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17771776 Club

Philadelphia fallen, Congress sits for a single day in Lancaster

Delegates who fled with the government's records pick Benjamin Franklin for an executive post, then push on to York.

British troops held Philadelphia, and the Continental Congress was running west with whatever papers it could carry. On September 27, 1777, John Hancock and the other delegates reached Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and convened inside the county courthouse for a single session. They chose Benjamin Franklin to help fill an executive role in the still-forming national government, then decided Lancaster wasn't far enough from the British and moved on to York. The delegates left the next morning for York…

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More from September 27
1940

Berlin ceremony formalizes Germany, Italy, and Japan into the Axis alliance

The three powers pledge mutual support if any is attacked, carving the world into spheres of control.
1908

First production Model T leaves the Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit

Twenty horsepower, vanadium steel, and a price aimed square at the middle class.
1941

Fourteen freighters hit the water at once; Roosevelt calls them Liberty ships

At Baltimore's Bethlehem-Fairfield yard, the President borrows Patrick Henry's own words to name a fleet still unbuilt.
19281776 Club
The United States recognized Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists before they had even formally reorganized their own government.
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Read the full September 27 edition →Everything that happened on September 27 →
More from Revolution & Founding
1812

Hull crosses the Detroit River; his army occupies Sandwich, Upper Canada

The Army of the Northwest pushes onto British soil weeks after the U.S. declared war, planting American forces on the Canadian side of the river.
1787

Confederation Congress charts a path to statehood for the Ohio territory; slavery banned within its bounds

The Northwest Ordinance divides the vast British cession into future states and sets aside a township plot for public schools in every settlement.
1798

It is now a federal crime to publish "false or malicious" criticism of officials; Adams signs the Sedition Act

The last of four laws Congress has passed since June, the act caps a Federalist push to silence perceived French sympathizers working against the government.
1790

Washington signs the Residence Act; the Potomac wins the capital over Philadelphia

A federal district up to ten miles square will rise near Georgetown, with Philadelphia holding the government as a ten-year stopgap while the new city is built.
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