What Happened This Day In History

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Today in History

September 8
1504 Michelangelo's 13-foot marble statue of David is unveiled in Florence, Italy.
1529 The Ottoman Sultan Suleiman re-enters Buda and establishes John Zapolyai as the puppet king of Hungary.
1565 Spanish explorers found St. Augustine, Florida, the first permanent European settlement in what is now the United States.
1628 John Endecott arrives with colonists at Salem, Massachusetts, where he will become the governor.
1644 The Dutch colony of New Amsterdam surrenders to the British fleet that sails into its harbor. Five years later, the British change the name to New York.
1755 British forces under William Johnson defeat the French and the Indians at the Battle of Lake George.
1760 The French surrender the city of Montreal to the British.
1845 A French column surrenders at Sidi Brahim in the Algerian War.
1863 Confederate Lieutenant Dick Dowling thwarts a Union naval landing at Sabine Pass, northeast of Galveston, Texas.
1903 Between 30,000 and 50,000 Bulgarian men, women and children are massacred in Monastir by Turkish troops seeking to check a threatened Macedonian uprising.
1906 Robert Turner invents the automatic typewriter return carriage.
1915 Germany begins a new offensive in Argonne on the Western Front.
1921 Margaret Gorman of Washington, D.C., is named the first Miss America.
1925 Germany is admitted into the League of Nations.
1935 Senator Huey Long of Louisiana is shot to death in the state capitol, allegedly by Dr. Carl Austin Weiss, Jr.
1944 Germany's V-2 offensive against England begins.
1945 Korea is partitioned by the Soviet Union and the United States.
1951 Japanese representatives sign a peace treaty in San Francisco.
1955 The United States, Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Thailand sign the mutual defense treaty that established the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).
1960 Penguin Books in Britain is charged with obscenity for trying to publish the D.H. Lawrence novel Lady Chatterly's Lover.
1960 President Eisenhower dedicates NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
1971 The Kennedy Center opens in Washington, DC with a performance of Leonard Bernstein's Mass.
1974 President Gerald Ford pardons former President Richard M. Nixon for any crimes arising from the Watergate scandal he may have committed while in office.
1988 Wildfires in Yellowstone National Park in the US, the world's first national park, force evacuation of the historic Old Faithful Inn; visitors and employees evacuated but the inn is saved.
1991 Macedonian Independence Day; voters overwhelmingly approve referendum to form the Republic of Macedonia, independent of Yugoslavia.
1994 USAir Flight 427 crashes on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport, killing all 132 people aboard; subsequent investigation leads to changes in manufacturing practices and pilot training.



Born on September 8

1841 Antonin Dvorak, composer and violinist.
1886 Siegfried Sassoon, British author and poet famous for his anti-war writing about World War I.
1889 Robert A. Taft, U.S. Senator from Ohio who unsuccessfully sought the presidential nomination from the 1940s until 1952.
1900 Claude Pepper, Democratic senator and congressman from Florida, champion of senior citizens rights.
1922 Sid Caesar, comedian and television star, best known for "Your Show of Shows," and "The Sid Caesar Show."
1925 Peter Sellers, English comic actor, famous for his role as Inspector Clouseau.
1932 Patsy Cline, country singer ("Crazy", "I Fall to Pieces").
1933 Michael Frayn, playwright (A Very Private Life, Noises Off).
1947 Ann Beattie, writer (Chilly Scenes of Winter, Picturing Will).
1954 Anne Diamond, journalist, TV host (Good Morning Britain) social activist; led Back to Sleep campaign that drastically reduced the number of cot deaths (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) among UK infants.
1954 Michael Shermer, founder of The Skeptics Society and editor of Skeptic magazine.
1963 Brad Silberling, screenwriter, director (City of Angels); wrote and directed Moonlight Mile (2002) based on the murder of his girlfriend, actress Rebecca Schaeffer, by a stalker.
1970 Yuji Nishizawa, highjacked All Nippon Airways flight, July 23, 1999.
1971 Martin Freeman, actor (The Office BBC Two TV series; Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey).
1979 Pink (Alecia Beth Moore), multiple award-winning singer, including three Grammys ("Lady Marmalade," "Trouble," "Imagine."

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Today in History

September 9

337 Constantine's three sons, already Caesars, each take the title of Augustus. Constantine II and Constans share the west while Constantius II takes control of the east.
1087 William the Conquerer, Duke of Normandy and King of England, dies in Rouen while conducting a war which began when the French king made fun of him for being fat.
1513 King James IV of Scotland is defeated and killed by English at Flodden.
1585 Pope Sixtus V deprives Henry of Navarre of his rights to the French crown.
1776 The term "United States" is adopted by the Continental Congress to be used instead of the "United Colonies."
1786 George Washington calls for the abolition of slavery.
1791 French Royalists take control of Arles and barricade themselves inside the town.
1834 Parliament passes the Municipal Corporations Act, reforming city and town governments in England.
1850 California, in the midst of a gold rush, enters the Union as the 31st state.
1863 The Union Army of the Cumberland passes through Chattanooga as they chase after the retreating Confederates. The Union troops will soon be repulsed at the Battle of Chickamauga.
1886 The Berne International Copyright Convention takes place.
1911 An airmail route opens between London and Windsor.
1915 A German zeppelin bombs London for the first time, causing little damage.
1926 The Radio Corporation of America creates the National Broadcasting Co.
1942 A Japanese float plane, launched from a submarine, makes its first bombing run on a U.S. forest near Brookings, Oregon.
1943 Allied troops land at Salerno, Italy and encounter strong resistance from German troops.
1948 Kim Il-sung declares the establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
1956 Elvis Presley makes his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show; cameras focus on his upper torso and legs to avoid showing his pelvis gyrations, which many Americans—including Ed Sullivan—thought unfit for a family show.
1965 US Department of Housing and Urban Development established.
1965 Hurricane Betsy, the first hurricane to exceed $1 billion in damages (unadjusted), makes its second landfall, near New Orleans.
1969 Canada's Official Languages Act takes effect, making French equal to English as a language within the nation's government.
1970 U.S. Marines launch Operation Dubois Square, a 10-day search for North Vietnamese troops near DaNang.
1971 Attica Prison Riot; the 4-day riot leaves 39 dead.
1976 Communist Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung dies in Beijing at age 82.
1990 Sri Lankan Army massacres 184 civilians of the Tamil minority in the Batticaloa District of Sri Lanka.
1991 Tajikstan declares independence from USSR.
1993 The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) officially recognizes Israel as a legitimate state.
2001 Two al Qaeda assassins kill Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan.
2001 A car bomb explodes outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta, killing 10 people.


