Today in History: September 16, the Land Run of 1883

Today is Wednesday, Sept. 16, the 259th day of 2026. There are 106 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 16, 1893, the largest land run in U.S. history occurred as more than 100,000 white settlers rushed to claim over more than 6 million acres of land in what is now northern Oklahoma. The land had been acquired by the forcibly displaced Cherokee Nation, which came under U.S. pressure to sell land rights before the run.

Also on this date:

In 1810, Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla called on his parishioners to join him in a rebellion against Spanish rule, marking the beginning of the Mexican War of Independence.

In 1908, General Motors was founded in Flint, Michigan, by William C. Durant.

In 1940, Samuel T. Rayburn of Texas was first elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; he would hold the post for a record 17 years, spanning three separate terms.

In 1966, the Metropolitan Opera officially opened its new opera house at New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts with the world premiere of Samuel Barber’s “Antony and Cleopatra.”

In 1974, President Gerald R. Ford signed a proclamation announcing a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam War deserters and draft evaders.

In 1982, the massacre of more than 1,300 Palestinian men, women and children at the hands of Israeli-allied Christian Phalange militiamen began in west Beirut’s Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.

In 2007, O.J. Simpson was arrested in the alleged armed robbery of sports memorabilia collectors in Las Vegas. (Simpson was later convicted of kidnapping and armed robbery and sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison; he was released in 2017.)

In 2013, Aaron Alexis, a former U.S. Navy reservist, went on a shooting rampage inside the Washington Navy Yard, killing 12 people before being fatally shot police.

In 2021, President Emmanuel Macron announced that France had killed Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, the leader of the Islamic State group in the Greater Sahara. Macron's office said al-Sahrawi personally ordered the killing of six French aid workers and their Nigerien colleagues in 2020 and was behind a 2017 attack that killed U.S. and Niger military personnel.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor George Chakiris is 94. Actor Ed Begley Jr. is 77. Author-historian-filmmaker Henry Louis Gates Jr. is 76. Country singer David Bellamy (The Bellamy Brothers) is 76. Actor Mickey Rourke is 74. Jazz musician Earl Klugh is 73. Baseball Hall of Famer Robin Yount is 71. Magician David Copperfield is 70. Actor Jennifer Tilly is 68. Retired MLB All-Star pitcher Orel Hershiser is 68. Baseball Hall of Famer Tim Raines is 67. Singer Richard Marx is 63. Comedian Molly Shannon is 62. Singer Marc Anthony is 58. Comedian-actor Amy Poehler is 55. Singer-songwriter Musiq Soulchild is 49. Actor Alexis Bledel is 45. Actor Madeline Zima is 41. Rock singer-musician Nick Jonas (The Jonas Brothers) is 34. Actor Chase Stokes is 34.