This Day in History

[lordroel]

September 14th

AD 81 – Domitian becomes Emperor of the Roman Empire upon the death of his brother Titus.

629 – Emperor Heraclius enters Constantinople in triumph after his victory over the Persian Empire.

786 – "Night of the three Caliphs": Harun al-Rashid becomes the Abbasid caliph upon the death of his brother al-Hadi. Birth of Harun's son al-Ma'mun.

919 – Battle of Islandbridge: High King Niall Glúndub is killed while leading an Irish coalition against the Vikings of Uí Ímair, led by King Sitric Cáech.

1180 – Genpei War: Battle of Ishibashiyama in Japan.

1402 – Battle of Homildon Hill results in an English victory over Scotland.

1607 – Flight of the Earls from Lough Swilly, Donegal, Ireland.

1682 – Bishop Gore School, one of the oldest schools in Wales, is founded.

1723 – Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena lays down the first stone of Fort Manoel in Malta.

1741 – George Frideric Handel completes his oratorio Messiah.

1752 – The British Empire adopts the Gregorian calendar, skipping eleven days (the previous day was September 2).

1763 – Seneca warriors defeat British forces at the Battle of Devil's Hole during Pontiac's War.

1782 – American Revolutionary War: Review of the French troops under General Rochambeau by General George Washington at Verplanck's Point, New York.

1791 – The Papal States lose Avignon to Revolutionary France.

1808 – Finnish War: Russians defeat the Swedes at the Battle of Oravais.

1812 – Napoleonic Wars: The French Grande Armée enters Moscow. The Fire of Moscow begins as soon as Russian troops leave the city.

1814 – Battle of Baltimore: The poem Defence of Fort McHenry is written by Francis Scott Key. The poem is later used as the lyrics of The Star-Spangled Banner.

1829 – The Ottoman Empire signs the Treaty of Adrianople with Russia, thus ending the Russo-Turkish War.

1846 – Jang Bahadur and his brothers massacre about 40 members of the Nepalese palace court.

1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of South Mountain, part of the Maryland Campaign, is fought.

1901 – U.S. President William McKinley dies after an assassination attempt on September 6, and is succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt.

1914 – HMAS AE1, the Royal Australian Navy's first submarine, was lost at sea with all hands near East New Britain, Papua New Guinea.

1917 – The Russian Empire is formally replaced by the Russian Republic.

1936 – Raoul Villain, who assassinated the French Socialist Jean Jaures, is himself killed by Spanish Republicans in Ibiza

1939 – World War II: The Estonian military boards the Polish submarine ORP Orzeł in Tallinn, sparking a diplomatic incident that the Soviet Union will later use to justify the annexation of Estonia.

1940 – Ip massacre: The Hungarian Army, supported by local Hungarians, kill 158 Romanian civilians in Ip, Sălaj, a village in Northern Transylvania, an act of ethnic cleansing.

1943 – World War II: The Wehrmacht starts a three-day retaliatory operation targeting several Greek villages in the region of Viannos, whose death toll would eventually exceed 500 persons.

1944 – World War II: Maastricht becomes the first Dutch city to be liberated by allied forces.

1948 – The Indian Army captures the city of Aurangabad as part of Operation Polo.

1954 – In a top secret nuclear test, a Soviet Tu-4 bomber drops a 40 kiloton atomic weapon just north of Totskoye village.

1958 – The first two German post-war rockets, designed by the German engineer Ernst Mohr, reach the upper atmosphere.

1959 – The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon, becoming the first man-made object to reach it.

1960 – The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is founded.

1960 – Congo Crisis: With CIA help, Mobutu Sese Seko seizes power in a military coup, suspending parliament and the constitution.

1969 – The US Selective Service selects September 14 as the First Draft Lottery date.

1975 – The first American saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, is canonized by Pope Paul VI.

1979 – Afghan President Nur Muhammad Taraki is assassinated upon the order of Hafizullah Amin, who becomes the new president.

1982 – President-elect of Lebanon Bachir Gemayel is assassinated.

1984 – Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to fly a gas balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean.

1985 – Penang Bridge, the longest bridge in Malaysia, connecting the island of Penang to the mainland, opens to traffic.

1992 – The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina declares the breakaway Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia to be illegal.

1994 – The Major League Baseball season is canceled because of a strike.

1997 – Eighty-one killed as five bogies of the Ahmedabad–Howrah Express plunge into a river in Bilaspur district of Madhya Pradesh, India.

1998 – Telecommunications companies MCI Communications and WorldCom complete their $37 billion merger to form MCI WorldCom.

1999 – Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga join the United Nations.

2000 – Microsoft releases Windows ME.

2001 – Historic National Prayer Service held at Washington National Cathedral for victims of the September 11 attacks. A similar service is held in Canada on Parliament Hill, the largest vigil ever held in the nation's capital.

2003 – In a referendum, Estonia approves joining the European Union.

2007 – Financial crisis of 2007–2008: The Northern Rock bank experiences the first bank run in the United Kingdom in 150 years.

2015 – The first observation of gravitational waves was made, announced by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations on 11 February 2016.

2018 – Hurricane Florence makes landfall near Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, bringing catastrophic flooding to many areas cross the state's coastline.

[lordroel]

September 15th

668 – Eastern Roman Emperor Constans II is assassinated in his bath at Syracuse, Italy.

994 – Major Fatimid victory over the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of the Orontes.

1440 – Gilles de Rais, one of the earliest known serial killers, is taken into custody upon an accusation brought against him by Jean de Malestroit, Bishop of Nantes.

1530 – Appearance of the miraculous portrait of Saint Dominic in Soriano in Soriano Calabro, Calabria, Italy; commemorated as a feast day by the Roman Catholic Church 1644-1912.

1556 – Departing from Vlissingen, ex-Holy Roman Emperor Charles V returns to Spain.

1616 – Joseph Calasanz opens the first modern public elementary school.

1762 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Signal Hill.

1776 – American Revolutionary War: British forces land at Kip's Bay during the New York Campaign.

1789 – The United States "Department of Foreign Affairs", established by law in July, is renamed the Department of State and given a variety of domestic duties.

1794 – French Revolutionary Wars: Arthur Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington) sees his first combat at the Battle of Boxtel during the Flanders Campaign.

1795 – Britain seizes the Dutch Cape Colony in southern Africa to prevent its use by the Batavian Republic.

1812 – The French army under Napoleon reaches the Kremlin in Moscow.

1812 – War of 1812: A second supply train sent to relieve Fort Harrison is ambushed in the Attack at the Narrows.

1816 – HMS Whiting runs aground on the Doom Bar

1820 – Constitutionalist revolution in Lisbon, Portugal.

1821 – The Captaincy General of Guatemala declares independence from Spain.

1830 – The Liverpool to Manchester railway line opens; British MP William Huskisson becomes the first widely reported railway passenger fatality when he is struck and killed by the locomotive Rocket.

1835 – HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the Galápagos Islands. The ship lands at Chatham or San Cristobal, the easternmost of the archipelago.

1851 – Saint Joseph's University is founded in Philadelphia.

1862 – American Civil War: Confederate forces capture Harpers Ferry, Virginia (present-day Harpers Ferry, West Virginia)

1873 – Franco-Prussian War: The last German troops leave France upon completion of payment of indemnity.

1894 – First Sino-Japanese War: Japan defeats Qing dynasty China in the Battle of Pyongyang.

1915 – The Empire Picture Theatre (now The New Empire Cinema), the oldest running cinema in mainland Australia, opens in Bowral, New South Wales.

1916 – World War I: Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme.

1918 – World War I: Allied troops break through the Bulgarian defenses on the Macedonian Front.

1935 – The Nuremberg Laws deprive German Jews of citizenship.

1935 – Nazi Germany adopts a new national flag bearing the swastika.

1940 – World War II: The climax of the Battle of Britain, when the Royal Air Force shoots down large numbers of Luftwaffe aircraft.

1942 – World War II: U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Wasp is sunk by Japanese torpedoes at Guadalcanal.

1944 – Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet in Quebec as part of the Octagon Conference to discuss strategy.

1944 – Battle of Peleliu begins as the United States Marine Corps' 1st Marine Division and the United States Army's 81st Infantry Division hit White and Orange beaches under heavy fire from Japanese infantry and artillery.

1945 – A hurricane strikes southern Florida and the Bahamas, destroying 366 airplanes and 25 blimps at Naval Air Station Richmond.

1947 – Typhoon Kathleen hit the Kanto Region in Japan killing 1,077.

1948 – The Indian Army captures the towns of Jalna, Latur, Mominabad, Surriapet and Narkatpalli as part of Operation Polo.

