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Historical calendar/ What happened on September 18

2023-09-18 09:20:00, Blog CNA

1793 - George Washington lays the cornerstone of the Capitol, the first US capital building

The legislative branch of the US government, it would take almost a century to build, as the architects were constantly changed, the British set it on fire, and it was used during the Civil War.

Today the Capitol building, with its famous cast-iron dome and important art collection, is part of the Capitol Complex.

It includes 6 Congressional office buildings and 3 Library of Congress buildings, all built during the 19th and 20th centuries. As a young nation, the United States had no permanent capital.

Consequently, by 1790 Congress met in 8 different cities , including Baltimore, New York, and Philadelphia.

That year Congress passed the Residence Act, which gave President Washington the power to choose a permanent seat for the federal government.

The following year, he selected what would become the District of Columbia with lands secured from Maryland and Virginia. Washington chose 3 commissioners to oversee the development of the capital, and they chose French engineer Pierre L'Enfan to draw up the initial project. However, the Frenchman quarreled with the commissioners and was dismissed in 1792.

Then a competition was held where several projects were presented. The project of the Scotsman William Thornton was declared the winner. On September 18, 1793, Washington laid the first cornerstone of the Capitol.

Thus began the long process of building government buildings, which would then be followed by other civil constructions.

Historical calendar/ What happened on September 18

In 1800, Congress moved to the north wing of Capitol Hill. The British occupied Washington and set fire to the Capitol on August 24, 1814.

A storm that brought heavy rains, saving the building from total destruction. During the years 1815-1819, Congress temporarily met in the quarters that had begun to be built nearby. In the early 1850s, work began to expand the Capitol to accommodate the growing number of congressmen.

In 1861, work was temporarily halted because the Capitol was used by Union troops as a hospital and barracks. After the war, expansions and improvements to the building continued. Today the Capitol, visited by 3-5 million people every year, has 540 rooms and covers an area of ??about 4 hectares.

Other important events:

1066 - The Norwegian king Harald Hardrada lands with his army at the mouth of the Humber River and begins the invasion of England.

1851 - The first issue of the American newspaper "The New-York Daily Times", which will later be known as "The New York Times", is published.

1931 - Japan stages the Mukden Incident as a pretext to invade the vast Chinese region of Manchuria.

1944 - During World War II, the British submarine HMS Tradewind torpedoes and sinks the Japanese ship Jun'y? Maru, killing 5,600 people, mostly workers and prisoners.

1961 - UN Secretary-General Dag Hamarskjold dies in a plane crash while trying to negotiate peace in the Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

2014 – During a referendum, Scotland votes overwhelmingly against secession from the United Kingdom./ Adapted from CNA