September 21 · This Day in America
Near the Hudson, after midnight, the most gifted combat general in the Continental Army meets a British major named John André and agrees to hand over West Point — the fortress that controls the river and, with it, the war. The price is 20,000 pounds and a British command. Benedict Arnold had bled for this country; he had been a hero at Saratoga. Now, embittered and in debt, he becomes the thing his name will forever mean. Days later André is caught with the plans hidden in his boot, and the plot collapses. Arnold escapes downriver to the British. Washington, told of the betrayal, asks almost in disbelief whom he can trust now. The republic survives the wound — but learns that the gravest danger is not always the enemy across the field. Sometimes it wears your own uniform.
Source: constitutioncenter.org
Also on this day · 1938
With no satellites and a forecast that said it would curve out to sea, a Category 3 hurricane slams into Long Island and New England on this afternoon at terrifying speed. A wall of water erases shore towns; nearly 700 people die in hours. It remains one of the deadliest and most destructive storms in the region's history — and the reason American weather warning would never be taken lightly again.
Source: www.weather.gov