Wednesday · November 11, 2026
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American history, reported as it happened
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19361776 Club

Boulder Dam's generators spin up, and electricity starts moving to Los Angeles

The power lines run nearly 300 miles from the Nevada desert to a city that has been waiting for them.

For five years, the dam in Black Canyon had been a construction site: thousands of men pouring concrete through desert heat that averaged nearly 120 degrees in the summer of 1931. On October 9, 1936, that changed. Boulder Dam's turbines began turning, and the first hydroelectric power generated there flowed out over transmission lines toward Los Angeles. The city that had helped finance the dam now had a new source of electricity, delivered from a structure the federal government had owned for only a few months…

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More from October 9
1812

Under cover of darkness, American sailors cut out two British brigs on Lake Erie

One prize is burned within hours; the other sails into American service.
1942

Marines cross the Matanikau and the Japanese line breaks

Three days of fighting end with Japanese forces falling back from the river they had held since late September.
1888

The elevator starts running, and the Washington Monument finally opens to everyone

Nearly four years after its dedication, the world's tallest structure gets a working lift and an open door.
19921776 Club
Michelle Knapp heard what she thought was a three-car crash; it was a stone that outdated the solar system's planets.
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Read the full October 9 edition →Everything that happened on October 9 →
More from The World Wars
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.
1942

Five Marine battalions cross the Matanikau in a pincer; the Japanese line east of the river breaks

A carefully drawn trap at the river mouth and an inland footbridge catches Japanese troops before they can finish digging in near Henderson Field.
1940

A Navy memo floats a plan: push Japan into firing the first shot

Lieutenant Commander Arthur McCollum sends his superiors eight ways to pressure Tokyo, and admits Washington isn't ready to declare war without one.
1943

Ninety-eight American prisoners are shot on a Wake Island beach

The civilian contractors had survived twenty-two months of occupation; their captors gave no warning before the killing.
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