1948 – The F-86 Sabre sets the world aircraft speed record at 671 miles per hour (1,080 km/h).

1950 – Korean War: United States forces land at Inchon

1952 – The United Nations cedes Eritrea to Ethiopia.

1958 – A Central Railroad of New Jersey commuter train runs through an open drawbridge at the Newark Bay, killing 48.

1959 – Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet leader to visit the United States.

1962 – The Soviet ship Poltava heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis.

1963 – Baptist Church bombing: Four children killed in the bombing of an African-American church in Birmingham, Alabama, United States.

1967 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to 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.

1971 – The first Greenpeace ship sets sail to protest against nuclear testing on Amchitka Island.

1972 – A Scandinavian Airlines System domestic flight from Gothenburg to Stockholm is hijacked and flown to Malmö Bulltofta Airport.

1974 – Air Vietnam Flight 706 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 (Upper Corsica) and Corse-du-Sud (Southern Corsica)

1978 – Muhammad Ali outpointed Leon Spinks in a rematch to become the first boxer to win the world heavyweight title three times at the Superdome in New Orleans.

1981 – The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

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, D.C.

1983 – Israeli premier Menachem Begin resigns.

2000 – The Summer Olympics officially known as the games of the XXVII Olympiad were opened in Sydney, Australia.

2001 – President George W. Bush gives his first post September 11th weekly address.

2004 – National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman announces lockout of the players' union and cessation of operations by the NHL head office.

2008 – Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.

2017 – The Parsons Green bombing took place in London.

2017 – End of mission for Cassini–Huygens, a space probe built by a NASA, ESA and ASI collaboration, sent to study Saturn, its rings and its moons.

[lordroel]

September 16th

307 – Emperor Severus II is captured and imprisoned at Tres Tabernae. He is later executed (or forced to commit suicide) after Galerius unsuccessfully invades Italy.

681 – Pope Honorius I is posthumously excommunicated by the Sixth Ecumenical Council.

1400 – Owain Glyndŵr is declared Prince of Wales by his followers.

1620 – Pilgrims set sail from England on the Mayflower.

1701 – James Francis Edward Stuart, sometimes called the "Old Pretender", becomes the Jacobite claimant to the thrones of England and Scotland.

1732 – In Campo Maior, Portugal, a storm hits the Armory and a violent explosion ensues, killing two thirds of its inhabitants.

1776 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Harlem Heights is fought.

1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Franco-American Siege of Savannah begins.

1810 – With the Grito de Dolores, Father Miguel Hidalgo begins Mexico's fight for independence from Spain.

1863 – Robert College, in Istanbul, the first American educational institution outside the United States, is founded by Christopher Robert, an American philanthropist.

1880 – The Cornell Daily Sun prints its first issue in Ithaca, New York. The Sun is the United States' oldest, continuously-independent college daily.

1893 – Settlers make a land run for prime land in the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma.

1908 – The General Motors Corporation is founded.

1914 – World War I: The Siege of Przemyśl (present-day Poland) begins.

1920 – The Wall Street bombing: A bomb in a horse wagon explodes in front of the J. P. Morgan building in New York City killing 38 and injuring 400.

1940 – World War II: Italian troops conquer Sidi Barrani.

1943 – World War II: The German Tenth Army reports that it can no longer contain the Allied bridgehead around Salerno.

1945 – World War II: The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong comes to an end.

1955 – The military coup to unseat President Juan Perón of Argentina is launched at midnight.

1955 – A Zulu-class submarine becomes the first to launch a ballistic missile.

1956 – TCN-9 Sydney is the first Australian television station to commence regular broadcasts.

1959 – The first successful photocopier, the Xerox 914, is introduced in a demonstration on live television from New York City.

1961 – The United States National Hurricane Research Project drops eight cylinders of silver iodide into the eyewall of Hurricane Esther. Wind speed reduces by 10%, giving rise to Project Stormfury.

1961 – Typhoon Nancy, with possibly the strongest winds ever measured in a tropical cyclone, makes landfall in Osaka, Japan, killing 173 people.

1961 – Pakistan establishes its Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission with Abdus Salam as its head.

1963 – Malaysia is formed from the Federation of Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo (Sabah) and Sarawak. However, Singapore soon leaves this new country.

1966 – The Metropolitan Opera House opens at Lincoln Center in New York City with the world premiere of Samuel Barber's opera Antony and Cleopatra.

1970 – King Hussein of Jordan declares military rule following the hijacking of four civilian airliners by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). This results in the formation of the Black September Palestinian paramilitary unit.

1975 – Papua New Guinea gains independence from Australia.

1975 – Cape Verde, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe join the United Nations.

1975 – The first prototype of the Mikoyan MiG-31 interceptor makes its maiden flight.

1976 – Armenian champion swimmer Shavarsh Karapetyan saves 20 people from a trolleybus that had fallen into a Yerevan reservoir.

1978 – The 7.4 Mw  Tabas earthquake affects the city of Tabas, Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). At least 15,000 people were killed.

1979 – Eight people escaped from East Germany to the west in a homemade hot air balloon.

1982 – Lebanon War: The Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon takes place.

1987 – The Montreal Protocol is signed to protect the ozone layer from depletion.

1990 – The railroad between the People's Republic of China and Kazakhstan is completed at Dostyk, adding a sizable link to the concept of the Eurasian Land Bridge.

1992 – The trial of the deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega ends in the United States with a 40-year sentence for drug trafficking and money laundering.

1992 – Black Wednesday: The British pound is forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism by currency speculators and is forced to devalue against the German mark.

1994 – The British government lifts the broadcasting ban imposed against members of Sinn Féin and Irish paramilitary groups in 1988.

2004 – Hurricane Ivan makes landfall in Gulf Shores, Alabama as a Category 3 hurricane.

2005 – The Camorra organized crime boss Paolo Di Lauro is arrested in Naples, Italy.

2007 – One-Two-GO Airlines Flight 269 carrying 128 crew and passengers crashes in Thailand killing 89 people.

2007 – Security guards working for Blackwater Worldwide shoot and kill 17 Iraqis in Nisour Square, Baghdad

2013 – A gunman kills twelve people at the Washington Navy Yard.

2014 – The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant launches its Kobani offensive against Syrian–Kurdish forces.

[lordroel]

September 17th

456 – Remistus, Roman general (magister militum), is besieged by a Gothic force at Ravenna and later executed in the Palace in Classis, outside the city.

1111 – Highest Galician nobility led by Pedro Fróilaz de Traba and the bishop Diego Gelmírez crown Alfonso VII as "King of Galicia".

1176 – The Battle of Myriokephalon is the last attempt by the Byzantine Empire to recover central Anatolia from the Seljuk Turks.

1382 – Louis the Great's daughter, Mary, is crowned "king" of Hungary.

1462 – Thirteen Years' War: A Polish army under Piotr Dunin decisively defeats the Teutonic Order at the Battle of Świecino.

1577 – The Treaty of Bergerac is signed between Henry III of France and the Huguenots.

1620 – Polish–Ottoman War: The Ottoman Empire defeats the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Battle of Cecora.

1630 – The city of Boston, Massachusetts is founded.

1631 – Sweden wins a major victory at the Battle of Breitenfeld against the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War.

1658 – The Battle of Vilanova is fought between Portugal and Spain during the Portuguese Restoration War.

1683 – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek writes a letter to the Royal Society describing "animalcules".

1775 – American Revolutionary War: The Invasion of Canada begins with the Siege of Fort St. Jean.

1776 – The Presidio of San Francisco is founded in New Spain.

1778 – The Treaty of Fort Pitt is signed. It is the first formal treaty between the United States and a Native American tribe.

1787 – The United States Constitution is signed in Philadelphia.

1793 – War of the Pyrenees: France defeats a Spanish force at the Battle of Peyrestortes.

1794 – Flanders Campaign: France completes its conquest of the Austrian Netherlands at the Battle of Sprimont.

1809 – Peace between Sweden and Russia in the Finnish War; the territory that will become Finland is ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Fredrikshamn.

1849 – American abolitionist Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery.

1859 – Joshua A. Norton declares himself "Norton I, Emperor of the United States."

1861 – Argentine Civil Wars: The State of Buenos Aires defeats the Argentine Confederation at the Battle of Pavón.

1862 – American Civil War: George B. McClellan halts the northward drive of Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army in the single-day Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in American military history.

1862 – American Civil War: The Allegheny Arsenal explosion results in the single largest civilian disaster during the war.

1894 – Battle of the Yalu River, the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War.

1900 – Philippine–American War: Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat Americans under Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham Jr. at Mabitac.

