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On this day: September 12

2024-09-12T00:00:00Z

September 12

Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning

379 – Yax Nuun Ahiin I took the throne as the ruler (ajaw) of the Mayan city of Tikal.
1846 – The English poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (both pictured) married in secret to avoid their disapproving families before moving to Italy.
1933 – Hungarian-American physicist Leo Szilard conceived of the idea of the nuclear chain reaction while waiting for a traffic light in Bloomsbury, London.
1948 – The People's Liberation Army launched the Liaoshen campaign, the first of the three major military campaigns during the late stage of the Chinese Civil War.
1995 – Hurricane Ismael formed off the southwest coast of Mexico; it went on to kill over a hundred people in the country.

Parsley Peel (d. 1795)
Alice Ayres (b. 1859)
Ion Agârbiceanu (b. 1882)
Steve Biko (d. 1977)

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On this day: September 13

2024-09-13T00:00:00Z

September 13

Model of the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus

509 BC – According to Roman tradition, the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus (depicted), the most important temple in ancient Rome, was dedicated.
1567 – The siege of Inabayama Castle, the final battle in Oda Nobunaga's campaign to conquer Mino Province, began; it culminated in a decisive victory for Nobunaga.
1919 – The Boston police strike ended after four days of rule by the state militia, the deaths of nine people, and accusations that striking officers were "agents of Lenin".
2005 – A software bug caused a simulated pandemic in the online video game World of Warcraft, serving as a model for epidemiologists to understand how human interaction influences disease outbreaks.

Kavad I (d. 531)
Laura Secord (b. 1775)
Arnold Schoenberg (b. 1874)
Louis Laybourne Smith (d. 1965)

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On this day: September 14

2024-09-14T00:00:00Z

September 14

HMAS AE1

AD 81 – Domitian, the last Flavian emperor of Rome, was confirmed by the Senate to succeed his brother Titus.
919 – Viking activity in the British Isles: A coalition of native Irish, led by Niall Glúndub, failed in their attempt to drive the Vikings of the Uí Ímair from Ireland.
1863 – American Civil War: The Little Rock campaign ended with the Union Army capturing Little Rock, Arkansas.
1914 – HMAS AE1 (pictured), the Royal Australian Navy's first submarine, was lost at sea; its wreck was not found until 2017.
1989 – Typhoon Sarah dissipated after causing extensive damage along an erratic path across the Western Pacific, killing 71 in Taiwan, the Philippines, and the Gotō Islands.

Drusus Julius Caesar (d. AD 23)
Luke P. Blackburn (d. 1887)
Romola Costantino (b. 1930)
Mamadou N'Diaye (b. 1993)

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On this day: September 15

2024-09-15T00:00:00Z

September 15: Battle of Britain Day in the United Kingdom (1940)

1831 illustration of the L&M Railway

1462 – The Ottoman conquest of Lesbos ended upon the surrender of commander Niccolò Gattilusio; the conquering Mehmed II executed 300 Italian soldiers by chopping them in half, claiming he was fulfilling a promise to "spare their heads".
1830 – The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&M) (depicted), the first locomotive-hauled railway to connect two major cities, opened with the Duke of Wellington in attendance.
1954 – The scene in The Seven Year Itch of Marilyn Monroe standing in a white dress over a subway grate was filmed by Billy Wilder.
2013 – The Belarusian serial killer Ivan Kulesh murdered two saleswomen in Lida.

Stanisław Poniatowski (b. 1676)
Ayscoghe Boucherett (d. 1815)
Algernon Lee (b. 1873)
Linnie Marsh Wolfe (d. 1945)

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On this day: September 16

2024-09-16T00:00:00Z

September 16

Western terminus of the Northern Xinjiang railway

681 – At the Third Council of Constantinople, Pope Honorius I was posthumously excommunicated, with his support for monothelitism deemed to be heretical.
1844 – Felix Mendelssohn completed the score of his Violin Concerto, his final concerto.
1979 – Eight people escaped from East Germany to West Germany in a home-made hot air balloon.
1990 – Construction of the Northern Xinjiang railway (terminus pictured) was completed between Ürümqi South and Alashankou, linking the railway lines of China and Kazakhstan and adding a sizeable portion to the Eurasian Land Bridge.

