TEMPLE, Texas — On this day in 1796, President George Washington's farewell address was published to the American people, leaving lessons that are still meaningful today.
This Day in History:
1796- George Washington's farewell address is published in a Philadelphia newspaper after stepping down as the first President of the United States.
In the address, Washington urged the American people to focus on their identities as Americans ahead of their loyalties to a state or region, to not be divided into political parties and factionalism and advocated for a foreign policy based on neutrality and avoiding long-term alliances with other nations.
The full text of the address can be found at this link.
More notable events on Sept. 19:
2000- Ken Griffey Jr. pinch-hits his 400th home run, becoming the first ever Major League Baseball player to reach the milestone as a pinch-hitter.
1995- The Unabomber's 35,000-word manifesto is published in The New York Times and The Washington Post, which helped lead to the arrest of Ted Kaczynski.
1994- Medical drama "ER" debuts, becoming one of the highest-rated shows on television and launching the careers of numerous stars, such as George Clooney and Juliana Margulies. The show ran for 15 seasons.
1991- "Ötzi" the Iceman, the oldest natural human mummy ever found in Europe, is discovered in the Ötztal Alps along the Italian-Austrian border. Otzi is believed to have lived around 3,300 B.C.
1970- The first episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" airs.
1940- Polish resistance fighter Witold Pilecki is willingly captured and imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp in order to gather information on the Holocaust for the Western Allies. He escaped three years later, rejoining the Polish Home Army and taking part in the Warsaw Uprising.
1893- New Zealand becomes the first country in the world to allow women to vote.
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