1901 – Second Boer War: A Boer column defeats a British force at the Battle of Blood River Poort.

1901 – Second Boer War: Boers capture a squadron of the 17th Lancers at the Battle of Elands River.

1908 – The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes, killing Selfridge, who becomes the first airplane fatality.

1914 – Andrew Fisher becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.

1914 – World War I: The Race to the Sea begins.

1916 – World War I: Manfred von Richthofen ("The Red Baron"), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France.

1920 – The National Football League is organized as the American Professional Football Association in Canton, Ohio [1][2]

1924 – The Border Protection Corps is established in the Second Polish Republic for the defence of the eastern border against armed Soviet raids and local bandits.

1925 – Frida Kahlo suffers near-fatal injuries in a bus accident in Mexico, causing her to abandon her medical studies and take up art

1928 – The Okeechobee hurricane strikes southeastern Florida, killing more than 2,500 people.

1930 – The Kurdish Ararat rebellion is suppressed by the Turks.

1932 – A speech by Laureano Gómez leads to the escalation of the Leticia Incident.

1935 – The Niagara Gorge Railroad ceases operations after a rockslide.[3]

1939 – World War II: The Soviet invasion of Poland begins.

1939 – World War II: German submarine U-29 sinks the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous.

1940 – World War II: Due to setbacks in the Battle of Britain and approaching autumn weather, Hitler postpones Operation Sea Lion.

1941 – World War II: A decree of the Soviet State Committee of Defense restores compulsory military training.

1941 – World War II: Soviet forces enter Tehran during the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran.

1944 – World War II: Allied airborne troops parachute into the Netherlands as the "Market" half of Operation Market Garden.

1944 – World War II: Soviet troops launch the Tallinn Offensive against Germany and pro-independence Estonian units.

1944 – World War II: German forces are attacked by the Allies in the Battle of San Marino.

1948 – The Lehi (also known as the Stern gang) assassinates Count Folke Bernadotte, who was appointed by the United Nations to mediate between the Arab nations and Israel.

1948 – The Nizam of Hyderabad surrenders his sovereignty over the Hyderabad State and joins the Indian Union.

1949 – The Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbour with the loss of over 118 lives.

1954 – The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding is first published.

1961 – The world's first retractable roof stadium, the Civic Arena, opens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

1965 – The Battle of Chawinda is fought between Pakistan and India.

1974 – Bangladesh, Grenada and Guinea-Bissau join the United Nations.

1976 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise is unveiled by NASA.

1978 – The Camp David Accords are signed by Israel and Egypt.

1980 – After weeks of strikes at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland, the nationwide independent trade union Solidarity is established.

1980 – Former Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza Debayle is killed in Asunción, Paraguay.

1983 – Vanessa Williams becomes the first black Miss America.

1988 – The 1988 Summer Olympics are opened in Seoul, South Korea.

1991 – Estonia, North Korea, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia join the United Nations.

1991 – The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) is released to the Internet.

1992 – An Iranian Kurdish leader and his two joiners are assassinated by political militants in Berlin.

2001 – The New York Stock Exchange reopens for trading after the September 11 attacks, the longest closure since the Great Depression.

2006 – Fourpeaked Mountain in Alaska erupts, marking the first eruption for the volcano in at least 10,000 years.

2006 – An audio tape of a private speech by Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány is leaked to the public, in which he confessed that his Hungarian Socialist Party had lied to win the 2006 election, sparking widespread protests across the country.

2011 – Occupy Wall Street movement begins in Zuccotti Park, New York City.

2013 – Grand Theft Auto V releases earning more than half a billion dollars on its first day[4]

2016 – Two bombs explode in Seaside Park, New Jersey, and Manhattan. Thirty-one people are injured in the Manhattan bombing.

2018 – A Russian reconnaissance aircraft carrying 15 people on board was brought down by a Syrian surface-to-air missile over the Mediterranean Sea

[lordroel]

September 18th

AD 96 – Nerva is proclaimed Roman emperor after Domitian is assassinated.

324 – Constantine the Great decisively defeats Licinius in the Battle of Chrysopolis, establishing Constantine's sole control over the Roman Empire.

887 – Venetian Doge Pietro I Candiano dies in battle against the Narentines.

1048 – Battle of Kapetron between a combined Byzantine-Georgian army and a Seljuq army.

1066 – Norwegian king Harald Hardrada lands with Tostig Godwinson at the mouth of the Humber River and begins his invasion of England.

1180 – Philip Augustus becomes king of France.

1454 – Thirteen Years' War: In the Battle of Chojnice, the Polish army is defeated by the Teutonic knights.

1618 – The twelfth baktun in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar begins.

1679 – The Province of New Hampshire is separated from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1714 – George I arrives in Great Britain after becoming king on August 1.

1739 – The Treaty of Belgrade is signed, whereby Austria cedes lands south of the Sava and Danube rivers to the Ottoman Empire.

1759 – French and Indian War: The Articles of Capitulation of Quebec are signed.

1793 – The first cornerstone of the United States Capitol is laid by George Washington.

1809 – The Royal Opera House in London opens.

1810 – First Government Junta in Chile. Though supposed to rule only during the Peninsular War in Spain, it is in fact the first step towards independence from Spain, and is commemorated as such.

1812 – The 1812 Fire of Moscow dies down after destroying more than three-quarters of the city. Napoleon returns from the Petrovsky Palace to the Moscow Kremlin, spared from the fire.

1837 – Tiffany & Co. (first named Tiffany & Young) is founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and Teddy Young in New York City. The store is called a "stationery and fancy goods emporium".

1838 – The Anti-Corn Law League is established by Richard Cobden.

1850 – The U.S. Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

1851 – First publication of The New-York Daily Times, which later becomes The New York Times.

1862 – The Confederate States celebrate for the first and only time a Thanksgiving Day. 

1870 – Old Faithful Geyser is observed and named by Henry D. Washburn.

1872 – King Oscar II accedes to the throne of Sweden–Norway.

1873 – The bank Jay Cooke & Company declares bankruptcy, contributing to the Panic of 1873

1879 – The Blackpool Illuminations are switched on for the first time.

1882 – The Pacific Stock Exchange opens.

1895 – The Atlanta Exposition Speech on race relations is delivered by Booker T. Washington.

1898 – The Fashoda Incident triggers the last war scare between Britain and France.

1906 – The 1906 Hong Kong typhoon kills an estimated 10,000 people.

1911 – Russian Premier Pyotr Stolypin is shot at the Kiev Opera House.

1914 – The Irish Home Rule Act becomes law, but is delayed until after World War I.

1919 – The Netherlands gives women the right to vote.

1919 – Fritz Pollard becomes the first African American to play professional football for a major team, the Akron Pros.

1922 – The Kingdom of Hungary is admitted to the League of Nations.

1927 – The Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air.

1928 – Juan de la Cierva makes the first autogyro crossing of the English Channel.

1931 – The Mukden Incident gives Japan a pretext to invade and occupy Manchuria.

1934 – The Soviet Union is admitted to the League of Nations.

1939 – World War II: The Polish government of Ignacy Mościcki flees to Romania.

1939 – World War II: The radio show Germany Calling begins transmitting Nazi propaganda.

1940 – World War II: The British liner SS City of Benares is sunk by German submarine U-48; those killed include 77 child refugees.

1943 – World War II: Adolf Hitler orders the deportation of Danish Jews.

1944 – World War II: The British submarine HMS Tradewind torpedoes Jun'yō Maru, killing 5,600, mostly slave labourers and POWs.

1945 – General Douglas MacArthur moves his command headquarters to Tokyo.

1947 – The National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency are established in the United States by the National Security Act. It also establishes the Air Force as an equal partner of the Army and Navy.

1948 – Operation Polo is terminated after the Indian Army accepts the surrender of the army of Hyderabad.

1948 – Margaret Chase Smith of Maine becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate without completing another senator's term.

1959 – Vanguard 3 is launched into Earth orbit.

1960 – Fidel Castro arrives in New York City as the head of the Cuban delegation to the United Nations.

1961 – U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld dies in a airplane crash while attempting to negotiate peace in the Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

1961 – CONCACAF is established as the governing body for association football in North America, Central America and the Caribbean.

1962 – Burundi, Jamaica, Rwanda and Trinidad and Tobago are admitted to the United Nations.

1973 – The Bahamas, East Germany and West Germany are admitted to the United Nations.

1974 – Hurricane Fifi strikes Honduras with 110 mph winds, killing 5,000 people.

1977 – Voyager I takes the first distant photograph of the Earth and the Moon together.

1980 – Soyuz 38 carries two cosmonauts (including one Cuban) to the Salyut 6 space station.

