User:September 15

Events

 * 668 – Eastern Roman Emperor Constans II is raped in his bath at Syracuse, Italy.
 * 921 – Saint Ludmila is murdered at the command of her daughter-in-law at Tetin.
 * 1556 – Departing from Vlissingen, ex-emperor Charles V returns to Spain.
 * 1584 – San Lorenzo del Escorial Palace in Madrid is finished.
 * 1600 – Battle of Sekigahara.
 * 1616 – The first non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy.
 * 1762 – 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 State is established (formerly known as Department of Foreign Affairs).
 * 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.
 * 1820 – Constitutionalist revolution in Lisbon, Portugal; (see Portugal's crises of the Nineteenth Century.
 * 1821 – Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica 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 – HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the Galápagos Islands.
 * 1851 – Saint Joseph's University is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
 * 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 Pyongyang.
 * 1916 – World War I: Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme.
 * 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 climax of the Battle of Britain, when the Royal Air Force shoots down large numbers of Luftwaffe aircraft.
 * 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.
 * 1947  – RCA releases the 12AX7 vacuum tube.
 * 1947  – Typhoon Kathleen hit the Kanto Region in Japan killing 1,077.
 * 1948 – The F-86 Sabre sets the world aircraft speed record at 671 mph (1080 km/h).
 * 1950 – Korean War: United States forces land at Incheon, Korea.
 * 1952 – United Nations gives Eritrea to Ethiopia.
 * 1957 – West Germany holds its third parliamentary election. Konrad Adenauer remains chancellor.
 * 1958 – A Central Railroad of New Jersey commuter train runs through an open drawbridge at the Newark Bay, killing 58.
 * 1959 – Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet leader to visit the United States.
 * 1961 – Hurricane Carla strikes Texas with winds of 175 miles per hour.
 * 1962 – The Soviet ship Poltava heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis.
 * 1963 – The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing kills four children at an African-American church in Birmingham, Alabama, United States.
 * 1966 – 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.
 * 1972 – A magnitude 4.5 earthquake shakes Northern Illinois.
 * 1972  – An SAS domestic flight from Gothenburg to Stockholm was hijacked and flown to Malmö-Bulltofta Airport.
 * 1974 – Air Vietnam flight 727 is hijacked, then crashes while attempting to land with 75 on board.
 * 1975 – The French département of Corse (the entire island of Corsica) is divided into two: Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud.
 * 1981 – The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary unanimously approves Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice on the United States Supreme Court.
 * 1981  – The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution operates it under its own power outside Washington, DC.
 * 1981  – Vanuatu becomes a member of the United Nations.
 * 1983 – Israeli premier Menachem Begin resigns.
 * 1987 – U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze sign a treaty to establish centers to reduce the risk of nuclear war.
 * 1989 – The U.S. Congress recognizes Terry Anderson's continued captivity in Beirut.
 * 1990 – France announces it will send 4,000 troops to the Persian Gulf
 * 1993 – Liechtenstein Prince Hans-Adam II disbands Parliament
 * 1998 – With the landmark merger of WorldCom and MCI Communications completed the day prior, the new MCI WorldCom opens its doors for business.
 * 2004 – NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announces a lockout of the players union and cessation of operations by the NHL head office.
 * 2008 – Lehman Brothers file Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. History.

