This Week in American History: 1776 – Nathan Hale is Arrested by British

Here is what happened this week in American History.

• Sept. 17. On this day in 1928, the Okeechobee hurricane makes landfall in southeastern Florida packing wind speeds of 145 miles per hour. This was after it had struck Puerto Rico as a Category 5 hurricane. The storm destroyed over 1,700 homes in West Palm Beach but the most extensive destruction occurred around Lake Okeechobee in the cities of Belle Glade, Canal Point, Chosen, Pahokee, and South Bay. The lake flooded hundreds of square miles to a depth of 20 feet, killing at least 2,500 people. Weakened, the storm would make another landfall near Edisto Island, South Carolina. Total in Florida, North Carolina, Puerto Rico and South Carolina, the storm was responsible for the deaths of at least 4,100 people.

• Sept. 18. In 1919, history is made as Frederick Douglass “Fritz” Pollard plays football for the Akron Pros, becoming the first black football player on a professional football team. Two years later he will become the first black head coach in the National Football League.

• Sept. 19. Today in 1902, Booker T. Washington is addressing a crowd of about 3,000 people at the Shiloh Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Washington had just completed his speech when someone yelled, “There’s a fight.” Some of those attending mistook “fight” for “fire” and rushed to the doors. Panic ensued as people climbed over pews and benches, trying to reach the aisles and door. Those that fell were trampled. It was reported the pile of bodies was ten feet high. In all, over 100 people would die in the disaster, some having suffocated and others crushed. There never was a fight. It was later determined that one man stepped on another man’s foot, and that man acted as though he was drawing a gun.

• Sept. 20. On this day in 1958, Martin Anthony Lunde is born in Rome, Georgia. In 1981, Lunde begins his career as a professional wrestler on independent circuits using the name Jim Vertaroso. He will later become “Super Olympia” in one of the National Wrestling Alliance territories. He meets and becomes friends with Ric Flair, moving to the Mid South Wrestling territory. While there, Sylvester Ritter aka Junkyard Dog, notes his facial similarity to Alan Robert Rogowski aka Ole Anderson. A new persona is born and Lunde becomes Arn Anderson, the beginning of a very successful career. Lunde retired from in-ring work in 2000 due to complications from ongoing injuries.

• Sept. 21. In 1776, the Great Fire of New York breaks out while the city is under occupation by British military forces. Several months earlier as the British advanced on the city and Gen. George Washington realized his troops could not hold it, he began moving the bulk of his army. Gen. Nathanael Greene, one of Washington’s best generals, along with Founding Father John Jay recommended the city be burned, denying it to the British. Washington sought counsel from the Second Continental Congress and they rejected the idea. The result was the British occupying New York. How or even where the fire started has never been determined. The fire spread quickly, from wooden structure to wooden structure, burning 10 to 25 percent of the city. Some of the city areas not directly impacted by the fire were looted. Always denying any involvement in the fire, Washington would write, “Providence – or some good honest fellow, has done more for us than we were disposed to do for ourselves.”

• Sept. 22. Today in 1776, Nathan Hale is arrested in New York by the British and loosely accused of starting the New York City fire though no evidence has ever surfaced. Sought by the British, Hale was an American patriot, soldier, spy, member of Knowlton’s Rangers, and had stayed behind in New York to supply Washington with information on the British. The British refuse Hale a Bible or visit from clergy. He is hung next to the Dove Tavern at the age of just 21. It was Hale who is reported to have said, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” Nathan Hale is the official State Hero of Connecticut. A statue of Hale stands in City Hall Park, New York.

• Sept. 23. On this day in 1967, hundreds of small fishing boats are on Lake Michigan during Michigan’s first coho salmon sport fishing season. This was a hugely anticipated event for anglers and recreational fishermen that had already started. The forecast for the day had been good but wind speeds were anticipated at 10 to 22 mph and a small craft warning had been issued two days earlier. It is estimated that about 9,000 people in 700 to 1,000 boats were fishing for the salmon. A sudden storm struck with winds gusting at 40 miles per hour. Many of the boats were too small to be on the large body of water. Over 150 boats capsized, with 46 people injured and seven killed.