1981 – The Assemblée Nationale votes to abolish capital punishment in France.

1982 – The Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon comes to an end.

1984 – Joe Kittinger completes the first solo balloon crossing of the Atlantic.

1988 – The 8888 Uprising in Myanmar comes to an end.

1990 – Liechtenstein becomes a member of the United Nations.

1992 – An explosion rocks Giant Mine at the height of a labor dispute, killing nine replacement workers in Yellowknife, Canada.

1997 – United States media magnate Ted Turner donates US$1 billion to the United Nations.

1997 – The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention is adopted.

2001 – The 2001 anthrax attacks begin.

2007 – Buddhist monks join anti-government protesters in Myanmar, starting what some call the Saffron Revolution.

2011 – The 2011 Sikkim earthquake is felt across northeastern India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and southern Tibet.

2014 – Scotland votes against independence from the United Kingdom, by 55% to 45%.

2015 – Two security personnel, 17 worshippers in a mosque, and 13 militants are killed during a Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan attack on a Pakistan Air Force base on the outskirts of Peshawar.

2016 – The 2016 Uri attack kills nineteen Indian Army soldiers and all four attackers.

2018 – Rainy season flooding across Nigeria kills more than 100 people.

[lordroel]

September 19th

335 – Flavius Dalmatius is raised to the rank of Caesar by his uncle, Constantine the Great.

634 – Siege of Damascus: The Rashidun Arabs under Khalid ibn al-Walid capture Damascus from the Byzantine Empire.

1356 – Battle of Poitiers: An English army under the command of Edward, the Black Prince defeats a French army and captures King John II.

1676 – Jamestown is burned to the ground by the forces of Nathaniel Bacon during Bacon's Rebellion.

1777 – American Revolutionary War: British forces win a tactically expensive victory over the Continental Army in the First Battle of Saratoga.

1778 – The Continental Congress passes the first United States federal budget.

1796 – George Washington's Farewell Address is printed across America as an open letter to the public.

1799 – French Revolutionary Wars: French-Dutch victory against the Russians and British in the Battle of Bergen.

1846 – Two French shepherd children, Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud, experience a Marian apparition on a mountaintop near La Salette, France, now known as Our Lady of La Salette.

1852 – Annibale de Gasparis discovers the asteroid Massalia from the north dome of the Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte.

1862 – American Civil War: Union troops under William Rosecrans defeat a Confederate force commanded by Sterling Price.

1863 – American Civil War: The first day of the Battle of Chickamauga, in northwestern Georgia, the bloodiest two-day battle of the conflict, and the only significant Confederate victory in the war's Western Theater.

1864 – American Civil War: Union troops under Philip Sheridan defeat a Confederate force commanded by Jubal Early. With over 50,000 troops engaged, it was the largest battle fought in the Shenandoah Valley.

1868 – La Gloriosa begins in Spain.

1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The siege of Paris begins. The city will hold out for over four months before surrendering.

1881 – U.S. President James A. Garfield dies of wounds suffered in a July 2 shooting. Vice President Chester A. Arthur becomes President upon Garfield's death.

1893 – In New Zealand, the Electoral Act of 1893 is consented to by the governor, giving all women in New Zealand the right to vote.

1916 – World War I: During the East African Campaign, colonial forces of the Belgian Congo (Force Publique) under the command of Charles Tombeur capture the town of Tabora after heavy fighting.

1939 – World War II: The Battle of Kępa Oksywska concludes, with Polish losses reaching roughly 14% of all the forces engaged.

1940 – World War II: Witold Pilecki is voluntarily captured and sent to Auschwitz to smuggle out information and start a resistance movement.

1944 – World War II: The Battle of Hürtgen Forest begins. It will become the longest individual battle that the U.S. Army has ever fought.

1944 – World War II: The Moscow Armistice between Finland and the Soviet Union is signed.

1948 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Folke Bernadotte, United Nations Peace Envoy, is assassinated in Jerusalem.

1946 – The Council of Europe is founded following a speech by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich.

1952 – The United States bars Charlie Chaplin from re-entering the country after a trip to England.

1957 – Plumbbob Rainier becomes the first nuclear explosion to be entirely contained underground, producing no fallout.

1970 – Michael Eavis hosts the first Glastonbury Festival.

1970 – Kostas Georgakis, a Greek student of geology, sets himself ablaze in Matteotti Square in Genoa, Italy, as a protest against the dictatorial regime of Georgios Papadopoulos.

1973 – King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden has his investiture.

1976 – Turkish Airlines Flight 452 hits the Taurus Mountains, outskirt of Karatepe, Turkey, killing all 154 passengers and crew.

1976 – Two Imperial Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom II jets fly out to investigate an unidentified flying object, when both independently lose instrumentation and communications as they approach, only to have them restored upon withdrawal.

1978 – The Solomon Islands join the United Nations.

1982 – Scott Fahlman posts the first documented emoticons :-) and :-( on the Carnegie Mellon University bulletin board system.

1983 – Saint Kitts and Nevis gains its independence.

1985 – A strong earthquake kills thousands and destroys about 400 buildings in Mexico City.

1985 – Tipper Gore and other political wives form the Parents Music Resource Center as Frank Zappa and other musicians testify at U.S. Congressional hearings on obscenity in rock music.

1989 – A bomb destroys UTA Flight 772 in mid-air above the Tùnùrù Desert, Niger, killing all 170 passengers and crew.

1991 – Ötzi the Iceman is discovered in the Alps on the border between Italy and Austria.

1995 – The Washington Post and The New York Times publish the Unabomber's manifesto.

1997 – The Guelb El-Kebir massacre in Algeria kills 53 people.

2006 – The Thai army stages a coup. The Constitution is revoked and martial law is declared.

2010 – The leaking oil well in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is sealed.

2011 – Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees surpasses Trevor Hoffman to become Major League Baseball's all-time saves leader with 602.

2016 – In the wake of a manhunt, the suspect in a series of bombings in New York and New Jersey is apprehended after a shootout with police.

2017 – The 2017 Puebla earthquake strikes Mexico, causing 370 deaths and over 6,000 injuries, as well as extensive damage.

[lordroel]

September 20th

1058 – Agnes of Poitou and Andrew I of Hungary meet to negotiate about the border-zone in present-day Burgenland.

1066 – At the Battle of Fulford, Harald Hardrada defeats earls Morcar and Edwin.

1187 – Saladin begins the Siege of Jerusalem.

1260 – The Great Prussian Uprising among the old Prussians begins against the Teutonic Knights.

1378 – Cardinal Robert of Geneva is elected as Pope Clement VII, beginning the Papal schism.

1498 – The Nankai tsunami washes away the building housing the Great Buddha at Kōtoku-in. It has been outside since then.

1519 – Ferdinand Magellan sets sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda with about 270 men on his expedition to circumnavigate the globe.
1596 – Diego de Montemayor founds the city of Monterrey in New Spain.

1697 – The Treaty of Ryswick is signed by France, England, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch Republic, ending the Nine Years' War.

1737 – The finish of the Walking Purchase which forces the cession of 1.2 million acres (4,860 km²) of Lenape-Delaware tribal land to the Pennsylvania Colony.

1792 – French troops stop an allied invasion of France at the Battle of Valmy.

1835 – The decade-long Ragamuffin War starts when rebels capture Porto Alegre in Brazil.

1854 – Crimean War: British and French troops defeat Russians at the Battle of Alma.

1857 – The Indian Rebellion of 1857 ends with the recapture of Delhi by troops loyal to the East India Company.

1860 – The future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom begins the first visit to North America by a Prince of Wales.

1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Chickamauga, in northwestern Georgia, ends in a Confederate victory.
1870 – The Bersaglieri corps enter Rome through the Porta Pia, and complete the unification of Italy.

1871 – Bishop John Coleridge Patteson, first bishop of Melanesia, is martyred on Nukapu, now in the Solomon Islands.

1881 – U.S. President Chester A. Arthur is sworn in, the morning after becoming President upon James A. Garfield's death.

1893 – Charles Duryea and his brother road-test the first American-made gasoline-powered automobile.

1906 – The Cunard Line's RMS Mauretania is launched at Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

1909 – The South Africa Act 1909 creates the Union of South Africa from the British Colonies from four smaller colonies.

1910 – The ocean liner SS France, later known as the "Versailles of the Atlantic", is launched.

1911 – The White Star Line's RMS Olympic collides with the British warship HMS Hawke.

1941 – The Holocaust in Lithuania: Lithuanian Nazis and local police murder 403 Jews in Nemenčinė.

