Today in History: September 18

1709: Writer and lexicographer Samuel Johnson is born, the son of a poor bookseller, at Lichfield, Staffordshire.

1779: Joseph Story, one of America’s greatest jurists and legal writers, is born at Marblehead, Massachusetts.  At 32, he’ll be the youngest person ever appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

1850: The U.S. Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act.  (Image: Wikipedia.)

1851: Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones found a newspaper which they call the New York Times.

1857: U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Cleveland railroad lawyer Joseph Hessin Clarke is born at New Lisbon, Ohio.

1873: The preeminent Philadelphia banking firm of Jay Cooke & Co. collapses, triggering what will become the Panic of 1873.

1927: The upstart United Independent Broadcasters, a network of 47 stations, hits the airwaves to compete with the established National Broadcasting Co.  The name will later be changed to “Columbia Broadcasting System” or “CBS.”