September 15
is the 258th day of the year (259th in
leap years). There are 107 days remaining.
*
608 -
Saint Boniface IV becomes
Pope.
*
668 - Eastern Roman Emperor
Constans II is assassinated in his bath at
Syracuse, Italy.
*
921 -
Saint Ludmila is murdered at the command of her daughter-in-law at Tetin.
*
1514 -
Thomas Wolsey is appointed
Archbishop of York.
*
1556 -
Vlissingen ex-emperor
Charles V returns to
Spain.
*
1584 -
San Lorenzo del Escorial Palace in
Madrid is finished.
*
1590 - Giambattista Catagna is elected as
Pope Urban VII.
*
1644 - Giambattista Pamphilj becomes
Pope Innocent X, succeeding
Pope Urban VIII.
*
1656 -
England &
France sign peace treaty.
*
1683 -
Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is founded by 13 immigrant families.
*
1749 - According to mathematical calculations,
Pluto moves outside
Neptune's orbit to remain the outermost
planet until
1979.
*
1776 -
American Revolutionary War: British land at
Kip's Bay during the
New York Campaign.
*
1789 - The
United States Department of State is established (formerly known as
Department of Foreign Affairs).
*
1812 - The
French army under
Napoleon reaches
the Kremlin in
Moscow.
*
1821 -
Costa Rica,
El Salvador,
Guatemala,
Honduras, and
Nicaragua jointly declare independence from
Spain.
*
1830 - The
Liverpool to Manchester railway line opens (see also deaths, below).
*
1831 - The locomotive
John Bull operates for the first time in
New Jersey on the
Camden and Amboy Railroad.
*
1835 - The
HMS Beagle, with
Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the
Galápagos Islands.
*
1851 -
Saint Joseph's University is founded in
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.
*
1857 -
Timothy Alder patents the
typesetting machine.
*
1862 -
American Civil War:
Confederate forces capture
Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
*
1873 -
Franco-Prussian War: The last
German troops leave France upon completion of payment of indemnity.
*
1883 - The
Bombay Natural History Society is founded in
Bombay (now
Mumbai),
India.
*
1894 -
First Sino-Japanese War:
Japan defeats
China in the
Battle of Ping Yang.
*
1914 -
World War I: The
Battle of Aisne begins between
Germany and
France.
*
1916 -
World War I:
Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the
Battle of the Somme.
*
1928 -
Sir Alexander Fleming notices a
bacteria-killing
mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as
penicillin.
* 1928 -
Tich Freeman becomes the only bowler to take 300 wickets in an English
cricket season.
*
1931 - In
Scotland, the two-day
Invergordon Mutiny against
Royal Navy pay cuts begins.
*
1935 -
Nuremberg Laws deprive
German Jews of
citizenship.
* 1935 -
Nazi Germany adopts a new
national flag with the
swastika.
*
1940 -
World War II: The
Battle of Britain ends with a
Royal Air Force victory over the
Luftwaffe.
*
1941 - The
U.S. Attorney General rules that the
Neutrality Act is not violated when U.S. ships carry war materiel to
British territories, opening the door for the
Lend-Lease Act.
*
1942 -
World War II: The U.S. aircraft carrier
USS Wasp is torpedoed at
Guadalcanal.
*
1944 -
Franklin D. Roosevelt and
Winston Churchill meet in
Quebec as part of the
Octagon Conference to discuss strategy.
*
1945 - A hurricane in southern
Florida and the
Bahamas destroys 366 planes and 25 blimps at
NAS Richmond.
*
1946 -
Baseball: The
Brooklyn Dodgers are beating the
Chicago Cubs, 2-0, in the 5th inning when a swarm of gnats causes the game to be postponed.
*
1947 -
RCA releases the
12AX7 vacuum tube.
*
1948 - The
F-86 Sabre sets the world aircraft speed record at 1080 km/h.
*
1949 - The television series
The Lone Ranger premieres on the
ABC.
*
1950 -
Korean War:
United States forces land at
Incheon,
Korea.
*
1951 -
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes closes on
Broadway in
New York City after 740 performances.
*
1952 -
United Nations gives
Eritrea to
Ethiopia.
*
1954 - The
U.S. Postal Service issues its 2¢
Thomas Jefferson Liberty Series stamp.
*
1955 -
Vladimir Nabokov's
Lolita is published in Paris by
Olympia Press.
*
1957 -
West Germany holds its third parliamentary election.
Konrad Adenauer remains chancellor.
*
1958 - A
Central Railroad of New Jersey commuter train runs through an open drawbridge at the Newark Bay, killing 58.
*
1959 -
Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first
Soviet leader to visit the
United States.
*
1961 -
Hurricane Carla strikes
Texas with winds of 175 miles per hour.
*
1962 - The
Soviet ship
Poltava heads toward
Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the
Cuban Missile Crisis.
*
1963 - The
16th Street Baptist Church bombing kills four children at an African-American church in
Birmingham, Alabama,
United States.
* 1964 -
The Sun newspaper launches, replacing the
Daily Herald.
*
1966 - The spaceship
Gemini XI, with astronauts
Pete Conrad and
Dick Gordon aboard, returns to earth.
