September 15: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

September 15 is the 258th day of the year (259th in leap years). There are 107 days remaining.

Events

• 608 - Saint Boniface IV becomes Pope.
• 921 - Saint Ludmila is murdered at the command of her daughter-in-law at Tetin.
• 1514 - Thomas Wolsey is appointed Archbishop of York.
• 1556 - Vlissingen ex-emperor Charles V returns to Spain.
• 1584 - San Lorenzo del Escorial Palace in Madrid is finished.
• 1590 - Giambattista Catagna is elected as Pope Urban VII.
• 1644 - Giambattista Pamfili becomes Pope Innocent X, succeeding Pope Urban VIII.
• 1656 - England & France sign peace treaty.
• 1683 - Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. is founded by 13 immigrant families.
• 1749 - According to mathematical calculations, Pluto moves outside Neptune's orbit to remain the outermost planet until 1979.
• 1776 - American Revolutionary War: British land at Kip's Bay during the New York Campaign.
• 1789 - The United States Department of State is established (formerly known as Department of Foreign Affairs).
• 1812 - The French army under Napoleon reaches the Kremlin in Moscow.
• 1821 - Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua jointly declare independence from Spain.
• 1830 - The Liverpool to Manchester railway line opens (see also deaths, below).
• 1831 - The locomotive John Bull operates for the first time in New Jersey on the Camden and Amboy Railroad.
• 1835 - The HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the Galápagos Islands.
• 1851 - Saint Joseph's University is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• 1857 - Timothy Alder patents the typesetting machine.
• 1862 - American Civil War: Confederate forces capture Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
• 1873 - Franco-Prussian War: The last German troops leave France upon completion of payment of indemnity.
• 1883 - The Bombay Natural History Society is founded in Bombay (now Mumbai), India.
• 1894 - First Sino-Japanese War: Japan defeats China in the Battle of Ping Yang.
• 1914 - World War I: The Battle of Aisne begins between Germany and France.
• 1916 - World War I: Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme.
• 1928 - Sir Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.
• 1928 - Tich Freeman becomes the only bowler to take 300 wickets in an English cricket season.
• 1931 - In Scotland, the two-day Invergordon Mutiny against Royal Navy pay cuts begins.
• 1935 - Nuremberg Laws deprive German Jews of citizenship.
• 1935 - Nazi Germany adopts a new national flag with the swastika.
• 1940 - World War II: The Battle of Britain ends with a Royal Air Force victory over the Luftwaffe.
• 1941 - The U.S. Attorney General rules that the Neutrality Act is not violated when U.S. ships carry war materiel to British territories, opening the door for the Lend-Lease Act.
• 1942 - World War II: The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Wasp is torpedoed at Guadalcanal.