Born on September 9

1585 Duc Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu, French cardinal and statesman who helped build France into a world power under the leadership of King Louis XIII.
1828 Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist (War and Peace, Anna Karenina).
1887 Alfred M. Landon, Republican governor of Kansas who carried only two states in his overwhelming defeat for the presidency by Franklin Roosevelt in 1936.
1890 Colonel Harland Sanders, originator of Kentucky Fried Chicken fast-food restaurants.
1900 James Hilton, British novelist who authored Lost Horizon and Goodbye Mr. Chips and created the imaginary world of "Shangri-La."
1905 Joseph E. Levine, film producer, founder of Embassy Pictures Corporation, an independent studio and distributor of films such as Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, The Graduate, A Bridge Too Far, and The Lion in Winter.
1908 Shigekazu Shimazaki, Japanese commander and pilot who led the second wave of the air attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941; posthumously promoted to admiral in 1945.
1922 Bernard Bailyn, historian, author; received Pulitzer Prize for History (1968, 1987), and National Humanities Medal (2010).
1922 Hoyt Curtin, composer and music producer; primary musical director for Hanna-Barbera animation studio (The Flintstones, Top Cat, The Smurfs).
1934 Sonia Sanchez, poet.
1941 Otis Redding, singer, songwriter, record producer, known as the "King of Soul"; "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay," "Respect."
1949 Joe Theismann, American football player, sports announcer; member of College Football Hall of Fame; winning quarterback, Super Bowl XVII.
1949 Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesian general, 6th president of Indonesia.
1960 Hugh Grant, actor, film producer; awards include Golden Globe (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and London Critics Circle's British Actor of the Year (About a Boy)
1966 Adam Sandler, actor, comedian, screenwriter, film producer (Saturday Night Live, Happy Gilmore).
1975 Michael Buble, multiple Grammy and Juno award–winning singer, songwriter, actor (Crazy Love, It's Time).
1980 Michelle Williams, Golden Globe–winning actress (My Week with Marilyn).
1988 Jo Woodcock, actress (The Picture of Dorian Gray, Torn TV miniseries).

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September 10
1419 John the Fearless is murdered at Montereau, France, by supporters of the dauphine.
1547 The Duke of Somerset leads the English to a resounding victory over the Scots at Pinkie Cleugh.
1588 Thomas Cavendish returns to England, becoming the third man to circumnavigate the globe.
1623 Lumber and furs are the first cargo to leave New Plymouth in North America for England.
1813 The nine-ship American flotilla under Oliver Hazard Perry wrests naval supremacy from the British on Lake Erie by capturing or destroying a force of six English vessels.
1846 Elias Howe patents the first practical sewing machine in the United States.
1855 Sevastopol, under siege for nearly a year, capitulates to the Allies during the Crimean War.
1861 Confederates at Carnifex Ferry, Virginia, fall back after being attacked by Union troops. The action is instrumental in helping preserve western Virginia for the Union.
1912 J. Vedrines becomes the first pilot to break the 100 m.p.h. barrier.
1914 The six-day Battle of the Marne ends, halting the German advance into France.
1923 In response to a dispute with Yugoslavia, Mussolini mobilizes Italian troops on Serb front.
1961 Jomo Kenyatta returns to Kenya from exile, during which he had been elected president of the Kenya National African Union.
1963 President John F. Kennedy federalizes Alabama's National Guard to prevent Governor George C. Wallace from using guardsmen to stop public-school desegregation.
1967 Gibraltar votes to remain a British dependency instead of becoming part of Spain.
1974 Guinea-Bissau (Portuguese Guinea) gains independence from Portugal.
1981 Pablo Picasso's painting Guernica is returned to Spain and installed in Madrid's Prado Museum. Picasso stated in his will that the painting was not to return to Spain until the Fascists lost power and democracy was restored.
2001 Contestant Charles Ingram cheats on the British version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, wins 1 million pounds.
2003 Sweden's foreign minister, Anna Lindh, is stabbed while shopping and dies the next day.
2007 Nawaz Sharif, former prime minister of Pakistan, returns after 7 years in exile, following a military coup in October 1999.
2008 The Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator—described as the biggest scientific experiment in history—is powered up in Geneva, Switzerland.



Born on September 10

1487 Julius III, Italian poet who promoted the Jesuits.
1754 William Bligh, British naval officer who was the victim of two mutinies, the most famous on the HMS Bounty which was taken over by Fletcher Christian.
1847 John Roy Lynch, first African American to deliver the keynote address at a Republican National Convention.
1885 Carl Van Doren, historian and critic who won a Pulitzer Prize for his biography on Benjamin Franklin.
1892 Arthur Compton, physicist.
1929 Arnold Palmer, golfer who won four Masters, two British Opens and one U.S. Open.
1934 Charles Kuralt, journalist, known for his popular "On the Road" television program.
1935 Mary Oliver, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet.
1941 Stephen Jay Gould, paleontologist, biologist and writer of popular books about science such as Time's Cycle and The Panda's Thumb.
1941 Gunpei Yokoi, inventor of Game Boy.
1945 Jose Feliciano, guitarist, singer, songwriter.
1948 Margaret Trudeau, actress (Kings and Desperate Men), author, photographer.
1949 Bill O'Reilly, TV host (The O'Reilly Factor), author.
1950 Rosie Flores, singer, musician.
1960 Colin Firth, Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actor (The King's Speech).

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Today in History

September 11
1297 Scots under William Wallace defeat the English at Stirling Bridge.
1695 Imperial troops under Eugene of Savoy defeat the Turks at the Battle of Zenta.
1709 John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, wins the bloodiest battle of the 18th century at great cost, against the French at Malplaquet.
1740 The first mention of an African American doctor or dentist in the colonies is made in the Pennsylvania Gazette.
1777 General George Washington and his troops are defeated by the British under General Sir William Howe at the Battle of Brandywine in Pennsylvania.
1786 The Convention of Annapolis opens with the aim of revising the articles of confederation.
1802 Piedmont, Italy, is annexed by France.
1814 U.S. forces led by Thomas Macdonough route the British fleet on Lake Champlain.
1847 Stephen Foster's "Oh! Susanna" is first performed in a saloon in Pittsburgh.
1850 Soprano opera singer Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale," makes her American debut at New York's Castle Garden Theater.
1864 A 10-day truce is declared between generals Sherman and Hood so civilians may leave Atlanta, Georgia.
1857 Indians incited by Mormon John D. Lee kill 120 California-bound settlers in the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
1904 The battleship Connecticut, launched in New York, introduces a new era in naval construction.
1916 The "Star Spangled Banner" is sung at the beginning of a baseball game for the first time in Cooperstown, New York.
1944 American troops enter Luxembourg.
1962 Thurgood Marshall is appointed a judge of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.
1965 The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) arrives in South Vietnam and is stationed at An Khe.
1974 Haile Selassie I is deposed from the Ethiopian throne.
2001 In an unprecedented, highly coordinated attack, terrorists hijack four U.S. passenger airliners, flying two into the World Trade Center towers in New York and one into the Pentagon, killing thousands. The fourth airliner, headed toward Washington likely to strike the White House or Capitol, is crashed just over 100 miles away in Pennsylvania after passengers storm the cockpit and overtake the hijackers.
2005 Israel completes its unilateral disengagement of all Israeli civilians and military from the Gaza Strip.
2007 Russia detonates a nano-bomb; dubbed the "Father of All Bombs," it is the largest non-nuclear weapon developed to date.
2012 US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, attacked and burned down; 4 Americans were killed including the US ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens.