1942 – The Holocaust in Ukraine: In the course of two days a German Einsatzgruppe murders at least 3,000 Jews in Letychiv.

1943 – World War II: A U-boat sinks Canadian destroyer HMCS St. Croix, south of Iceland, causing the death of 145 people.

1946 – The first Cannes Film Festival is held, having been delayed seven years due to World War II.

1946 – Six days after a referendum, King Christian X of Denmark annuls the declaration of independence of the Faroe Islands.

1955 – The Treaty on Relations between the USSR and the GDR is signed.

1961 – Greek general Konstantinos Dovas becomes Prime Minister of Greece.
1962 – James Meredith, an African American, is temporarily barred from entering the University of Mississippi.

1965 – Following the Battle of Burki, the Indian Army captures Dograi in course of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.

1967 – RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 is launched Clydebank, Scotland.

1971 – Having weakened after making landfall in Nicaragua the previous day, Hurricane Irene regains enough strength to be renamed Hurricane Olivia, making it the first known hurricane to cross from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific.

1973 – Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes tennis match at the Houston Astrodome.

1973 – Singer Jim Croce, songwiter and musician Maury Muehleisen and four others die when their light aircraft crashes on takeoff at Natchitoches Regional Airport in Louisiana.

1977 – Vietnam is admitted to the United Nations.

1979 – A French-supported coup d'état in the Central African Empire overthrows Emperor Bokassa I.

1982 – Football players begin a 57-day strike during the 1982 NFL season.

1984 – A suicide bomber in a car attacks the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing twenty-two people.

1990 – South Ossetia declares its independence from Georgia.

2000 – The United Kingdom's MI6 Secret Intelligence Service building is attacked by individuals using a Russian-built RPG-22 anti-tank missile.

2001 – In an address to a joint session of Congress and the American people, U.S. President George W. Bush declares a "War on Terror".

2003 – Civil unrest in the Maldives breaks out after a prisoner is killed by guards.

2007 – Between 15,000 and 20,000 protesters marched on Jena, Louisiana, in support of six black youths who had been convicted of assaulting a white classmate.

2008 – A dump truck full of explosives detonates in front of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing 54 people and injuring 266 others.

2011 – The United States military ends its "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly for the first time.

2017 – Hurricane Maria makes landfall in Puerto Rico as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, resulting in 2,975 deaths, US$90 billion in damage, and a major humanitarian crisis.

2018 – At least 161 people have died after a ferry capsized close to the pier on Ukara Island in Lake Victoria and part of Tanzania.

[lordroel]

September 21st

455 – Emperor Avitus enters Rome with a Gallic army and consolidates his power.

1170 – The Kingdom of Dublin falls to Norman invaders.

1217 – Livonian Crusade: The Estonian leader Lembitu and Livonian leader Kaupo the Accursed are killed in the Battle of St. Matthew's Day.

1435 – The Congress of Arras causes Burgundy to switch sides in the Hundred Years' War.

1745 – A Hanoverian army is defeated, in ten minutes, by the Jacobite forces of Prince Charles Edward Stuart

1776 – Part of New York City is burned shortly after being occupied by British forces.

1780 – American Revolutionary War: Benedict Arnold gives the British the plans to West Point.

1792 – French Revolution: The National Convention abolishes the monarchy.

1843 – John Williams Wilson takes possession of the Strait of Magellan on behalf of the Chilean government.

1860 – Second Opium War: An Anglo-French force defeats Chinese troops at the Battle of Palikao.

1896 – Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan: British forces under the command of Horatio Kitchener take Dongola.

1898 – Empress Dowager Cixi seizes power and ends the Hundred Days' Reform in China.

1921 – A storage silo in Oppau, Germany, explodes, killing 500–600 people.

1933 – Salvador Lutteroth establishes Mexican professional wrestling.

1934 – A large typhoon hits western Honshū, Japan, killing more than three thousand people.

1937 – J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is published.

1938 – The Great Hurricane of 1938 makes landfall on Long Island in New York. The death toll is estimated at 500–700 people.

1939 – Romanian Prime Minister Armand Călinescu is assassinated by the Iron Guard.

1942 – The Holocaust in Ukraine: On the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Nazis send over 1,000 Jews of Pidhaitsi to Bełżec extermination camp.

1942 – The Holocaust in Ukraine: In Dunaivtsi, Ukraine, Nazis murder 2,588 Jews.

1942 – The Holocaust in Poland: At the end of Yom Kippur, Germans order Jews to permanently move from Konstantynów to Biała Podlaska.

1942 – The Boeing B-29 Superfortress makes its maiden flight.

1949 – The People's Republic of China is proclaimed.

1953 – Lieutenant No Kum-sok, a North Korean pilot, defects to South Korea with his jet fighter.

1964 – Malta gains independence from the United Kingdom, but remains in the Commonwealth.

1964 – The North American XB-70 Valkyrie, the world's fastest bomber, makes its maiden flight from Palmdale, California.

1965 – The Gambia, Maldives and Singapore are admitted as members of the United Nations.

1971 – Bahrain, Bhutan and Qatar join the United Nations.

1972 – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos begins authoritarian rule by declaring martial law.

1976 – Orlando Letelier is assassinated in Washington, D.C. He had been a member of the former Chilean Marxist government.

1976 – Seychelles joins the United Nations.

1981 – Belize is granted full independence from the United Kingdom.

1981 – Sandra Day O'Connor is unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate as the first female Supreme Court justice.

1984 – Brunei joins the United Nations.

1991 – Armenia gains independence from the Soviet Union.

1993 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin triggers a constitutional crisis when he suspends parliament and scraps the constitution.

1996 – The Defense of Marriage Act is passed by the United States Congress.

1999 – The Chi-Chi earthquake occurs in central Taiwan, leaving about 2,400 people dead.

2001 – America: A Tribute to Heroes is broadcast by over 35 network and cable channels, raising over $200 million for the victims of the September 11 attacks.

2001 – Ross Parker is murdered in Peterborough, England, by a gang of ten British Pakistani youths.

2003 – The Galileo spacecraft is terminated by sending it into Jupiter's atmosphere.

2012 – Three Egyptian militants open fire on a group of Israeli soldiers in a southern Israel cross-border attack.

2013 – Al-Shabaab Islamic militants attack the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya, killing at least 67 people.

[lordroel]

September 22nd

904 – The warlord Zhu Quanzhong kills Emperor Zhaozong, the penultimate emperor of the Tang dynasty, after seizing control of the imperial government.

1236 – The Samogitians defeat the Livonian Brothers of the Sword in the Battle of Saule.

1499 – The Treaty of Basel concludes the Swabian War.

1586 – The Battle of Zutphen is a Spanish victory over the English and Dutch.

1598 – English playwright Ben Jonson kills actor Gabriel Spenser in a duel and is indicted for manslaughter.

1692 – The last hanging of those convicted of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials; others are all eventually released.

1711 – The Tuscarora War begins in present-day North Carolina.

1761 – George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz are crowned King and Queen, respectively, of the Kingdom of Great Britain.

1776 – Nathan Hale is hanged for spying during the American Revolution.

1789 – The office of United States Postmaster General is established.

1789 – Battle of Rymnik: Alexander Suvorov's Russian and allied army defeats superior Ottoman Empire forces.

1792 – Primidi Vendémiaire of year one of the French Republican Calendar as the French First Republic comes into being.

1823 – Joseph Smith claims to have found the golden plates after being directed by God through the Angel Moroni to the place where they were buried.

1857 – The Russian warship Lefort capsizes and sinks during a storm in the Gulf of Finland, killing all 826 aboard.

1862 – A preliminary version of the Emancipation Proclamation is released by Abraham Lincoln.

1866 – The Battle of Curupayty is Paraguay's only significant victory in the Paraguayan War.

1885 – Lord Randolph Churchill makes a speech in Ulster in opposition to the Irish Home Rule movement.

1888 – The first issue of National Geographic Magazine is published.

1892 – Lindal Railway Incident, providing inspiration for "The Lost Special" by A.C. Doyle and the TV serial Lost.

1896 – Queen Victoria surpasses her grandfather King George III as the longest reigning monarch in British history.

1910 – The Duke of York's Picture House opens in Brighton, now the oldest continually operating cinema in Britain.

1914 – A German submarine sinks three British cruisers over a seventy-minute period, killing almost 1500 sailors.

1919 – The steel strike of 1919, led by the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, begins in Pennsylvania before spreading across the United States.

1927 – Jack Dempsey loses the "Long Count" boxing match to Gene Tunney.

1934 – The Gresford disaster in Wales kills 266 miners and rescuers.