• 1944 - Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet in Quebec as part of the Octagon Conference to discuss strategy.
• 1945 - A hurricane in southern Florida and the Bahamas destroys 366 planes and 25 blimps at NAS Richmond.
• 1946 - Baseball: The Brooklyn Dodgers are beating the Chicago Cubs, 2-0, in the 5th inning when a swarm of gnats causes the game to be postponed.
• 1947 - RCA releases the 12AX7 vacuum tube.
• 1948 - The F-86 Sabre sets the world aircraft speed record at 1080 km/h.
• 1949 - The television series The Lone Ranger premieres on the ABC.
• 1950 - Korean War: United States forces land at Incheon, Korea.
• 1951 - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes closes on Broadway in New York City after 740 performances.
• 1952 - United Nations gives Eritrea to Ethiopia.
• 1954 - The U.S. Postal Service issues its 2¢ Thomas Jefferson Liberty Series stamp.
• 1955 - The I Love Lucy episode featuring John Wayne premieres.
• 1957 - West Germany holds its third parliamentary election. Konrad Adenauer remains chancellor.
• 1958 - A New Jersey commuter train crashes through a drawbridge, killing 48.
• 1959 - Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet leader to visit the United States.
• 1961 - Hurricane Carla strikes Texas with winds of 175 miles per hour.
• 1962 - The Soviet ship Poltava heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis.
• 1963 - The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing kills four children at an African-American church in Birmingham, Alabama, United States.
• 1964 - The Beatles play at a public auditorium in Cleveland, Ohio, United States.
• 1964 - The Sun newspaper launches, replacing the Daily Herald.
• 1965 - The television series Lost in Space premieres.
• 1966 - The spaceship Gemini XI, with astronauts Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon aboard, returns to earth.
• 1967 - Former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to the United States Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation.
• 1968 - The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.
• 1969 - Baseball: St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Steve Carlton sets a record by striking out 19 New York Mets in a single game.
• 1971 - Baseball: In a game against the Houston Astros, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit his 636th home run, tying Mickey Mantle for third spot on the career home runs list.
• 1972 - A magnitude 4.5 earthquake shakes Northern Illinois.
• 1973 - Secretariat wins the Marlboro Cup in world record time.
• 1974 - Air Vietnam flight 727 is hijacked, then crashes while attempting to land with 75 on board.
• 1975 - The French department of Corse (the entire island of Corsica) is divided into two: Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud.
• 1975 - Pink Floyd releases the album Wish You Were Here in the US and UK.
• 1976 - Soyuz 22 carries two cosmonauts into earth orbit for eight days.
• 1978 - Muhammad Ali beats Leon Spinks for the world heavyweight boxing title.
• 1980 - Paul McCartney releases "Temporary Secretary".
• 1981 - The United States Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves Sandra Day O'Connor to the United States Supreme Court.
• 1981 - The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution operates it under its own power outside Washington, DC.
• 1982 - The first issue of USA Today is published by Gannett.
• 1983 - Israeli premier Menachem Begin resigns.
• 1985 - Willie Nelson's Farm Aid concert begins.
• 1986 - First broadcast of the TV show LA Law on NBC.
• 1987 - U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze sign a treaty to establish centers to reduce the risk of nuclear war.
• 1988 - Lillehammer, Norway, beats Anchorage, Alaska, United States, to host the 1994 Winter Olympics.
• 1989 - The U.S. Congress recognizes Terry Anderson's continued captivity in Beirut.
• 1990 - France announces it will send 4,000 troops to the Persian Gulf.
• 1993 - Liechtenstein Prince Hans-Adam II disbands parliament.
• 1994 - Muslim fundamentalists kidnap & behead 16 people in Algeria.
• 1997 - Norwegian parliamentary election, 1997
• 1997 - Hastings Wise murders four at the R.E. Phelon Company lawn mower parts manufacturing factory in Aiken, South Carolina. The only possible motive for the murders was Hastings' dismissal from his job eleven weeks earlier.
• 1998 - WorldCom and MCI Communications finish their landmark merger, forming MCI WorldCom which would later be renamed WorldCom and become the largest bankruptcy in United States history.
• 2000 - The 27th Summer Olympics opens in Sydney, Australia.
• 2001 - Alex Zanardi, driving in a CART race is injured in Germany, resulting in both legs being amputated below the knee.
• 2004 - Davíð Oddsson the longest serving Prime Minister of Iceland, steps down after serving in office from 1991, and becomes minister for foreign affairs. At the time he was the longest serving PM in Europe
• 2005 - Kenny Chesney and Renee Zellwegger file for divorce after four months of marriage.