Born on September 11

1700 James Thomson, Scottish poet.
1862 O. Henry, (William Sydney Porter), short story writer who wrote "The Gift of the Magi," and "The Last Leaf."
1877 James Jeans, physicist.
1885 D.H. Lawrence, English novelist (Lady Chatterley's Lover, Sons and Lovers).
1917 Jessica Mitford, investigative journalist (The American Way of Death).
1924 Tom Landry, coach of the Dallas Cowboys, winning two Super Bowls.
1937 Robert L. Crippen, US Navy captain, astronaut; former director of Kennedy Space Center.
1939 Charles M. "Chuck Geschke, co-founder of Adobe Systems, Inc.
1940 Brian DePalma, film director (Dressed to Kill, Carlito's Way)).
1940 Theodore Olson, US Solicitor General under Pres. George W. Bush (2001-04).
1965 Bashar al-Assad, president of Syria since 2000.
1966 Princess Akishino, nee Kiko Kawashima, wife of Prince Akishino, second son of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko of Japan. She is only the second commoner to marry into Japan's royal family.
1967 Harry Connick Jr., Grammy and Emmy award-winning singer, musician, actor.

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Today in History

September 12
490 BC Athenian and Plataean Hoplites commanded by General Miltiades drive back a Persian invasion force under General Datis at Marathon.
1213 Simon de Montfort defeats Raymond of Toulouse and Peter II of Aragon at Muret, France.
1609 Henry Hudson sails into what is now New York Harbor aboard his sloop Half Moon.
1662 Governor Berkley of Virginia is denied his attempts to repeal the Navigation Acts.
1683 A combined Austrian and Polish army defeats the Turks at Kahlenberg and lifts the siege on Vienna, Austria.
1722 The Treaty of St. Petersburg puts an end to the Russo-Persian War.
1786 Despite his failed efforts to suppress the American Revolution, Lord Cornwallis is appointed governor general of India.
1836 Mexican authorities crush the revolt which broke out on August 25.
1918 British troops retake Havincourt, Moeuvres, and Trescault along the Western Front.
1919 Adolf Hitler joins German Worker's Party.
1939 In response to the invasion of Poland, the French Army advances into Germany. On this day they reach their furthest penetration-five miles.
1940 Italian forces begin an offensive into Egypt from Libya.
1940 The Lascaux Caves in France, with their prehistoric wall paintings, are discovered.
1944 American troops fight their way into Germany.
1945 French troops land in Indochina.
1969 President Richard Nixon orders a resumption in bombing North Vietnam.
1977 Steve Biko, a South African activist opposing apartheid, dies while in police custody.
1980 Military coup in Turkey.
1990 East and West Germany, along with the UK, US and USSR—the Allied nations that had occupied post-WWII Germany—sign the final settlement for reunification of Germany.
1992 Space Shuttle Endeavor takes off on NASA's 50th shuttle mission; its crew includes the first African-American woman in space, the first married couple, and the first Japanese citizen to fly in a US spacecraft.
2003 UN lifts sanctions against Libya in exchange for that country accepting responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 and paying recompense to victims' families.
2007 Joseph Estrada, former president of the Philippines, is convicted of plunder.
2011 In New York City, the 9/11 Memorial Museum opens to the public.


Born on September 12

1812 Richard March Hoe, who built the first successful rotary printing press.
1829 Charles Dudley Warner, essayist and novelist who, with Mark Twain, wrote The Guilded Age.
1880 H.L. Mencken, jornalist and iconoclast known as the "Sage of Baltimore."
1888 Maurice Chevalier, singer, dancer and actor.
1892 Alfred A. Knopf, American publisher.
1910 Alexander D. Langmuir, epidemiologist, created and led the U.S. Epidemic Intelligence Service.
1913 Jesse Owens, track and field athlete who won four medals at the Berlin Olympics in 1936.
1931 Kristin Hunter, author (God Bless the Child, The Survivors).
1931 George Jones, country singer.
1943 Michael Ondaatje, Canadian novelist and poet (The English Patient).
1949 Charles "Chic" Burlingame III, pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, that was highjacked and flown into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, by terrorists.
1956 Brian Robertson, singer, songwriter, musician (Thin Lizzy, Motorhead, Wild Horses bands).
1956 Richard "Ricky" Rudd, known as the "Iron Man" of NASCAR racing; he holds the record for the most consecutive NASCAR starts.
1981 Jennifer Hudson, singer, actress; numerous awards include a Grammy (Jennifer Hudson, 2008), and Oscar, Golden Globe and British Academy awards (Dreamgirls, 2006).

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Today in History

September 13
1515 King Francis of France defeats the Swiss army under Cardinal Matthias Schiner at Marignano, northern Italy.
1549 Pope Paul III closes the first session of the Council of Bologna.
1564 On the verge of attacking Pedro Menendez's Spanish settlement at San Agostin, Florida, Jean Ribault's French fleet is scattered by a devastating storm.
1759 British troops defeat the French on the plains of Abraham, in Quebec.
1774 Tugot, the new controller of finances, urges the king of France to restore the free circulation of grain in the kingdom.
1782 The British fortress at Gibraltar comes under attack by French and Spanish forces.
1788 The Constitutional Convention authorizes the first federal election resolving that electors in all the states will be appointed on January 7, 1789.
1789 Guardsmen in Orleans, France, open fire on rioters trying to loot bakeries, killing 90.
1846 General Winfield Scott takes Chapultepec, removing the last obstacle to U.S. troops moving on Mexico City.
1862 Union troops in Frederick, Maryland, discover General Robert E. Lee's attack plans for the invasion of Maryland wrapped around a pack of cigars. They give the plans to General George B. McClellan who sends the Army of the Potomac to confront Lee but only after a delay of more than half a day.
1863 The Loudoun County Rangers route a company of Confederate cavalry at Catoctin Mountain in Virginia.
1905 U.S. warships head to Nicaragua on behalf of American William Albers, who was accused of evading tobacco taxes.
1918 U.S. and French forces take St. Mihiel, France in America's first action as a standing army.
1945 Iran demands the withdrawal of Allied forces.
1951 In Korea, U.S. Army troops begin their assault in Heartbreak Ridge. The month-long struggle will cost 3,700 casualties.
1961 An unmanned Mercury capsule is orbited and recovered by NASA in a test.
1976 The United States announces it will veto Vietnam's UN bid.
1988 Hurricane Gilbert becomes the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere, based on barometric pressure. Hurricane Wilma will break that record in 2005.
1993 The Oslo Accords, granting limited Palestinian autonomy, are signed by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat at the White House.
2007 UN adopts non-binding Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
2008 Five synchronized bomb blasts occur in crowded locations of Delhi, India, killing at least 30 people and injuring more than 100; four other bombs are defused.
2008 Hurricane Ike makes landfall in Texas; it had already been the most costly storm in Cuba's history and becomes the third costliest in the US.