1937 – Spanish Civil War: Peña Blanca is taken, ending the Battle of El Mazuco.

1939 – World War II: A joint German–Soviet military parade in Brest-Litovsk is held to celebrate the successful invasion of Poland.

1941 – The Holocaust in Ukraine: On the Jewish New Year Day, the German SS murders 6,000 Jews in Vinnytsia, Ukraine. Those are the survivors of the previous killings that took place a few days earlier in which about 24,000 Jews were executed.

1948 – Gail Halvorsen officially starts parachuting candy to children as part of the Berlin Airlift.

1948 – Israeli-Palestine conflict: The All-Palestine Government is established by the Arab League.[1]

1957 – In Haiti, François Duvalier is elected president.

1960 – The Sudanese Republic is renamed Mali after the withdrawal of Senegal from the Mali Federation.

1965 – The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, ends after the United Nations calls for a ceasefire.

1975 – Sara Jane Moore tries to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford, but is foiled by the Secret Service.

1979 – A bright flash, resembling the detonation of a nuclear weapon, is observed near the Prince Edward Islands. Its cause is never determined.

1980 – Iraq invades Iran.

1991 – The Dead Sea Scrolls are made available to the public for the first time.

1993 – A barge strikes a railroad bridge near Mobile, Alabama, causing the deadliest train wreck in Amtrak history. Forty-seven passengers are killed.

1993 – A Transair Georgian Airlines Tu-154 is shot down by a missile in Sukhumi, Georgia.

1995 – An E-3B AWACS crashes outside Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska after multiple bird strikes to two of the four engines soon after takeoff; all 24 on board are killed.

1995 – The Nagerkovil school bombing is carried out by the Sri Lanka Air Force in which at least 34 die, most of them ethnic Tamil schoolchildren.

2013 – At least 75 people are killed in a suicide bombing at a Christian church in Peshawar, Pakistan.

[lordroel]

September 23rd

1122 – Pope Callixtus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V agree to the Concordat of Worms to put an end to the Investiture Controversy.

1338 – The Battle of Arnemuiden was the first naval battle of the Hundred Years' War and the first naval battle using gunpowder artillery.

1409 – The Battle of Kherlen is the second significant victory over Ming dynasty China by the Mongols since 1368.

1459 – The Battle of Blore Heath, the first major battle of the English Wars of the Roses, takes place.

1568 – Spanish naval forces rout an English fleet, under the command of John Hawkins, at the Battle of San Juan de Ulúa near Veracruz.

1641 – The Merchant Royal, carrying a treasure of over 100,000 pounds of gold (worth over £1 billion today), is lost at sea off Land's End.

1642 – First commencement exercises occur at Harvard College.

1779 – American Revolution: John Paul Jones on board the USS Bonhomme Richard wins the Battle of Flamborough Head.

1780 – American Revolution: British Major John André is arrested as a spy by American soldiers exposing Benedict Arnold's change of sides.

1803 – Second Anglo-Maratha War: Battle of Assaye between the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India.

1806 – Lewis and Clark return to St. Louis after exploring the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

1821 – Tripolitsa, Greece, is captured by Greek rebels during the Greek War of Independence.

1845 – The Knickerbockers Baseball Club, the first baseball team to play under the modern rules, is founded in New York.

1846 – Astronomers Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier, John Couch Adams and Johann Gottfried Galle collaborate on the discovery of Neptune.

1868 – Grito de Lares ("Lares Revolt") occurs in Puerto Rico against Spanish rule.

1889 – Nintendo Koppai (Later Nintendo Company, Limited) is founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce and market the playing card game Hanafuda.

1899 – The American Asiatic Squadron destroys a Filipino battery at the Battle of Olongapo.

1905 – Norway and Sweden sign the "Karlstad treaty", peacefully dissolving the Union between the two countries.

1909 – The novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra (The Phantom of the Opera), by Gaston Leroux, is published as a serialization in Le Gaulois.

1911 – Pilot Earle Ovington makes the first official airmail delivery in America under the authority of the United States Post Office Department

1913 – Roland Garros of France becomes the first to fly in an airplane across the Mediterranean (from St. Raphael in France to Bizerte, Tunisia).

1932 – The unification of Saudi Arabia is completed.

1938 – The Czechoslovak army is mobilized in response to the Munich Agreement.

1942 – World War II: The Matanikau action on Guadalcanal begins: U.S. Marines attack Japanese units along the Matanikau River.

1943 – World War II: The Nazi puppet state known as the Italian Social Republic is founded.

1950 – Korean War: The Battle of Hill 282 is the first US friendly-fire incident on British military personnel since World War II.

1962 – The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts opens in New York City.

1973 – Argentine general election: Juan Perón returns to power in Argentina.

1980 – Bob Marley plays what would be the last concert of his life in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

1983 – Saint Kitts and Nevis joins the United Nations.

1983 – Gulf Air Flight 771 is destroyed by a bomb, killing all 117 people on board.

1986 – Houston Astros' Jim Deshaies sets a record, striking out the first eight batters he faces against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

2002 – The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox ("Phoenix 0.1") is released.

2004 – Over 3,000 people die in Haiti after Hurricane Jeanne produces massive flooding and mudslides.

2008 – Matti Saari kills ten people before committing suicide.

[lordroel]

September 24th

787 – Second Council of Nicaea: The council assembles at the church of Hagia Sophia.

1180 – Manuel I Komnenos, the last Byzantine Emperor of the Komnenian restoration, dies.

1645 – The Battle of Rowton Heath is a Parliamentarian victory over a Royalist army commanded in person by King Charles.

1674 – Second Tantrik Coronation of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

1789 – The United States Congress passes the Judiciary Act, creating the office of the Attorney General and federal judiciary system and ordering the composition of the Supreme Court.

1830 – A revolutionary committee of notables forms the Provisional Government of Belgium.

1841 – The Sultanate of Brunei cedes Sarawak to the United Kingdom.

1846 – Mexican–American War: General Zachary Taylor captures Monterrey.

1852 – The first airship powered by (a steam) engine, created by Henri Giffard, travels 17 miles (27 km) from Paris to Trappes.

1853 – Admiral Despointes formally takes possession of New Caledonia in the name of France.

1869 – Gold prices plummet after President Grant orders the Treasury to sell large quantities of gold after Jay Gould and James Fisk plot to control the market.

1877 – The Battle of Shiroyama is a decisive victory of the Imperial Japanese Army over the Satsuma Rebellion.

1890 – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officially renounces polygamy.

1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower in Wyoming as the nation's first National Monument.

1906 – Racial tensions exacerbated by rumors lead to the Atlanta Race Riot, further increasing racial segregation.

1911 – His Majesty's Airship No. 1, Britain's first rigid airship, is wrecked by strong winds before her maiden flight at Barrow-in-Furness.

1929 – Jimmy Doolittle performs the first flight without a window, proving that full instrument flying from take off to landing is possible.

1932 – Gandhi and Dr. Ambedkar agree to the Poona Pact, which reserved seats in the Indian provincial legislatures for the "Depressed Classes" (Untouchables).

1935 – Earl and Weldon Bascom produce the first rodeo ever held outdoors under electric lights.

1946 – Cathay Pacific Airways is founded in Hong Kong.

1946 – The top-secret Clifford-Elsey Report on the Soviet Union is delivered to President Truman.

1948 – The Honda Motor Company is founded.

1950 – The Chinchaga fire in western Canada becomes the largest recorded fire in North American history, sending smoke all the way to Europe.

1957 – President Eisenhower sends the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce desegregation.

1960 – USS Enterprise, the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is launched.

1972 – Japan Airlines Flight 472 lands at Juhu Aerodrome instead of Santacruz Airport in Bombay, India.

1973 – Guinea-Bissau declares its independence from Portugal.

1975 – Southwest Face expedition members become the first persons to reach the summit of Mount Everest by any of its faces, instead of using a ridge route.

1993 – The Cambodian monarchy is restored, with Norodom Sihanouk as king.

1996 – Representatives of 71 nations sign the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty at the United Nations.

2005 – Hurricane Rita makes landfall in the United States, devastating portions of southwestern Louisiana and extreme southeastern Texas.

2007 – Between 30,000 and 100,000 people take part in anti-government protests in Yangon, Burma, the largest in 20 years.

2008 – Thabo Mbeki resigns as president of South Africa

2009 – The G20 summit begins in Pittsburgh with 30 global leaders in attendance.

2013 – A 7.7-magnitude earthquake strikes southern Pakistan, killing at least 327 people.

2014 – The Mars Orbiter Mission makes India the first Asian nation to reach Mars orbit, and the first nation in the world to do so in its first attempt.

