MOMENTS IN TIME

The History Channel

• On Sept. 7, 1813, the United States gets its nickname when a New York newspaper refers to “Uncle Sam.” The name is linked to meat packer Samuel Wilson, who supplied barrels of beef to the United States Army during the War of 1812. Wilson stamped the barrels with “U.S.” for United States, but soldiers began referring to the grub as “Uncle Sam’s.”

• On Sept. 6, 1847, writer Henry David Thoreau moves in with Ralph Waldo Emerson in Concord, Mass., after living for two years in a shack he built himself on Walden Pond. In 1854, his collection of essays, “Walden, or Life in the Woods,” is published.

• On Sept. 10, 1919, almost a year after the end of the First World War, New York City holds a parade to welcome home Gen. John J. Pershing, commander in chief of the American Expeditionary Force, and some 25,000 soldiers who had served on the Western Front.

• On Sept. 11, 1930, Katherine Anne Porter’s first collection of short stories, “Flowering Judas,” is published. During her lifetime, she published 25 stories and one novel, “Ship of Fools,” which took her more than two decades to complete.

• On Sept. 5, 1958, Boris Pasternak’s romantic novel “Dr. Zhivago” is published in the United States. The book infuriated Soviet officials, but admirers of Pasternak’s work began to smuggle the manuscript out of Russia piece by piece. The book won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958.

• On Sept. 9, 1965, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax hurls the eighth perfect game in major-league history, leading the Dodgers to a 1-0 win over the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium. Koufax retired after the 1966 season at just 30 years old because of arthritis in his elbow.

• On Sept. 8, 1974, President Gerald Ford pardons his disgraced predecessor Richard Nixon for any crimes he may have committed or participated in while in office. The Watergate scandal erupted after it was revealed that Nixon and his aides had engaged in illegal activities. With impeachment proceedings under way, Nixon became the first American president to resign.

(c) 2011 King Features Synd., Inc.