Births

 * 973 – Al-Biruni, mathematician (d. 1048)
 * 1254 – Marco Polo, Italian explorer (d. 1324)
 * 1533 – Catherine of Austria, queen consort of Poland and Lithuania (d. 1572)
 * 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)
 * 1666 – Princess Sophia Dorothea of Celle (d. 1726)
 * 1715 – Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, French artillery specialist (d. 1789)
 * 1760 – Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien, Prussian general of the Napoleonic Wars (d. 1824)
 * 1789 – James Fenimore Cooper, American novelist (d. 1851)
 * 1828 – Aleksandr Mikhailovich Butlerov, Russian chemist (d. 1886)
 * 1830 – Porfirio Díaz, President of Mexico (d. 1915)
 * 1852 – Edward Bouchet, American physicist (d. 1918)
 * 1857 – William Howard Taft, 27th President of the United States (d. 1930)
 * 1858 – Jenő Hubay, Hungarian violinist (d. 1937)
 * 1860 – Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya, Indian engineer (d. 1962)
 * 1863 – Horatio Parker, American composer (d. 1919)
 * 1867 – Vladimir May-Mayevsky, Russian counter-revolutionary (d. 1920)
 * 1876 – Bruno Walter, German conductor (d. 1962)
 * 1876  – Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Indian novelist (d. 1938)
 * 1877 – Jakob Ehrlich, Austrian politician and zionist (d. 1938)
 * 1879 – Joseph Lyons, 10th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1939)
 * 1881 – Ettore Bugatti, Italian automobile engineer and designer (d. 1947)
 * 1883 – Esteban Terradas i Illa, Spanish mathematician and engineer (d. 1950)
 * 1887 – Carlos Dávila, former President of Chile (d. 1955)
 * 1888 – Antonio Ascari, Italian racing driver (d. 1925)
 * 1889 – Robert Benchley, American author (d. 1945)
 * 1890 – Agatha Christie, English writer (d. 1976)
 * 1890  – Frank Martin, Swiss composer (d. 1974)
 * 1892 – Silpa Bhirasri, Italian sculptor (d. 1962)
 * 1894 – Jean Renoir, French film director (d. 1979)
 * 1894  – Oskar Klein, Swedish physicist (d. 1977)
 * 1895 – Magda Lupescu, consort of King Carol II of Romania (d. 1977)
 * 1895  – Charles "Chic" Harley, American football player (d. 1974)
 * 1898 – J. Slauerhoff, Dutch poet and novelist (d. 1936)
 * 1901 – Sir Donald Bailey, British engineer (d. 1985)
 * 1903 – Roy Acuff, American country musician (d. 1992)
 * 1904 – King Umberto II of Italy (d. 1983)
 * 1906 – Jacques Becker, French screenwriter and director (d. 1960)
 * 1907 – Gunnar Ekelöf, Swedish poet and writer (d. 1968)
 * 1907  – Fay Wray, Canadian-born American actress (d. 2004)
 * 1908 – Penny Singleton, American actress (d. 2003)
 * 1909 – C.N.Annadurai, Former Chief Minister of Tamilnadu (d. 1969)
 * 1910 – Betty Neels, English novelist (d. 2001)
 * 1911 – Karsten Solheim, Norwegian-born American golf entrepreneur (d. 2000)
 * 1913 – John N. Mitchell, United States Attorney General and Watergate figure (d. 1988)
 * 1913 – Johannes Steinhoff, German fighter pilot & NATO commander (d. 1994)
 * 1914 – Creighton Abrams, American Army general (d. 1974)
 * 1914  – Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentine writer (d. 1999)
 * 1915 – Albert Whitlock, English motion picture matte artist (d. 1999)
 * 1915  – Ismail Yasin, Egyptian comedian and actor (d. 1972)
 * 1916 – Margaret Lockwood, English actress (d. 1990)
 * 1918 – Nipsey Russell, American comedian (d. 2005)
 * 1919 – Fausto Coppi, Italian racing cyclist (d. 1960)
 * 1919  – Nelson Gidding, American screenwriter (d. 2004)
 * 1921 – Norma MacMillan, Canadian actress (d. 2001)
 * 1922 – Jackie Cooper, American actor and director
 * 1922  – Bob Anderson (fencer), English sword-master
 * 1923 – Anton Heiller, Austrian organist (d. 1979)
 * 1924 – Bobby Short, American musician (d. 2005)
 * 1926 – Jean-Pierre Serre, French mathematician
 * 1926  – Shohei Imamura, Japanese film director (d. 2006)
 * 1927 – David Stove, Australian philosopher, (d. 1994)
 * 1928 – Cannonball Adderley, American saxophonist and bandleader (d. 1975)
 * 1929 – Eva Burrows, the 13th General of The Salvation Army
 * 1929  – Murray Gell-Mann, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
 * 1933 – Henry Darrow, American actor
 * 1933  – Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Spanish conductor
 * 1934 – Fred Nile, Australian politician
 * 1937 – Robert Lucas Jr., American economist, Nobel laureate
 * 1937  – Fernando de la Rúa, 51st President of Argentina
 * 1938 – Gaylord Perry, baseball player
 * 1940 – Merlin Olsen, American football player and actor
 * 1940  – Norman Spinrad, American science fiction author
 * 1941 – Flórián Albert, Hungarian footballer
 * 1941  – Signe Toly Anderson, American singer
 * 1941  – Mirosław Hermaszewski, Polish cosmonaut
 * 1941  – Yuri Norstein, Russian animator
 * 1941  – Viktor Zubkov, Russian government official
 * 1942 – Lee Dorman, American Bassist
 * 1944 – Sotirios Hatzigakis, Greek politician
 * 1945 – Hans-Gert Pöttering, well-known German politician in the European union, President of the European Parliament since 16 January 2007.
 * 1945 – Carmen Maura, Spanish actress
 * 1945  – Jessye Norman, American opera singer
 * 1945  – Ron Shelton, American film director
 * 1946 – Ola Brunkert, Swedish session drummer for ABBA (d. 2008)
 * 1946  – Tommy Lee Jones, American actor
 * 1946  – Oliver Stone, American film director
 * 1946  – Howard Waldrop, American science fiction author
 * 1946  – Mike Procter, South African cricketer, coach and match referee
 * 1948 – Suzyn Waldman, American Sportscaster
 * 1949 – Joe Barton, American politician
 * 1951 – Pete Carroll, American football coach
 * 1951  – Johan Neeskens, Dutch footballer
 * 1954 – Hrant Dink, Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor (d. 2007)
 * 1955 – Željka Antunović, Croatian politician
 * 1955  – Renzo Rosso, Italian clothing designer
 * 1955  – Bruce Reitherman, American voice actor
 * 1956 – Jaki Graham, English singer
 * 1956  – Maggie Reilly, Scottish folk singer
 * 1958 – Dr. Know, American guitarist (Bad Brains)
 * 1958  – Joel Quenneville, Canadian ice hockey player
 * 1958  – Wendie Jo Sperber, American actress (d. 2005)
 * 1960 – Kevin Allen, Welsh actor
 * 1961 – Terry Lamb, Australian rugby league footballer
 * 1961  – Dan Marino, American football player
 * 1962 – Dina Lohan, American actress and reality television star, mother of Lindsay Lohan
 * 1964 – Róbert Fico, Slovak Prime minister
 * 1964  – Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein, former guitarist for horror punk band The Misfits
 * 1968 – Danny Nucci, American actor
 * 1969 – Jim Curtiss, American writer
 * 1969  – Jeffrey Schwarz, American film director/producer
 * 1971 – Nathan Astle, New Zealand cricketer
 * 1971  – Josh Charles, American actor
 * 1971  – Ben Wallers, English musician and songwriter (Country Teasers)
 * 1972 – Jimmy Carr, English comedian
 * 1972  – Kit Chan, Singaporean singer
 * 1972  – Princess Letizia of Spain
 * 1973 – Julie Cox, English actress
 * 1974 – Jamie Stevens, German singer
 * 1976 – Paul Thomson, Scottish drummer (Franz Ferdinand)
 * 1976  – Matt Thornton, American baseball player
 * 1977 – Angela Aki, Japanese singer-songwriter
 * 1977  – Sophie Dahl, English model
 * 1977  – Leander Jordan, National Football League offensive lineman
 * 1977  – Marisa Ramirez, American actress
 * 1977  – Jason Terry, American basketball player
 * 1977  – Tom Hardy, British actor
 * 1978 – Eiður Guðjohnsen, Icelandic footballer
 * 1979 – Dave Annable, American actor
 * 1979  – Amy Davidson, American actress
 * 1979  – Carlos Ruiz, Guatemalan football player
 * 1979  – Patrick Marleau, Canadian ice hockey player
 * 1980 – David Diehl, American football player
 * 1980  – Jolin Tsai, Taiwanese pop singer
 * 1980  – Mike Dunleavy Jr., American basketball player
 * 1983 – Luke Hochevar, American baseball player
 * 1984 – Prince Henry of Wales
 * 1984 – Marvin Elliott English Football Player
 * 1987 – Aly Cissokho, French football player
 * 1988 – Chelsea Staub, American actress
 * 1989 – Chetan Ramlu, New Zealand musician
 * 1989 – Steliana Nistor, Romanian Olympic gymnast.
 * 1993 – Arturo, Ninja/Surgeon