2015 – At least 1,100 people are killed and another 934 wounded after a stampede during the Hajj in Saudi Arabia.

[lordroel]

September 25th

275 – For the last time, the Roman Senate chooses an emperor (Marcus Claudius Tacitus).

762 – Led by Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, the Hasanid branch of the Alids begins the Alid Revolt against the Abbasid Caliphate.

1066 – The Battle of Stamford Bridge sees the defeat of Harald Hardrada by King Harold II of England.

1237 – England and Scotland sign the Treaty of York, establishing the location of their common border.

1396 – Ottoman Emperor Bayezid I defeats a Christian army at the Battle of Nicopolis.

1513 – Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa reaches what would become known as the Pacific Ocean.

1555 – The Peace of Augsburg is signed by Emperor Charles V and the princes of the Schmalkaldic League.

1690 – Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick, the first newspaper to appear in the Americas, is published for the first and only time.

1775 – American Revolution: Ethan Allen surrenders to British forces after attempting to capture Montreal during the Battle of Longue-Pointe.

1775 – American Revolution: Benedict Arnold's expedition to Quebec sets off.

1789 – The United States Congress passes twelve constitutional amendments: the ten known as the Bill of Rights, the (unratified) Congressional Apportionment Amendment, and the Congressional Compensation Amendment.

1790 – Four Great Anhui Troupes introduce Anhui opera to Beijing in honor of the Qianlong Emperor's eightieth birthday.

1804 – The Teton Sioux (a subdivision of the Lakota) demand one of the boats from the Lewis and Clark Expedition as a toll for allowing the expedition to move further upriver.

1868 – The Imperial Russian steam frigate Alexander Nevsky is shipwrecked off Jutland while carrying Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia.

1890 – The United States Congress establishes Sequoia National Park.

1906 – Leonardo Torres y Quevedo demonstrates the Telekino, guiding a boat from the shore, in what is considered to be the first use of a remote control.

1911 – An explosion of badly degraded propellant charges on board the French battleship Liberté detonates the forward ammunition magazines and destroys the ship.

1912 – Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is founded in New York City.

1915 – World War I: The Second Battle of Champagne begins.

1926 – The international Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery is first signed.

1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Chinese Eighth Route Army gains a minor, but morale-boosting victory in the Battle of Pingxingguan.

1944 – World War II: Surviving elements of the British 1st Airborne Division withdraw from Arnhem via Oosterbeek.

1955 – The Royal Jordanian Air Force is founded.

1956 – TAT-1, the first submarine transatlantic telephone cable system, is inaugurated.

1957 – Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, is integrated by the use of United States Army troops.

1959 – Solomon Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, is mortally wounded by a Buddhist monk, Talduwe Somarama, and dies the next day.

1962 – The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria is formally proclaimed. Ferhat Abbas is elected President of the provisional government.

1962 – The North Yemen Civil War begins when Abdullah al-Sallal dethrones the newly crowned Imam al-Badr and declares Yemen a republic under his presidency.

1963 – Lord Denning releases the UK government's official report on the Profumo affair.

1964 – The Mozambican War of Independence against Portugal begins.

1969 – The charter establishing the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation is signed.

1974 – Dr. Frank Jobe performs first ulnar collateral ligament replacement surgery (better known as Tommy John surgery) on baseball player Tommy John.

1977 – About 4,200 people take part in the first running of the Chicago Marathon.

1978 – PSA Flight 182, a Boeing 727, collides in mid-air with a Cessna 172 and crashes in San Diego, killing 144 people.

1981 – Belize joins the United Nations.

1983 – Thirty-eight IRA prisoners, armed with six handguns, hijack a prison meals lorry and smash their way out of the Maze Prison.

1992 – NASA launches the Mars Observer. Eleven months later, the probe would fail while preparing for orbital insertion.

2003 – The 8.3 Mw  Hokkaidō earthquake strikes just offshore Hokkaidō, Japan.

2018 – Bill Cosby is sentenced to three to ten years in prison.

[lordroel]

September 26th

46 BC – Julius Caesar dedicates a temple to Venus Genetrix, fulfilling a vow he made at the Battle of Pharsalus.

715 – Ragenfrid defeats Theudoald at the Battle of Compiègne.

1087 – William II is crowned King of England, and reigns until 1100.

1212 – The Golden Bull of Sicily is issued to confirm the hereditary royal title in Bohemia for the Přemyslid dynasty.

1345 – Friso-Hollandic Wars: Frisians defeat Holland in the Battle of Warns.

1371 – Serbian–Turkish wars: Ottoman Turks fought against a Serbian army at the Battle of Maritsa.

1493 – Pope Alexander VI issues the papal bull Dudum siquidem to the Spanish, extending the grant of new lands he made them in Inter caetera.

1580 – Francis Drake finishes his circumnavigation of the Earth.

1687 – The Parthenon in Athens is partially destroyed during the Morean War.

1688 – The city council of Amsterdam votes to support William of Orange's invasion of England, which became the Glorious Revolution.

1777 – American Revolution: British troops occupy Philadelphia.

1789 – George Washington appoints the first cabinet of the United States government.

1792 – Marc-David Lasource begins accusing Maximilien Robespierre of wanting a dictatorship for France.

1799 – War of the 2nd Coalition: Franco-Swiss troops defeat Austro-Russian forces, leading to the collapse of Suvorov's campaign.

1810 – A new Act of Succession is adopted by the Riksdag of the Estates, and Jean Baptiste Bernadotte becomes heir to the Swedish throne.

1905 – Albert Einstein publishes the third of his Annus Mirabilis papers, introducing the special theory of relativity.

1907 – Four months after the 1907 Imperial Conference, New Zealand and Newfoundland are promoted from colonies to dominions within the British Empire.

1910 – Indian journalist Swadeshabhimani Ramakrishna Pillai is arrested after publishing criticism of the government of Travancore and is exiled.

1914 – The United States Federal Trade Commission is established by the Federal Trade Commission Act.

1917 – World War I: The Battle of Polygon Wood begins.

1918 – World War I: The Meuse-Argonne Offensive began which would last until the total surrender of German forces.

1923 – The German government accepts the occupation of the Ruhr.

1933 – As gangster Machine Gun Kelly surrenders to the FBI, he shouts out, "Don't shoot, G-Men!", which becomes a nickname for FBI agents.

1934 – The ocean liner RMS Queen Mary is launched.

1942 – Holocaust: Senior SS official August Frank issues a memorandum detailing how Jews should be "evacuated".

1950 – Korean War: United Nations troops recapture Seoul from North Korean forces.

1953 – Rationing of sugar in the United Kingdom ends

1954 – The Japanese rail ferry Tōya Maru sinks during a typhoon in the Tsugaru Strait, Japan, killing 1,172.

1959 – Typhoon Vera, the strongest typhoon to hit Japan in recorded history, makes landfall, killing 4,580 people and leaving nearly 1.6 million others homeless.

1960 – In Chicago, the first televised debate takes place between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy.

1969 – Abbey Road, the last recorded album by The Beatles, is released.

1973 – Concorde makes its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record-breaking time.

1980 – At the Oktoberfest terror attack in Munich 13 people die and 211 are injured.

1981 – Nolan Ryan sets a Major League record by throwing his fifth no-hitter.

1983 – Soviet Air Force officer Stanislav Petrov identifies a report of an incoming nuclear missile as a computer error and not an American first strike.

1983 – Australia II wins the America's Cup, ending the New York Yacht Club's 132-year domination of the race.

1984 – The United Kingdom and China agree to a transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong, to take place in 1997.

1997 – A Garuda Indonesia Airbus A300 crashes near Medan airport, killing 234.

1997 – An earthquake strikes the Italian regions of Umbria and the Marche, causing part of the Basilica of St. Francis at Assisi to collapse.

2000 – Anti-globalization protests in Prague (some 20,000 protesters) turn violent during the IMF and World Bank summits.

2000 – The MS Express Samina sinks off Paros in the Aegean Sea killing 80 passengers.

2002 – The overcrowded Senegalese ferry, MV Le Joola, capsizes off the coast of the Gambia killing more than 1,000.

2005 – The PBS Kids Channel is shut down and replaced by a joint network with Comcast called Sprout.

2008 – Swiss pilot and inventor Yves Rossy becomes first person to fly a jet engine-powered wing across the English Channel.

2009 – Typhoon Ketsana hits the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, causing 700 fatalities.

2014 – A mass kidnapping occurs in Iguala, Mexico.

[lordroel]

September 27th

1066 – William the Conqueror and his army set sail from the mouth of the Somme river, beginning the Norman conquest of England.

