miles long, the massive seawall, now extending over ten miles, repels Gulf winds and water. Sand from the Gulf of Mexico was used to lift the city far above its previous grade.
Not long after the storm, the governor of Texas, at the behest of local businesspeople, appointed a mayor and four commissioners to manage the city’s recovery. Initially viewed as an emergency measure, the commission form of government was in place in Galveston for roughly sixty years. The “Galveston Plan” was widely imitated by other cities and became, briefly, a model for early twentieth-century municipal reform.
Learn more about Galveston on the Library of Congress’ Web site:
- To find images of Galveston after the disaster and at other times in its history, search the Library’s Prints & Photographs Division’s Online Catalog on the keyword Galveston. For a more targeted search, browse the catalog on the subject heading Hurricanes Texas Galveston 1900.
- Search the American Memory collection Inventing Entertainment: The Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies on Galveston to locate additional films from the Galveston Cyclone Series, including Panoramic View of Tremont Hotel, Galveston.
- Find images of historic structures in Galveston, many of which predate the storm, by browsing the collection Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record, 1933-Present on the subject heading TEXAS—GalvestonCounty—Galveston.
- Find panoramic images of Galveston in the 1920s in the American Memory collection Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs, 1851-1991 by searching on the keyword Galveston. The seawall is prominently featured in many pictures including the “Second International Pageant of Pulchritude and Eighth Annual Bathing Girl Revue,” of 1927.
- Find maps of Galveston and surrounding areas of Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, by searching on Galveston as a in the Library’s Map Collections.
- Search American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940 on keywords such as storm, flood,and hurricane, to find firsthand stories of extreme weather and its effects on individuals and communities.
Quarry Workers’ International Union of North America
The North End Granite Plants,
Barre, Vt.,
1917.
Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs, 1851-1991
The American Federation of Labor granted a charter to the Quarry Workers’ International Union of North America, headquartered in Barre, Vermont, on September 8, 1903. Granite had been quarried in Barre since just after the War of 1812. In the late nineteenth century, new waves of immigrants—mostly from the quarry districts of Europe—particularly Northern Italy and Scotland, came to Barre to quarry, cut, and carve the high-quality gray granite prevalent in the area. They brought a strong tradition of trade unionism to their new country.
Writers from the Federal Writers’ Project interviewed Barre quarrymen in the early 1940s and documented the lives of workers whose union standards outpaced the rest of the country. Many of these interviews are in the American Memory collection American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940.
Take granite out of Barre, and it would be like taking the Capitol out of Montpelier.
“President of Barre Chamber of Commerce,”
circa 1940.
American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940
One of the workers’ chief concerns was stonecutters’ tuberculosis (silicosis), a debilitating and often deadly lung disorder caused by inhaling airborne granite particles produced by the pneumatic stone-working tools. Labor unions organized to insist that employers install dust-removing equipment. One Vermont granite worker explained, the workers were “pretty well resigned to their fate. These stonecutters expect that one day sooner or later they will get [stonecutters’ tuberculosis].” Interviewed in an era when workers’ rights were very narrowly construed, he recounted:
The big worry of some of [the quarrymen] is that they’ll die before they have made good provision for their families. That’s the real reason behind the strikes. They feel that since they’re ‘marked’ men with perhaps less time to provide for their families than the average man, that they are entitled to higher wages. Besides there are certain periods in the year – we call them slack time and dead time – when there is little work to be done. Sometimes only a few men work during these slow weeks; sometimes, none at all.”Granite Worker,”
Montpelier, Vermont,
Mary Tomasi, interviewer, 1938-39.
American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940
Channeling,
a New England Granite Quarry,
1908.
Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920
Barre, Vermont (the Granite City),
Drawn and published by George E. Norris,
1891.
Panoramic Maps
Each stonecutter’s death was mourned by the community of laborers. Interviewer Mary Tomasi recounts the sadness Giacomo Coletti felt on the loss of his friend and fellow stonecutter Pietro:
Tonight he does not feel the wretched guilt that the news of Pietro’s death first brought him. It was Giacomo’s glowing letters (22 years ago) of excellent wages paid in America that persuaded Pietro to cross the ocean and learn this granite-cutting trade. These last two nights were an excruciating nightmare of thinking that if Pietro had stayed in the old country perhaps he would not now be lying dead from this stone-cutters’ TB. It took Nina and the children to convince him that the Dio’s will called Pietro from this world, and he would have been forced to answer had he been in Italy, Africa, or the very ends of the earth.”Giacomo Coletti,”
Montpelier, Vermont,
1938-39.
American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940
Learn more about the stonecutter’s life:
- Search American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940 on Barre or the words quarry, granite, or stonecutter to find interviews such as “A Barre Family.”
- Search Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs, 1851-1991 on Barre or the words quarry or granite to find related images.
- Search the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog on quarry, granite, or Barre to find more images relating to the industry.
- Search the collection Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920 on quarry to find images such as Loading, a New England Granite Quarry.
Today in History – September 8-External Links
Today’s Weather in History
Today in Earthquake History
This Day in Naval History
Today’s Document from the National Archives
Today’s Events, Births & Deaths –Wikipedia
Today in History by AP
On this Day -1950 to 2005 – Today’s Story–BBC
On This Day: The New York Times
This Day in History –History.com
Today in Canadian History – Canada Channel
History of Britain that took place On This Day
Russia in History –Russiapedia