First International Conference of American States And so, as Secretary of State, Blaine sent invitations to all the nations of the Hemisphere to come to Washington in November 1881 with the principal goal of considering and discussing methods to prevent war between the nations of the Hemisphere. But destiny intervened: President Garfield was assassinated on 19 September 1881 and the new President Chester A. Arthur, who was no friend of Blaine's, quickly removed him from the State Department. Shortly afterward, the Conference invitations were withdrawn on the grounds that the unsettled situation at home and abroad would make such an event impossible. Now a private citizen,
US Open (tennis) in the United States. The US Open is the only Grand Slam tournament that employs tiebreakers in every set of a singles match. For the other three Grand Slam events, a match that reaches 6–6 in the last possible set (the third for women and the fifth for men) continues until a player takes a two-game lead. As with the US Open, those events use tiebreakers to decide the other sets. The US Open also is the only Grand Slam tournament with 16 qualifiers (instead of 12) in the women's singles draw. The tournament was first held in August 1881