August 8, 1942
During World War II, six German saboteurs who secretly entered the United States on a mission to attack its civil infrastructure are executed by the United States for spying. Two other saboteurs who disclosed the plot to the FBI and aided U.S. authorities in their manhunt for their collaborators were imprisoned.
http://www.gigfoot.net/lol/facts/1313.html
Ah, the greatest generation knew how to deal with traitors and spies.
And before that was Black Tom, which damaged quite a bit of Manhattan.