Born on September 13

1847 Milton Hershey, founder of the famous candy company.
1851 Walter Reed, U.S. Army doctor, discovered a cure for yellow fever.
1860 John J. Pershing, "Black Jack" who led the campaign against Pancho Villa in Mexico and Commanded the American Expeditionary Force in France during World War I.
1863 Franz von Hipper, German naval commander at the Battle of Jutland in World War I.
1886 Alain Locke, writer and first African-American Rhodes scholar.
1894 J.B. Priestley, British novelist and playwright.
1903 Claudette Colbert, actress who won an Oscar for It Happened One Night.
1911 Bill Monroe, musician, the Father of Bluegrass.
1911 Roald Dahl, writer, best known for his children's books such as James and the Giant Peach.
1922 Tony "Charles" Brown, blues singer and musician (*Merry Christmas Baby").
1925 Melvin "Mel" Torme, jazz singer, musician, composer and arranger ("The Christmas Song," AKA "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire"); nicknamed the "Velvet Fog.".
1926 Andrew Brimmer, economist; first African American to serve as governor of the Federal Reserve System (1966-74).
1938 Judith Martin, journalist and author best known as "Miss Manners" for her syndicated newspaper column on etiquette.
1944 Peter Cetera, singer, songwriter, musician, producer; member of the band Chicago before embarking on solo career ("After All," "Hard to Say I'm Sorry").
1948 Nell Carter, singer and actress; won Tony and Emmy awards (Ain't Misbehaving).
1967 Olympic sprinter; won four Olympic gold medals and eight World Championship gold medals.
1973 Mahima Chaudhry, Indian actress, model; Bollywood Movie Award for Dhadkan (2001).
1980 Ben Savage, actor (Boy Meets World TV series).

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Today In History. What Happened This Day In History



September 14
1146 Zangi of the Near East is murdered. The Sultan Nur ad-Din, his son, pursues the conquest of Edessa.
1321 Dante Alighieri dies of malaria just hours after finishing writing Paradiso.
1544 Henry VIII's forces take Boulogne, France.
1773 Russian forces under Aleksandr Suvorov successfully storm a Turkish fort at Hirsov, Turkey.
1791 Louis XVI swears his allegiance to the French constitution.
1812 Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Russia reaches its climax as his Grande Armee enters Moscow–only to find the enemy capital deserted and burning, set afire by the few Russians who remained.
1814 Francis Scott Key writes the words to the "Star Spangled Banner" as he waits aboard a British launch in the Chesapeake Bay for the outcome of the British assault on Fort McHenry during the War of 1812.
1847 U.S. forces under Gen. Winfield Scott capture Mexico City, virtually bringing the two-year Mexican War to a close.
1853 The Allies land at Eupatoria on the west coast of Crimea.
1862 At the battles of South Mountain and Crampton's Gap, Maryland Union troops smash into the Confederates as they close in on what will become the Antietam battleground.
1901 Vice President Theodore Roosevelt is sworn in as the 26th President of the United States upon the death of William McKinley, who was shot eight days earlier.
1911 Russian Premier Piotr Stolypin is mortally wounded in an assassination attempt at the Kiev opera house.
1943 German troops abandon the Salerno front in Italy..
1960 Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia form OPEC.
1966 Operation Attleboro, designed as a training exercise for American troops, becomes a month-long struggle against the Viet Cong.
1975 Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton becomes the first native-born American saint in the Roman Catholic Church.
1979 Nur Muhammad Taraki, president and former prime minister of Afghanistan, is assassinated in a coup in which prime minister Hafizullah Amin seizes power.
1982 Bachir Gemayel, president-elect of Lebanon, is killed along with 26 others in a bomb blast in Beirut.
1984 Joe Kittinger, a former USAF fighter pilot during the Vietnam War, becomes the first person to pilot a gas balloon solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
1994 Major League Baseball players strike over a salary cap and other proposed changes, forcing the cancellation of the entire postseason and the World Series.
2007 Northern Rock Bank suffers the UK's first bank run in 150 years.


Born on September 14

1769 Baron Freidrich von Humbolt, German naturalist and explorer who made the first isothermic and isobaric maps.
1849 Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist who studied dogs' responsiveness.
1860 Hamlin Garland, author who wrote about the Midwest in novles such as A Son of the Middle Border and The Book of the American Indian.
1864 Lord Robert Cecil, one of the founders of the League of Nations and its president from 1923 to 1945.
1867 Charles Dana Gibson, illustrator, creator of the 'Gibson Girl.'
1879 Margaret Sanger, birth-control advocate and founder of Planned Parenthood.
1898 Hal B. Wallis, film producer (The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca).
1921 Constance Baker Motley, first African-American woman to be appointed a federal judge.
1930 Allan Bloom, writer (The Closing of the American Mind).
1934 Kate Millet, feminist writer, author of Sexual Politics.
1936 Ferid Murad, Albanian-American physician and pharmacologist, is co-winner of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research on nitroglycerin's effects the cardiovascular system.
1948 Marc Reisner, author and environmentalist best known for his book Cadillac Desert, a history of water management in the Western portion of the US.
1955 Geraldine Brooks, Australian-American journalist and author; her novel March won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (2005).
1961 Wendy Thomas (Melinda "Wendy" Thomas Morse), namesake, mascot and spokesperson for the Wendy's chain of fast-food restaurants.
1983 Amy Winehouse, singer-songwriter; her five Grammy wins (out of six nominations) for her Back to Black album (2006) tied the existing record for most wins by a female artist in a single night; won Brit Award for Best British Female Artist (2007).

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Today in History

September 16

1620 The Pilgrims sail from England on the Mayflower.
1668 King John Casimer V of Poland abdicates the throne.
1747 The French capture Bergen-op-Zoom, consolidating their occupation of Austrian Flanders in the Netherlands.
1789 Jean-Paul Marat sets up a new newspaper in France, L'Ami du Peuple.
1810 A revolution for independence breaks out in Mexico.
1864 Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest leads 4,500 men out of Verona, Miss. to harass Union outposts in northern Alabama and Tennessee.
1889 Robert Younger, in Minnesota's Stillwater Penitentiary for life, dies of tuberculosis. Brothers Cole and Bob remain in the prison.
1893 Some 50,000 "Sooners" claim land in the Cherokee Strip during the first day of the Oklahoma land rush.
1908 General Motors files papers of incorporation.
1920 Thirty people are killed in a terrorist bombing in New York's Wall Street financial district.
1934 Anti-Nazi Lutherans stage protest in Munich.
1940 Congress passes the Selective Service Act, which calls for the first peacetime draft in U.S. history.
1942 The Japanese base at Kiska in the Aleutian Islands is raided by American bombers.
1945 Japan surrenders Hong Kong to Britain.
1950 The U.S. 8th Army breaks out of the Pusan Perimeter in South Korea and begins heading north to meet MacArthur's troops heading south from Inchon.
1972 South Vietnamese troops recapture Quang Tri province in South Vietnam from the North Vietnamese Army.
1974 Limited amnesty is offered to Vietnam-era draft resisters who would now swear allegiance to the United States and perform two years of public service.
1975 Administrators for Rhodes Scholarships announce the decision to begin offering fellowships to women.
1978 An earthquake estimated to be as strong as 7.9 on the Richter scale kills 25,000 people in Iran.
1991 The trial of Manuel Noriega, deposed dictator of Panama, begins in the United States.
1994 Britain's government lifts the 1988 broadcasting ban against member of Ireland's Sinn Fein and Irish paramilitary groups.
2007 Military contractors in the employ of Blackwater Worldwide allegedly kill 17 Iraqis in Baghdad's Nisour Square, further straining relations between the US and the people of Iraq.