• 973 - Al-Biruni, mathematician (d. 1048)
• 1254 - Marco Polo, Italian explorer (d. 1324)
• 1580 - Charles Annibal Fabrot, French lawyer (d. 1659)
• 1613 - François de La Rochefoucauld, French writer (d. 1680)
• 1649 - Titus Oates, English minister and plotter (d. 1705)
• 1715 - Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, French artillery specialist (d. 1789)
• 1789 - James Fenimore Cooper, American novelist (d. 1851)
• 1828 - Aleksandr Mikhailovich Butlerov, Russian chemist (d. 1886)
• 1857 - William Howard Taft, President of the United States and Supreme Court Justice (d. 1930)
• 1876 - Bruno Walter, German conductor (d. 1962)
• 1879 - Joseph Lyons, tenth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1939)
• 1881 - Ettore Bugatti, Italian automobile engineer and designer (d. 1947)
• 1883 - Esteban Terradas i Illa, Catalan mathematician, scientist, and engineer (d. 1950)
• 1889 - Robert Benchley, American author (d. 1945)
• 1890 - Agatha Christie, English writer (d. 1976)
• 1890 - Frank Martin, Swiss composer (d. 1974)
• 1894 - Jean Renoir, French film director (d. 1979)
• 1894 - Oskar Klein, Swedish physicist (d. 1977)
• 1898 - J. Slauerhoff, Dutch poet and novelist (d. 1936)
• 1901 - Sir Donald Bailey, British engineer (d. 1985)
• 1903 - Roy Acuff, American musician (d. 1992)
• 1904 - King Umberto II of Italy (d. 1983)
• 1907 - Fay Wray, Canadian-born actress (d. 2004)
• 1908 - Penny Singleton, American actress (d. 2003)
• 1913 - John N. Mitchell, United States Attorney General and convicted Watergate criminal (d. 1988)
• 1914 - Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentine writer (d. 1999)
• 1922 - Jackie Cooper, American actor and director
• 1924 - Bobby Short, American musician (d. 2005)
• 1926 - Jean-Pierre Serre, French mathematician
• 1928 - Cannonball Adderley, American saxophonist and bandleader (d. 1975)
• 1929 - Eva Burrows, Salvation Army general
• 1929 - Murray Gell-Mann, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1933 - Henry Darrow, American actor
• 1933 - Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Spanish conductor
• 1937 - Robert Lucas, Jr., American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1938 - Gaylord Perry, baseball player
• 1940 - Merlin Olsen, American football player and actor
• 1941 - Flórián Albert, Hungarian footballer
• 1946 - Tommy Lee Jones, American actor
• 1946 - Oliver Stone, American film director
• 1949 - Joe Barton, American politician
• 1951 - Johan Neeskens, Dutch football player
• 1961 - Dan Marino, American football player
• 1969 - Jim Curtiss, American writer
• 1976 - Paul Thomson, Scottish drummer (Franz Ferdinand)
• 1978 - Eidur Gudjohnsen, Icelandic footballer
• 1979 - Amy Davidson, American actress
• 1984 - Prince Harry of Wales

• 1500 - John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury
• 1596 - Leonhard Rauwolf, German physician and botanist (b. 1535)
• 1613 - Thomas Overbury, English writer (murdered) (b. 1581)
• 1643 - Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, Irish politician (b. 1566)
• 1649 - John Floyd, English Jesuit preacher (b. 1572)
• 1700 - André Le Nôtre, French landscape architect (b. 1613)
• 1701 - Edmé Boursault, French writer (b. 1638)
• 1707 - George Stepney, English poet and diplomat (b. 1663)
• 1712 - Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin, English politician
• 1750 - Charles Theodore Pachelbel, German composer (b. 1690)
• 1794 - Abraham Clark, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1725)
• 1803 - Gian Francesco Albani, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1719)
• 1830 - William Huskisson, first rail fatality
• 1842 - Pierre Baillot, French violinist and composer (b. 1771)
• 1859 - Isambard Kingdom Brunel, British engineer (b. 1806)
• 1864 - John Hanning Speke, British explorer (b. 1827)
• 1883 - Joseph Plateau, Belgian physicist (b. 1801)
• 1885 - Jumbo, P. T. Barnum's circus elephant (hit by a train)
• 1893 - Thomas Hawksley, English civil engineer (b. 1807)
• 1926 - Rudolf Christoph Eucken, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1846)
• 1930 - Milton Sills, American actor (b. 1882)
• 1945 - André Tardieu, Prime Minister of France (b. 1876)
• 1945 - Anton Webern, Austrian composer (shot) (b. 1883)
• 1965 - Steve Brown, American musician (b. 1890)
• 1972 - Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1887)
• 1973 - King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden (b. 1882)
• 1980 - Bill Evans, American jazz pianist (b. 1929)
• 1989 - Robert Penn Warren, American writer (b. 1905)
• 2003 - Jack Brymer, English clarinetist (b. 1915)
• 2003 - Josef Hirsal, Czech novelist (b. 1920)
• 2004 - Johnny Ramone, American guitarist (The Ramones) (prostate cancer) (b. 1948)

• In Slovakia - Holyday of the Seven sorrows of Virgin Maria
• In ancient Greece, the second day of the Eleusinian Mysteries, when the priests of Demeter declared the public start of the rites.
• Independence Day from Spain (1821) for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, celebrated everywhere with marches from schoolchildren.
• RC Saints - Feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows.
• Also see September 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics).
• Britain - the British commemorate the Battle of Britain on the day of the last massive Luftwaffe attack in 1940.
• Japan - Respect for the Aged Day before 2003; beginning in 2003, Respect for the Aged Day is held on the third Monday of September.
• Bulgaria - The first day of school.

September 14 · September 16 · August 15 · October 15 · more historical anniversaries