*
1967 - Former U.S. President
Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the
University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to the
United States Congress urging the enactment of
gun control legislation.
*
1968 - The Soviet
Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the
Moon and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.
*
1969 -
Baseball:
St. Louis Cardinals pitcher
Steve Carlton sets a record by striking out 19
New York Mets in a single game.
*
1972 - A magnitude 4.5
earthquake shakes Northern
Illinois.
* 1972 - An SAS domestic flight from Gothenburg to Stockholm was hijacked and flown to Malmö-Bulltofta Airport.
*
1974 -
Air Vietnam flight 727 is hijacked, then crashes while attempting to land with 75 on board.
*
1975 - The French
department of
Corse (the entire island of
Corsica) is divided into two:
Haute-Corse and
Corse-du-Sud.
*
1976 -
Soyuz 22 carries two
cosmonauts into earth orbit for eight days.
*
1978 -
Muhammad Ali beats
Leon Spinks for the world heavyweight
boxing title.
*
1981 - The
United States Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves
Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice on the
United States Supreme Court.
* 1981 - The
John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the
Smithsonian Institution operates it under its own power outside
Washington, DC.
*
1982 - The first issue of
USA Today is published by
Gannett.
*
1983 -
Israeli premier
Menachem Begin resigns.
*
1985 -
Willie Nelson's
Farm Aid concert begins.
*
1987 - U.S.
Secretary of State George Shultz and
Soviet Foreign Minister
Eduard Shevardnadze sign a treaty to establish centers to reduce the risk of nuclear war.
*
1989 - The
U.S. Congress recognizes
Terry Anderson's continued captivity in
Beirut.
*
1990 - France announces it will send 4,000 troops to the
Persian Gulf.
*
1993 -
Liechtenstein Prince Hans-Adam II disbands parliament.
*
1994 -
Muslim fundamentalists kidnap & behead 16 people in
Algeria.
* 1997 -
Hastings Wise murders four at the R.E. Phelon Company lawn mower parts manufacturing factory in
Aiken,
South Carolina. The only possible motive for the murders was Hastings' dismissal from his job eleven weeks earlier.
*
1998 -
WorldCom and
MCI Communications finish their landmark merger, forming
MCI WorldCom which would later be renamed
WorldCom and become the largest
bankruptcy in
United States history.
*
2001 -
Alex Zanardi, driving in a
CART race is injured in Germany, resulting in both legs being amputated below the knee.
*
973 -
Al-Biruni, mathematician (d.
1048)
*
1254 -
Marco Polo, Italian explorer (d.
1324)
*
1580 -
Charles Annibal Fabrot, French lawyer (d.
1659)
*
1613 -
François de La Rochefoucauld, French writer (d.
1680)
*
1649 -
Titus Oates, English minister and plotter (d.
1705)
*
1715 -
Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, French artillery specialist (d.
1789)
*
1789 -
James Fenimore Cooper, American novelist (d.
1851)
*
1828 -
Aleksandr Mikhailovich Butlerov, Russian chemist (d.
1886)
*
1830 -
Porfirio Díaz,
President of Mexico (d.
1915)
*
1852 -
Edward Bouchet, American physicist (d.
1918)
*
1857 -
William Howard Taft, 27th
President of the United States (d.
1930)
*
1858 -
Jenő Hubay, Hungarian violinist (d.
1937)
*
1860 - Sir
Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya, Indian engineer
*
1867 -
Vladimir May-Mayevsky, Russian counter-revolutionary (d.
1920)
*
1876 -
Bruno Walter, German conductor (d.
1962)
*
1879 -
Joseph Lyons, tenth
Prime Minister of Australia (d.
1939)
*
1881 -
Ettore Bugatti, Italian automobile engineer and designer (d.
1947)
*
1883 -
Esteban Terradas i Illa, Catalan mathematician, scientist, and engineer (d.
1950)
*
1887 -
Carlos Dávila,
President of Chile and Secretary General of the Organization of American States (d.
1955)
*
1889 -
Robert Benchley, American author (d.
1945)
*
1890 -
Agatha Christie, English writer (d.
1976)
* 1890 -
Frank Martin, Swiss composer (d.
1974)
*
1894 -
Jean Renoir, French film director (d.
1979)
* 1894 -
Oskar Klein, Swedish physicist (d.
1977)
*
1898 -
J. Slauerhoff, Dutch poet and novelist (d.
1936)
*
1901 -
Sir Donald Bailey, British engineer (d.
1985)
*
1903 -
Roy Acuff, American musician (d.
1992)
*
1904 - King
Umberto II of Italy (d.
1983)
*
1907 -
Fay Wray, Canadian-born actress (d.
2004)
*
1908 -
Penny Singleton, American actress (d.
2003)
*
1913 -
John N. Mitchell,
United States Attorney General and convicted Watergate criminal (d.
1988)
*
1914 -
Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentine writer (d.
1999)
*
1922 -
Jackie Cooper, American actor and director
*
1923 -
Anton Heiller, Austrian organist (d.
1979)
*
1924 -
Bobby Short, American musician (d.