Born on September 16

1838 James J. Hill, railroad builder.
1875 James Cash Penney, founder and owner of the J.C. Penny Company department stores.
1885 Karen Horney, psychoanalyst who exposed the male bias in the Freudian analysis of women.
1891 Karl Doenitz, German Admiral who succeeded Hitler in governing Germany.
1893 Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, biochemist who isolated vitamin C.
1925 Charlie Byrd, jazz guitarist.
1925 B.B. King, blues guitarist.
1926 John Knowles, writer; won first-ever William Faulkner Foundation Award (A Separate Peace, 1961).
1927 Peter Falk, actor, best known for his role as detective Columbo in the TV series of the same name.
1943 James Alan McPherson, author; first African American to win Pulitzer Prize for fiction (Elbow Room, 1978).
1948 Rosemary Casals, pro tennis player whose efforts to gain greater equality for women in the sport led to many changes.
1950 Henry Louis Gates Jr., critic and scholar.
1952 Mickey Rourke, actor, screenwriter, professional boxer; won Golden Globe (The Wrestler, 2009).
1954 Earl Klugh, jazz guitarist.
1956 David Copperfield, magician.

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Today in History

September 17

1630 The town of Boston is founded by John Winthrop as an extension of the colony at Salem. It is named after the town of the same name in Lincolnshire, England.
1787 The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia approves the constitution for the United States of America.
1796 President George Washington delivers his "Farewell Address" to Congress before concluding his second term in office.
1862 The Battle of Antietam in Maryland, the bloodiest day in U.S. history, commences. Fighting in the corn field, Bloody Lane and Burnside's Bridge rages all day as the Union and Confederate armies suffer a combined 26,293 casualties.
1868 The Battle of Beecher's Island begins, in which Major George "Sandy" Forsyth and 50 volunteers hold off 500 Sioux and Cheyenne in eastern Colorado.
1902 U.S. troops are sent to Panama to keep train lines open over the isthmus as Panamanian nationals struggle for independence from Colombia.
1903 Turks destroy the town of Kastoria in Bulgaria, killing 10,000 civilians.
1916 Germany's "Red Baron," Manfred von Richthofen, wins his first aerial combat.
1917 The German Army recaptures the Russian Port of Riga from Russian forces.
1939 With the German army already attacking western Poland, the Soviet Union launches an invasion of eastern Poland.
1942 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill meets with Soviet Premier Josef Stalin in Moscow as the German Army rams into Stalingrad.
1944 British airborne troops parachute into Holland to capture the Arnhem bridge as part of Operation Market-Garden. The plan called for the airborne troops to be relieved by British troops, but they were left stranded and eventually surrendered to the Germans.
1947 James Forestall is sworn in as first the U.S. Secretary of Defense.
1957 The Thai army seizes power in Bangkok.
1959 The X-15 rocket plane makes its first flight.
1962 The first federal suit to end public school segregation is filed by the U.S. Justice Department.
1976 The Space Shuttle is unveiled to the public.
1978 Egypt and Israel sign the Camp David Accords.
1980 Nationwide independent trade union Solidarity established in Poland.
1983 Vanessa Williams becomes the first black Miss America; relinquished crown early after scandal over nude photos.
2001 The New York Stock Exchange reopens for the first time since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers; longest period of closure since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
2006 Alaska's Fourpeaked Mountain erupts for the first time in at least 10,000 years.
2011 Occupy Wall Street movement calling for greater social and economic equality begins in New York City's Zuccotti Park, coining the phrase "We are the 99%."



Born on September 17

1743 Marquis Marie Jean de Condorcet, French mathematician and philosopher, a leading thinker in the Enlightenment.
1879 Andrew "Rube" Foster, father of the Negro baseball leagues.
1883 William Carlos Williams, poet, playwright, essayist and writer who won a Pulitzer prize for Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems.
1907 Warren E. Burger, chief justice of the Supreme Court.
1923 Hank Williams, Sr., influential Country singer, songwriter and guitarist ("Lonesome Blues," "Your Cheatin' Heart".)
1935 Ken Kesey, author (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Sometimes a Great Notion).
1947 Jeff MacNelly, political cartoonist, creator of the comic strip Shoe.
1948 John Ritter, actor, comedian (Three's Company TV series).
1953 Steve Williams, drummer and songwriter with influential Welch heavy metal group Budgie.
1953 Altaf Hussain, founder and leader of Pakistan's Muttahida Qaumi Movement.
1968 Marie-Chantal, Crown Princess of Greece.

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Today in History

September 18

1758 James Abercromby is replaced as supreme commander of British forces after his defeat by French commander the Marquis of Montcalm at Fort Ticonderoga during the French and Indian War.
1759 Quebec surrenders to the British after a battle which sees the deaths of both James Wolfe and Louis Montcalm, the British and French commanders.
1793 George Washington lays the foundation stone for the U.S. Capitol.
1830 Tom Thumb, the first locomotive built in the United States, loses a nine-mile race in Maryland to a horse.
1850 Congress passes the second Fugitive Slave Bill into law (the first was enacted in 1793), requiring the return of escaped slaves to their owners.
1862 After waiting all day for a Union attack which never came at Antietam, Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins a retreat out of Maryland and back to Virginia.
1863 Union cavalry troops clash with a group of Confederates at Chickamauga Creek.
1874 The Nebraska Relief and Aid Society is formed to help farmers whose crops were destroyed by grasshoppers swarming throughout the American West.
1911 Russian Premier Piotr Stolypin dies four days after being shot at the Kiev opera house by socialist lawyer Dimitri Bogroff.
1914 The Irish Home Rule Bill becomes law, but is delayed until after World War I.
1929 Charles Lindbergh takes off on a 10,000 mile air tour of South America.
1934 The League of Nations admits the Soviet Union.
1939 A German U-boat sinks the British aircraft carrier Courageous, killing 500 people.
1948 Margaret Chase Smith becomes the first woman elected to the Senate without completing another senator's term when she defeats Democratic opponent Adrian Scolten. Smith is also the only woman to be elected to and serve in both houses of Congress.
1960 Two thousand cheer Castro's arrival in New York for the United Nations session.
1961 UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold is killed in a plane crash while attempting to negotiate peace in the Congo.
1964 U.S. destroyers fire on hostile targets in Vietnam.
1973 East and West Germany and The Bahamas are admitted to United Nations.
1975 Patty Hearst, granddaughter of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped by violent radical group SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army); she later took part in some of the group's militant activities, is captured by FBI agents.
1977 Voyager I takes first photo of Earth and the Moon together.
1980 Cosmonaut Arnoldo Tamayo, a Cuban, becomes the first black to be sent on a mission in space.
1998 ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is formed to coordinate unique identifying addresses for Websites worldwide.
2009 The US television soap opera The Guiding Light broadcasts its final episode, ending a 72-year run that began on radio.


