Associated Press

On Sept. 18, 1793, President George Washington laid the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol.

In 1851, the first edition of The New York Times was published.

In 1947, the National Security Act, which created a National Military Establishment and secured the position of Secretary of Defense, went into effect immediately.

In 1975, newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was captured by the FBI in San Francisco, 19 months after being kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

In 2014, voters in Scotland rejected independence, opting to remain part of the United Kingdom in a historic referendum.

In 2020, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a towering champion of women’s rights who became the court’s second female justice, died at her home in Washington at age 87, of complications from pancreatic cancer.