Vitalis of Savigny (d. 1122)
Elisabeth Bagréeff-Speransky (b. 1799)
Vesta Tilley (d. 1952)
Louis Ngwat-Mahop (b. 1987)

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On this day: September 17

2024-09-17T00:00:00Z

September 17: Mid-Autumn Festival in China (2024); Constitution Day in the United States

Emperor Norton

1382 – Following Louis I's death without a male heir, his daughter Mary was crowned with the title of King of Hungary.
1859 – Disgruntled with the legal and political structures of the United States, Joshua Norton (pictured) distributed letters to various newspapers in San Francisco proclaiming himself to be Emperor Norton.
1894 – John Hyrum Koyle, a controversial Mormon bishop, began excavating the Dream Mine, which he believed would provide financial support to members of the LDS Church.
1914 – Andrew Fisher, who in his previous term as premier oversaw a period of reform unmatched in the Commonwealth until the 1940s, became Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.

Li Jingsui (d. 958)
Marguerite Louise d'Orléans (d. 1721)
Periyar (b. 1879)
Hank Williams (b. 1923)

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On this day: September 18

2024-09-18T00:00:00Z

September 18

Interior of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden

AD 96 – Nerva, the first of the "Five Good Emperors" of ancient Rome, came to power following the assassination of his predecessor Domitian.
1809 – The second Theatre Royal, Covent Garden (interior pictured), opened in London after the original was destroyed by fire.
1875 – The Indianola hurricane dissipated over Mississippi after killing around eight hundred people in Texas.
1961 – An aircraft crashed near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia, resulting in the deaths of 16 people, including United Nations secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld.
1981 – While posing as an aristocrat, Belgian serial killer Nestor Pirotte murdered an antiques dealer in Brussels, for which crime he was sentenced to death.

Trajan (b. AD 53)
Liu Sheng (d. 958)
Betty Cantor-Jackson (b. 1948)
Jimi Hendrix (d. 1970)

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On this day: September 19

2024-09-19T00:00:00Z

September 19: International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Statue of Our Lady of La Salette

1692 – Salem witch trials: Giles Corey was crushed to death for refusing to enter a plea to charges of witchcraft, reportedly asking the sheriff for "more weight" during his execution.
1846 – Near La Salette-Fallavaux in southeastern France, shepherd children Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud reported a Marian apparition, now known as Our Lady of La Salette (statue pictured).
1940 – World War II: Polish resistance leader Witold Pilecki allowed himself to be captured by German forces and sent to Auschwitz to gather intelligence.
1970 – The first Glastonbury Festival was held at Michael Eavis's farm in Glastonbury, England.
1995 – Industrial Society and Its Future, the manifesto of American domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski, was published in The Washington Post almost three months after it was submitted.

Theodore of Tarsus (d. 690)
Paterson Clarence Hughes (b. 1917)
Judith Kanakuze (b. 1959)
Wu Zhonghua (d. 1992)

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On this day: September 20

2024-09-20T00:00:00Z

September 20

Great Buddha of Kamakura

1498 – A tsunami caused by the Meiō earthquake washed away the building housing the statue of the Great Buddha (pictured) at Kōtoku-in in Kamakura, Japan; the statue has since stood in the open air.
1792 – The French Army achieved its first major victory of the War of the First Coalition at the Battle of Valmy.
1967 – L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, announced the story of Xenu in a taped lecture sent to all Scientologists.
1997 – Hurricane Erika, the strongest and longest-lasting hurricane of the 1997 Atlantic hurricane season, dissipated after causing flooding and power outages throughout Puerto Rico.

Susanna Rubinstein (b. 1847)
Edith Rogers (b. 1894)
Davidson Nicol (d. 1994)
Victor Henry Anderson (d. 2001)

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On this day: September 21

2024-09-21T00:00:00Z

September 21: International Day of Peace

The Great Fire of New York

1170 – Norman invasion of Ireland: English and Irish forces conquered Dublin, forcing Ascall mac Ragnaill, the last Norse–Gaelic king of Dublin, into exile.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: The Great Fire of New York (depicted) broke out during the British occupation of New York City, destroying up to 1,000 buildings.
1918 – World War I: The Battle of Nazareth ended with the British Empire victorious over the Ottomans.
1958 – The first section of Interstate 80 in Iowa opened in the Des Moines metropolitan area.
2001 – Several British Muslim youths in Peterborough, England, murdered 17-year-old Ross Parker, leading to debate over whether the British media failed to cover racially-motivated crimes with white victims.

Andrew II of Hungary (d. 1235)
Barbara Longhi (b. 1552)
Kay Ryan (b. 1945)
Florence Griffith Joyner (d. 1998)

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