Born on September 18

1709 Samuel Johnson, English lexicographer, essayist, poet and moralist.
1819 Leon Foucault, French physicist.
1827 John Towsend Trowbridge, poet and author of books for boys, wrote the Jack Hazzard and Toby Trafford series.
1839 John Aitken, physician and meterologist.
1895 John G. Diefenbaker, prime minister of Canada from 1957 to 1963.
1905 Greta Garbo, actress nominated for Oscars for her roles in Anna Christie and Ninotcha.
1908 Viktor Hambardzumyan, a Soviet Armenian scientist who was among the founders of theoretical astrophysics.
1912 Maria de la Cruz, journalist, woman's suffrage advocate; the first woman ever elected to Chile's Senate (1953).
1923 Queen Anne of Romania.
1926 Joe Kubert, comic book artist (Sgt. Rock, Hawkman), inducted into Harvey Awards' Jack Kirby Hall of Fame (1907) and Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame (1998); founder of The Kubert School.
1939 Frankie Avalon, singer ("Venus") , actor (The Alamo), playwright; teen idol of 1950s-60s.
1951 Dr. Benjamin Solomon Carson, Sr., African-American neurosurgeon.
1961 James Gandolfini, actor; won three Emmys, two Golden Globes and three Screen Actors Guild Awards (crime boss Tony Soprano in The Sopranos).
1971 Lance Armstrong (Lance Gunderson), cyclist; won record 7 Tour De France titles but was stripped of them and banned from competitive cycling for life after it was determined he had used performance-enhancing drugs.

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Today in History

September 19
1356 In a landmark battle of the Hundred Years' War, English Prince Edward defeats the French at Poitiers.
1544 Francis, the king of France, and Charles V of Austria sign a peace treaty in Crespy, France, ending a 20-year war.
1692 Giles Corey is pressed to death for standing mute and refusing to answer charges of witchcraft brought against him. He is the only person in America to have suffered this punishment.
1777 American forces under Gen. Horatio Gates meet British troops led by Gen. John Burgoyne at Saratoga Springs, NY.
1783 The first hot-air balloon is sent aloft in Versailles, France with animal passengers including a sheep, rooster and a duck.
1788 Charles de Barentin becomes lord chancellor of France.
1841 The first railway to span a frontier is completed between Stousbourg and Basle, in Europe.
1863 In Georgia, the two-day Battle of Chickamauga begins as Union troops under George Thomas clash with Confederates under Nathan Bedford Forrest.
1893 New Zealand becomes the first nation to grant women the right to vote.
1900 President Loubet of France pardons Jewish army captain Alfred Dreyfus, twice court-martialed and wrongly convicted of spying for Germany.
1918 American troops of the Allied North Russia Expeditionary Force receive their baptism of fire near the town of Seltso against Soviet forces.
1948 Moscow announces it will withdrawal soldiers from Korea by the end of the year.
1955 Argentina's President Juan Peron is overthrown by rebels.
1957 First underground nuclear test is takes place in Nevada.
1970 First Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Artis (originally called the Pilton Festival) held near Pliton, Somerset, England.
1973 Carl XVI Gustaf invested as King of Sweden, following the death of his grandfather King Gustaf VI Adolf.
1982 The first documented emoticons, :-) and :-(, posted on Carnegie Mellon University Bulletin Board System by Scott Fahlman.
1985 An earthquake kills thousands in Mexico City.
1985 Parents Music Resource Center formed by Tipper Gore (wife of then-Senator Al Gore) and other political wives to lobby for Parental Advisory stickers on music packaging.
1991 German hikers near the Austria-Italy border discover the naturally preserved mummy of a man from about 3,300 BC; Europe's oldest natural human mummy, he is dubbed Otzi the Iceman because his lower half was encased in ice.
2006 Military coup in Bangkok, revokes Thailand's constitution and establishes martial law.


Born on September 19

1894 Rachel Field, novelist and playwright who wrote All This and Heaven Too and And Now Tomorrow.
1904 Bergen Evans, educator and author who wrote Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage.
1911 William Golding, novelist best known for Lord of the Flies.
1915 Elizabeth Stern, Canadian pathologist who first published a case report linking a specific virus to a specific cancer.
1926 Masatoshi Koshiba, Japanese physicist who jointly won the Nobel Prize in Physics (2002); his work focused on subatomic particles known as neutrinos.
1927 Helen Carter, singer, member of the pioneering all-female country group Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters.
1928 Adam West, actor (Batman in campy Batman TV series).
1930 Bettye Lane, photographer noted for documenting major events of the feminist, civil rights and gay rights movements in the US.
1932 Mike Royko, journalist, syndicated columnist; won Pulitzer Prize for commentary (1972).
1933 David McCallum, actor, musician (The Man from U.N.C.L.E, NCIS TV series).
1934 Brian Epstein, music entrepreneur, manager of the The Beatles.
1940 Paul Williams, composer, singer, songwriter, director, actor ("Evergreen," "Rainy Days and Mondays").
1947 Tanith Lee, author, screenwriter; first woman to win British Fantasy best novel award (Death's Master, 1980).
1948 Jeremy Irons, actor; won Tony Award for Best Actor (The Real Thing, 1984) and Academy Award for Best Actor (Reversal of Fortune, 1990).
1949 Twiggy, model known for her thin build and androgynous look .
1949 Barry Sheck, co-founder of Innocence Project dedicated to using DNA testing to exonerate wrongly convicted people.
1950 Joan Lunden, journalist, author, co-host of ABC's Good Morning America for 17 years (1980–1997).
1964 Trisha Yearwood, Grammy and Country Music Association award-winning singer-songwriter ("How Do I Live"), actress (JAG TV series recurring role).
1974 Jimmy Fallon, actor, comedian, musician, TV host (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon; currently scheduled to replace Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show in 2014).

