Nathan Hale is executed for espionage in…

General Howe had established his headquarters in the Beekman House in a rural part of Manhattan, on a rise between what are now 50th and 51st Streets between First and Second Avenues, near where Beekman Place commemorates the connection.

Hale reportedly was questioned by Howe, and physical evidence was found on him.

According to tradition, Hale spent the night in a greenhouse at the mansion.

He requested a Bible; his request was denied.

Sometime later, he requested a clergyman. Again, the request was denied.

According to the standards of the time, spies are hanged as illegal combatants.

On the morning of September 22, 1776, Hale is marched along Post Road to the Park of Artillery, which is next to a public house called the Dove Tavern (at modern-day 66th Street and Third Avenue), and hanged.

He is twenty-one years old.

Bill Richmond, a thirteen-year-old former slave and Loyalist who will later become a boxer in Europe, is reportedly one of the hangmen, responsible for securing the rope to a strong tree and preparing the noose.
 
By all accounts, Hale comported himself well before the hanging.

Over the years, there has been speculation as to whether he specifically uttered the line: "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

The line may be a revision of "I am so satisfied with the cause in which I have engaged that my only regret is that I have not more lives than one to offer in its service."