■ On Sept. 22, 1776, during the Revolutionary War, Capt. Nathan Hale, 21, was hanged as a spy by the British in New York. ■ In 1761, Britain’s King George III and his wife, Charlotte, were crowned in Westminster Abbey. ■ In 1792, the French Republic was proclaimed. ■ In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves in rebel states should be free as of Jan.