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Today in History

September 20

480 BC Themistocles and his Greek fleet win one of history's first decisive naval victories over Xerxes' Persian force off Salamis.
1378 The election of Robert of Geneva as anti-pope by discontented cardinals creates a great schism in the Catholic church.
1519 Ferdinand Magellan embarks from Spain on a voyage to circumnavigate the world.
1561 Queen Elizabeth of England signs a treaty at Hamptan Court with French Huguenot leader Louis de Bourbon, the Prince of Conde. The English will occupy Le Harve in return for aiding Bourbon against the Catholics of France.
1565 Pedro Menendez of Spain wipes out the French at Fort Caroline, in Florida.
1604 After a two-year siege, the Spanish retake Ostend, the Netherlands, from the Dutch.
1784 Packet and Daily, the first daily publication in America, appears on the streets.
1806 Explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark pass the French village of La Charette, the first white settlement they have seen in more than two years.
1830 The National Negro Convention convenes in Philadelphia with the purpose of abolishing slavery.
1850 The slave trade is abolished in the District of Columbia.
1853 The Allies defeat the Russians at the battle of Alma on the Crimean Peninsula.
1863 Union troops under George Thomas prevent the Union defeat at Chickamauga from becoming a rout, earning him the nickname "the Rock of Chickamauga."
1934 Bruno Hauptmann arrested for the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby.
1952 Scientists confirm that DNA holds hereditary data.
1971 Hurricane Irene becomes the first hurricane known to cross from the Atlantic to Pacific, where it is renamed Hurricane Olivia.
1973 In a pro tennis bout dubbed "The Battle of the Sexes," Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs at the Houston Astrodome in Texas.
1977 Socialist Republic of Vietnam admitted to the United Nations.
1984 Suicide car bomber attacks US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 22.
1985 Australia introduces a capital gains tax.
1990 South Ossetia declares its independence from George in the former Soviet Union.
2000 British MI6 Secret intelligence Service building in London attacked by unidentified group using RPG-22 anti-tank missile.
2001 US Pres. George W. Bush, addressing a joint session of Congress, declares a "war on terror.".
2008 A truck loaded with explosives detonates by Marriott hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing 45 and injuring 226.
2011 US military ends its "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and allows gay men and women to serve openly.


Born on September 20

1833 Petroleum V. Nasby (David Ross Locke), humorist whose work was enjoyed by Abraham Lincoln.
1842 Lord James Dewar, physician who invented the vacuum flask and cordite, the first smokeless powder.
1878 Upton Sinclair, author best known today for The Jungle.
1884 Maxwell Perkins, editor, the first to publish F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe.
1885 Ferdinand Lamenthe (Jelly Roll Morton), jazz pianist, composer and singer, one of the first to orchestrate jazz music.
1891 Lamine Gueye, Senegalese political leader.
1917 Arnold "Red" Auerbach, second winningest basketball coach in history with 1,037 victories for the Boston Celtics.
1920 Jay Ward, creator and producer of animated TV cartoons (Rocky & His Friends, renamed The Bullwinkle Show; George of the Jungle).
1934 Sofia Loren (Sofia Scicolone), first actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for a performance in a non-English language film (Two Women); received Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievements (1995.
1941 Dale Chihuly, sculptor known for his unique creations in blown glass.
1967 Kristen Johnston, actress; won two Emmy Awards as Sally Solomon in 3rd Rock from the Sun TV series.

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Today in History

September 21

454 In Italy, Aetius, the supreme army commander, is murdered in Ravenna by Valentinian III, the emperor of the West.
1327 Edward II of England is murdered by order of his wife.
1520 Suleiman (the Magnificent), son of Selim, becomes Ottoman sultan in Constantinople.
1589 The Duke of Mayenne of France is defeated by Henry IV at the Battle of Arques.
1673 James Needham returns to Virginia after exploring the land to the west, which would become Tennessee.
1745 A Scottish Jacobite army commanded by Lord George Murray routs the Royalist army of General Sir John Cope at Prestonpans.
1863 Union troops defeated at Chickamauga seek refuge in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which is then besieged by Confederate troops.
1904 Exiled Nez Perce leader Chief Joseph dies of a "broken heart".
1915 Stonehenge is sold by auction for 6,600 pounds sterling ($11,500) to a Mr. Chubb, who buys it as a present for his wife. He presents it to the British nation three years later.
1929 Fighting between China and the Soviet Union breaks out along the Manchurian border.
1936 The German army holds its largest maneuvers since 1914.
1937 The women's airspeed record is set at 292 mph by American pilot Jacqueline Cochran.
1937 J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Hobbit is published.
1941 The German Army cuts off the Crimean Peninsula from the rest of the Soviet Union.
1942 British forces attack the Japanese in Burma.
1944 U.S. troops of the 7th Army, invading Southern France, cross the Meuse River.
1978 Two Soviet cosmonauts set a space endurance record after 96 days in space.
1981 Belize granted full independence from the United Kingdom.
1989 General Colin Powell is confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
1991 Armenia granted independence from USSR.
1993 The Russian constitutional crisis of 1993 begins when Russian President Boris Yeltsin suspends parliament and invalidates the existing constitution.
1999 Earthquake in Taiwan kills more than 2,400, injures over 11,305, and causes $300 billion New Taiwan dollars ($10 billion in US dollars).
2003 Galileo space mission ends as the probe is sent into Jupiter's atmosphere where it is crushed.


Born on September 21

1756 John Loudon McAdam, engineer who invented and gave his name to macadamized roads.
1866 Charles Jean Henri Nicolle, bacteriologist, discovered that typhus fever is transmitted by body louse.
1866 H.G. Wells, science fiction writer whose works include The Time Machine, The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds.
1895 Juan de la Cierva, aeronautical engineer who invented the autogyro.
1902 Allen Lake, founded Penguin Books in 1935.
1912 Chuck Jones, animator and director of Warner Brothers cartoons.
1947 Stephen King, author best known for supernatural and horror tales (The Stand, Salem's Lot, Joyland).
1947 Marsha Norman, playwright (Getting Out, 'Night Mother).
1950 Bill Murray, actor; won Emmy for his work on Saturday Night Live TV series; movies include Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, Lost in Translation.
1951 Aslan Aliyevich Maskhadov, rebel leader widely credited for the Chechen victory in First Chechen War (1994-96); President of Chechnya (1997-99).
1957 Mark Levin, attorney, author; host of syndicated radio program The Mark Levin Show.
1968 Faith Hill, Grammy Award-winning country pop singer ("Breathe").
1968 Ricki Lake, actress (China Beach TV series), producer, host of The Ricki Lake Show TV talk show for which she won a Daytime Emmy.
1987 Ashley and Courtney Paris, twins who played in the Women's National Basketball Association, Ashley for the Los Angeles Sparks, Courtney for the Atlanta Dream.