2005)
*
1926 -
Jean-Pierre Serre, French mathematician
*
1928 -
Cannonball Adderley, American saxophonist and bandleader (d.
1975)
*
1929 -
Eva Burrows, the 13th General of
The Salvation Army* 1929 -
Murray Gell-Mann, American physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
1933 -
Henry Darrow, American actor
* 1933 -
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Spanish conductor
*
1937 -
Robert Lucas, Jr., American economist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
1938 -
Gaylord Perry, baseball player
*
1940 -
Merlin Olsen, American football player and actor
*
1941 -
Flórián Albert, Hungarian footballer
*
1946 -
Tommy Lee Jones, American actor
* 1946 -
Oliver Stone, American film director
*
1949 -
Joe Barton, American politician
*
1951 -
Johan Neeskens, Dutch football player
*
1955 -
Theodore Long, American professional wrestling general manager
*
1961 -
Dan Marino, American football player
* 1961 -
Terry Lamb, Australian rugby league player
*
1969 -
Jim Curtiss, American writer
*
1971 -
Nathan Astle, New Zealand cricket player
*
1975 -
Jamie Stevens, German pop singer
*
1976 -
Paul Thomson, Scottish drummer (
Franz Ferdinand)
*
1977 -
Sophie Dahl, British model
*
1978 -
Eidur Gudjohnsen, Icelandic footballer
* 1979 -
Amy Davidson, American actress
*
1980 -
Jolin Tsai, Taiwanese pop singer
*
1984 -
Prince Harry of Wales*
1500 -
John Morton,
Archbishop of Canterbury*
1596 -
Leonhard Rauwolf, German physician and botanist (b.
1535)
*
1613 -
Thomas Overbury, English writer (murdered) (b.
1581)
*
1643 -
Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, Irish politician (b.
1566)
*
1649 -
John Floyd, English Jesuit preacher (b.
1572)
*
1700 -
André Le Nôtre, French landscape architect (b.
1613)
*
1701 -
Edmé Boursault, French writer (b.
1638)
*
1707 -
George Stepney, English poet and diplomat (b.
1663)
*
1712 -
Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin, English politician
*
1750 -
Charles Theodore Pachelbel, German composer (b.
1690)
*
1794 -
Abraham Clark, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b.
1725)
*
1803 -
Gian Francesco Albani, Italian Catholic cardinal (b.
1719)
*
1830 -
William Huskisson, first rail fatality
*
1842 -
Pierre Baillot, French violinist and composer (b.
1771)
*
1859 -
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, British engineer (b.
1806)
*
1864 -
John Hanning Speke, British explorer (b.
1827)
*
1883 -
Joseph Plateau, Belgian physicist (b.
1801)
*
1885 -
Jumbo,
P. T. Barnum's circus elephant (hit by a train)
*
1893 -
Thomas Hawksley, English civil engineer (b.
1807)
*
1921 -
Roman Ungern von Sternberg, Russian counter-revolutionary (b.
1886)
*
1926 -
Rudolf Christoph Eucken, German writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1846)
*
1930 -
Milton Sills, American actor (b.
1882)
*
1945 -
André Tardieu,
Prime Minister of France (b.
1876)
* 1945 -
Anton Webern, Austrian composer (shot) (b.
1883)
*
1965 -
Steve Brown, American musician (b.
1890)
*
1972 -
Geoffrey Fisher,
Archbishop of Canterbury (b.
1887)
*
1973 - King
Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden (b.
1882)
*
1978 -
Willy Messerschmitt, German aircraft designer and manufacturer (b.
1898)
*
1980 -
Bill Evans, American jazz pianist (b.
1929)
*
1987 -
Steven Tuomi, Murder victim of Jeffery Dahmer (b.
1963)
*
1989 -
Robert Penn Warren, American writer (b.
1905)
*
1993 -
Ethan Allen, Baseball player (b.
1903)
*
2003 -
Jack Brymer, English clarinetist (b.
1915)
* 2003 -
Josef Hirsal, Czech novelist (b.
1920)
*
2004 -
Johnny Ramone, American guitarist (
The Ramones) (prostate cancer) (b.
1948)
* 2004 -
Walter Stewart, Canadian journalist (b.
1931)
*In
Slovakia - Holyday of the Seven sorrows of Virgin Maria
*In
ancient Greece, the second day of the
Eleusinian Mysteries, when the priests of
Demeter declared the public start of the rites.
*
Independence Day from Spain (
1821) for
Costa Rica,
El Salvador,
Guatemala,
Honduras, and
Nicaragua, celebrated everywhere with marches from schoolchildren.
*
Catholic Calendar of Saints - Feast day of
Our Lady of Sorrows.
* Also see
September 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics).
*The
United Kingdom - the British commemorate the
Battle of Britain on the day of the last massive
Luftwaffe attack in
1940.
*
Japan -
Respect for the Aged Day before 2003; beginning in 2003, Respect for the Aged Day is held on the third Monday of September.
*
Bulgaria - The first day of school.
*
BBC: On This DaySeptember 14 ·
September 16 ·
August 15 ·
October 15 · more
historical anniversaries