1331 – The Battle of Płowce between the Poland and the Teutonic Order is fought.

1422 – After the brief Gollub War, the Teutonic Knights sign the Treaty of Melno with Poland and Lithuania

1529 – The Siege of Vienna begins when Suleiman I attacks the city.

1540 – The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) receives its charter from Pope Paul III.

1590 – Pope Urban VII dies 13 days after being chosen as the Pope, making his reign the shortest papacy in history.

1605 – The armies of Sweden are defeated by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Battle of Kircholm.

1669 – The Venetians surrender the fortress of Candia to the Ottomans, thus ending the 21-year-long Siege of Candia.

1777 – American Revolution: Lancaster, Pennsylvania becomes the capital of the United States for one day after Congress evacuates Philadelphia.

1791 – The National Assembly votes to award full citizenship to Jews in France.

1822 – Jean-François Champollion announces that he has deciphered the Rosetta Stone.

1825 – The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, is ceremonially opened.

1854 – The steamship SS Arctic sinks with 300 people on board.

1875 – The merchant sailing ship Ellen Southard is wrecked in a storm at Liverpool.

1903 – The Wreck of the Old 97, an American rail disaster that became the subject of a popular ballad.

1908 – Production of the Model T automobile begins at the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit.

1916 – Iyasu V is proclaimed deposed as ruler of Ethiopia in a palace coup in favor of his aunt Zewditu.

1922 – King Constantine I of Greece abdicates his throne in favor of his eldest son, George II.

1928 – The Republic of China is recognized by the United States.

1930 – Bobby Jones wins the (pre-Masters) Grand Slam of golf.

1938 – The ocean liner Queen Elizabeth is launched in Glasgow.

1940 – World War II: The Tripartite Pact is signed in Berlin by Germany, Japan and Italy.

1941 – The Greek National Liberation Front is established with Georgios Siantos as acting leader.

1941 – The SS Patrick Henry is launched, becoming the first of more than 2,700 Liberty ships.

1942 – Last day of the Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as United States Marines barely escape after being surrounded by Japanese forces.

1944 – The Kassel Mission results in the largest loss by a USAAF group on any mission in World War II.

1949 – Zeng Liansong's design is chosen as the flag of the People's Republic of China.

1956 – USAF Captain Milburn G. Apt becomes the first person to exceed Mach 3. Shortly thereafter, the Bell X-2 goes out of control and Captain Apt is killed.

1959 – Typhoon Vera kills nearly 5,000 people in Japan.

1962 – The Yemen Arab Republic is established.

1962 – Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring is published, inspiring an environmental movement and the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

1964 – The British TSR-2 aircraft XR219 makes its maiden flight.

1975 – The last use of capital punishment in Spain sparks worldwide protests.

1977 – Japan Airlines Flight 715 crashes on approach to Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang, Malaysia, killing 34 of the 79 people on board.

1983 – Richard Stallman announces the GNU Project to develop a free Unix-like operating system.

1988 – The National League for Democracy is formed by Aung San Suu Kyi and others to fight dictatorship in Myanmar.

1993 – The Sukhumi massacre takes place in Abkhazia.

1996 – The Battle of Kabul ends in a Taliban victory, who establish the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

1996 – Confusion on a tanker ship results in the Julie N. oil spill in Portland, Maine.

1998 – The Google internet search engine retroactively claims this date as its birthday.

2001 – In Switzerland, a gunman shoots 18 citizens, killing 14 and then himself.

2003 – The SMART-1 satellite is launched.

2007 – NASA launches the Dawn probe to the asteroid belt.

2008 – CNSA astronaut Zhai Zhigang becomes the first Chinese person to perform a spacewalk.

2012 – In Minneapolis, a gunman shoots seven citizens, killing 5 and then himself.

2014 – The eruption of Mount Ontake in Japan occurs.

[lordroel]

September 28th

48 BC – Pompey is assassinated by order of King Ptolemy upon arriving in Egypt.

235 – Pope Pontian resigns. He is exiled to the mines of Sardinia, along with Hippolytus of Rome.

351 – Constantius II defeats the usurper Magnentius.

365 – Roman usurper Procopius bribes two legions passing by Constantinople, and proclaims himself emperor.

935 – Duke Wenceslaus I of Bohemia is murdered by a group of nobles led by his brother Boleslaus I, who succeeds him.

995 – Boleslaus II, Duke of Bohemia, kills most members of the rival Slavník dynasty.

1066 – William the Conqueror lands in England, beginning the Norman conquest.

1106 – King Henry I of England defeats his brother, Robert Curthose.

1238 – King James I of Aragon conquers Valencia from the Moors. Shortly thereafter, he proclaims himself king of Valencia.

1322 – Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor, defeats Frederick I of Austria in the Battle of Mühldorf.

1538 – Ottoman–Venetian War: The Ottoman Navy scores a decisive victory over a Holy League fleet in the Battle of Preveza.

1542 – Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo of Portugal arrives at what is now San Diego, California.

1779 – American Revolution: Samuel Huntington is elected President of the Continental Congress, succeeding John Jay.

1781 – American Revolution: American forces backed by a French fleet begin the siege of Yorktown.

1787 – The Congress of the Confederation votes to send the newly-written United States Constitution to the state legislatures for approval.

1821 – The Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire is drafted. It will be made public on 13 October.

1844 – Oscar I of Sweden–Norway is crowned king of Sweden.

1867 – Toronto becomes the capital of Ontario, having also been the capital of Ontario's predecessors since 1796.

1868 – The Battle of Alcolea causes Queen Isabella II of Spain to flee to France.

1871 – The Brazilian Parliament passes a law that frees all children thereafter born to slaves, and all government-owned slaves.

1889 – The General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) defines the length of a meter.

1892 – The first night game for American football takes place in a contest between Wyoming Seminary and Mansfield State Normal.

1893 – Foundation of the Portuguese football club FC Porto.

1901 – Philippine–American War: Filipino guerrillas kill more than forty American soldiers while losing 28 of their own.

1912 – The Ulster Covenant is signed by some 500,000 Ulster Protestant Unionists in opposition to the Third Irish Home Rule Bill.

1912 – Corporal Frank S. Scott of the United States Army becomes the first enlisted man to die in an airplane crash.

1918 – World War I: The Fifth Battle of Ypres begins.

1919 – Race riots begin in Omaha, Nebraska.

1924 – The first aerial circumnavigation is completed by a team from the US Army.

1928 – Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.

1939 – World War II: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a division of Poland.

1939 – World War II: The siege of Warsaw comes to an end.

1941 – World War II: The Drama uprising against the Bulgarian occupation in northern Greece begins.

1941 – Ted Williams achieves a .406 batting average for the season, and becomes the last major league baseball player to bat .400 or better.

1944 – World War II: Soviet Army troops liberate Klooga concentration camp in Estonia.

1951 – CBS makes the first color televisions available for sale to the general public, but the product is discontinued less than a month later.

1961 – A military coup in Damascus effectively ends the United Arab Republic, the union between Egypt and Syria.

1970 – Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser dies of a heart attack in Cairo.

1971 – The Parliament of the UK passes the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, banning the medicinal use of cannabis.

1973 – The ITT Building in New York City is bombed in protest at ITT's alleged involvement in the coup d'état in Chile.

1975 – The Spaghetti House siege, in which nine people are taken hostage, takes place in London.

1986 – The Democratic Progressive Party becomes the first opposition party in Taiwan.

1991 – The Strategic Air Command stands down from alert all ICBMs scheduled for deactivation under START I, as well as its strategic bomber force.

1992 – A Pakistan International Airlines flight crashes into a hill in Nepal, killing all 167 passengers and crew.

1994 – The cruise ferry MS Estonia sinks in the Baltic Sea, killing 852 people.

1995 – Bob Denard and a group of mercenaries take the islands of the Comoros in a coup.

1995 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat sign the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

2000 – Al-Aqsa Intifada: Ariel Sharon visits Al-Aqsa Mosque known to Jews as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

2008 – Falcon 1 becomes the first privately developed liquid-fuel ground-launched vehicle to put a payload into orbit.

2009 – The military junta leading Guinea attacks a protest rally, killing or wounding 1400 people.

2012 – Somali and African Union forces launch a coordinated assault on the Somali port of Kismayo to take back the city from al-Shabaab militants.

2014 – The 2014 Hong Kong protests begin in response to restrictive political reforms imposed by the NPC in Beijing.

2016 – The 2016 South Australian blackout occurs, lasting up to three days in some areas.

2018 – The 7.5 Mw 2018 Sulawesi earthquake, which triggered a large tsunami, leaves 4,340 dead and 10,679 injured.