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Today in History
September 22

1656 The General Provincial Court in session at Patuxent, Maryland, impanels the first all-woman jury in the Colonies to hear evidence against Judith Catchpole, who is accused of murdering her child. The jury acquits her after hearing her defense of never having been pregnant.
1711 The Tuscarora Indian War begins with a massacre of settlers in North Carolina, following white encroachment that included the enslaving of Indian children.
1776 American Captain Nathan Hale is hanged as a spy by the British in New York City; his last words are reputed to have been, "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country."
1789 Russian forces under Aleksandr Suvorov drive the Turkish army under Yusuf Pasha from the Rymnik River, upsetting the Turkish invasion of Russia.
1862 President Lincoln issues a proclamation calling for all slaves within the rebel states to be freed on January 1, a political move that helps keep the British from intervening on the side of the South.
1864 Union General Philip Sheridan defeats Confederate General Jubal Early's troops at the Battle of Fisher's Hill in Virginia.
1869 The Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first professional baseball team, arrive in San Francisco after a rollicking, barnstorming tour of the West.
1893 Bicycle makers Charles and Frank Duryea show off the first American automobile produced for sale to the public by taking it on a maiden run through the streets of Springfield, Massachusetts.
1906 Race riots in Atlanta, Georgia leave 21 people dead.
1914 The German cruiser Emden shells Madras, India, destroying 346,000 gallons of fuel and killing only five civilians.
1915 Xavier University, the first African-American Catholic college, opens in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1918 General Allenby leads the British army against the Turks, taking Haifa and Nazareth, Palestine.
1919 President Woodrow Wilson abandons his national tour to support the League of Nations when he suffers a case of nervous exhaustion.
1929 Communist and Nazi factions clash in Berlin.
1945 President Truman accepts U.S. Secretary of War Stimson's recommendation to designate the war World War II.
1947 A Douglas C-54 Skymaster makes the first automatic pilot flight over the Atlantic.
1961 President John Kennedy signs a congressional act establishing the Peace Corps.
1969 Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants becomes the first baseball player since Babe Ruth to hit 600 home runs.
1970 President Richard M. Nixon signs a bill giving the District of Columbia representation in the U.S. Congress.
1975 Sara Jane Moore attempts to assassinate US President Gerald Ford, the second attempt on his life in less than three weeks.
1980 The Iran-Iraq War begins as Iraq invades Iran; lasting until August 1988, it was the longest conventional war of the 20th century.
1991 Huntington Library makes the Dead Sea Scrolls available to the public for the first time.

Born on September 22

1515 Anne of Cleeves (born in Cleeves, Germany), fourth wife of Henry the VIII.
1694 Philip Dormer Stanhope, statesman of letters.
1788 Theodore Hook, English novelist best known for Impromptu at Fulham.
1791 Michael Faraday, English physicist, inventor of the dynamo, the transformer and the electric motor.
1885 Erich Von Stroheim, director, actor and screenwriter best known for Greed.
1902 John Houseman, director, producer and actor.
1909 David Reisman, sociologist, author of The Lonely Crowd.
1927 Tommy Lasorda, manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team from 1975 to 1996.
1933 Fay Weldon, author (The Life and Loves of a She-Devil).
1939 Junko Tabei, Japanese mountain climber; first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
1949 James "Hoss" Cartwright, US Marine Corps general; commander of US Strategic Command 2004-07.
1956 Debby Boone, multiple Grammy Award–winning singer, author, actress; "You Light Up My Life" set a a record in 1977 with 10 weeks at the No. 1 spot on music charts.
1958 Joan Jett, singer, songwriter, musician, producer, actress ("I Love Rock 'n' Roll").
1959 Saul Perimutter, astrophysicist; shared 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for providing evidence the expansion of the universe is accelerating.
1971 Princess Martha Louise of Norway.

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Today in History
September 30

1399 Richard II is deposed.
1568 Eric XIV, king of Sweden, is deposed after showing signs of madness.
1630 John Billington, one of the original pilgrims who sailed to the New World on the Mayflower, becomes the first man executed in the English colonies. He is hanged for having shot another man during a quarrel
1703 The French, at Hochstadt in the War of the Spanish Succession, suffer only 1,000 casualties to the 11,000 of their opponents, the Austrians of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I.
1791 Mozart's opera The Magic Flute is performed for the first time in Vienna
1846 The first anesthetized tooth extraction is performed by Dr. William Morton in Charleston, Massachusetts.
1864 Confederate troops fail to retake Fort Harrison from the Union forces during the siege of Petersburg.
1911 Italy declares war on Turkey over control of Tripoli.
1918 Bulgaria pulls out of World War I.
1927 Babe Ruth hits his 60th homerun of the season off Tom Zachary in Yankee Stadium, New York City.
1935 George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess opens at the Colonial Theatre in Boston.
1938 Under German threats of war, Britain, France, Germany and Italy sign an accord permitting Germany to take control of Sudetenland–a region of Czechoslovakia inhabited by a German-speaking minority.
1939 The French Army is called back into France from its invasion of Germany. The attack, code named Operation Saar, only penetrated five miles.
1943 The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps becomes the Women's Army Corps, a regular contingent of the U.S. Army with the same status as other army service corps.
1949 The Berlin Airlift is officially halted after 277,264 flights.
1950 U.N. forces cross the 38th parallel separating North and South Korea as they pursue the retreating North Korean Army.
1954 The first atomic-powered submarine, the Nautilus, is commissioned in Groton, Connecticut.
1954 NATO nations agree to arm and admit West Germany.
1955 Actor and teen idol James Dean is killed in a car crash while driving his Porsche on his way to enter it into a race in Salinas, California.
1960 Fifteen African nations are admitted to the United Nations.
1962 U.S. Marshals escort James H. Meredith into the University of Mississippi; two die in the mob violence that follows.
1965 President Lyndon Johnson signs legislation that establishes the National Foundation for the Arts and the Humanities.
1965 The 30 September Movement unsuccessfully attempts coup against Indonesian government; an anti-communist purge in the aftermath results in over 500,000 deaths.
1966 Bechuanaland ceases to be a British protectorate and becomes the independent Republic of Botswana.
1972 Pro baseball great Roberto Clemente hits his 3,000th—and final—hit of his career.
1975 The AH-64 Apache attack helicopter makes its first flight.
1994 Aldwych tube station (originally Strand Station) of the London Underground transit system closes after 88 years.
1999 Japan's second-worst nuclear accident occurs at a uranium processing facility in Tokai-mura, killing two technicians.
2009 Earthquakes in Sumatra kill more than 1,115 people.


Born on September 30

1861 William Wrigley, Jr., founder of the Wrigley chewing gum empire and owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team.
1863 Reinhard von Scheer, German admiral who commanded the German fleet at the Battle of Jutland.
1908 David Oistrakh, violinist.
1924 Truman Capote, author and playwright whose works include Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood.
1927 W.S. Mervin, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet.
1928 Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, writer, best known for his first book Night about his own experiences in concentration camps.
1935 Johnny Mathis, singer.
1941 Samuel F. Pickering Jr., unconventional professor of English at the University of Connecticut in Storrs who was the inspiration for the character of Mr. Keating in the movie Dead Poets Society.
1955 Andy Bechtolsheim, engineer; co-founder of Sun Microsystems.
1958 Marty Stuart, singer, songwriter, musician ("Hillbilly Rock"); joined the renowned Lester Flatt's Nashville Grass bluegrass group at age 14; at this writing he hosts The Marty Stuart Show on RFD-TV.
1974 Daniel Wu, Chinese-American actor, director, producer (City of Glass).