Deaths

 * 668 – Constans II, Byzantine emperor (b. 630)
 * 866 – Robert the Strong, Margrave of Neustria
 * 1231 – Louis I, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1173)
 * 1352 – Ewostatewos, Ethiopian monk and religious leader (b. 1273)
 * 1500 – John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury
 * 1596 – Leonhard Rauwolf, German physician and botanist
 * 1613 – Thomas Overbury, English writer (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 (b. 1770)
 * 1835 – Sarah Knox Taylor, wife of Jefferson Davis (b. 1814)
 * 1842 – Pierre Baillot, French violinist and composer (b. 1771)
 * 1842 – José Francisco Morazán Quezada, President of The Federal Republic of Central America (b. 1792)
 * 1859 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel, British engineer (b. 1806)
 * 1864 – John Hanning Speke, British explorer (b. 1827)
 * 1883 – Joseph Plateau, Belgian physicist (b. 1801)
 * 1885 – Jumbo, P. T. Barnum's circus elephant (hit by a train)
 * 1893 – Thomas Hawksley, English civil engineer (b. 1807)
 * 1921 – Roman Ungern von Sternberg, Russian counter-revolutionary (b. 1886)
 * 1926 – Rudolf Christoph Eucken, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1846)
 * 1930 – Milton Sills, American actor (b. 1882)
 * 1945 – André Tardieu, Prime Minister of France (b. 1876)
 * 1945  – Anton Webern, Austrian composer (b. 1883)
 * 1965 – Steve Brown, American musician (b. 1890)
 * 1972 – Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1887)
 * 1973 – Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden (b. 1882)
 * 1973  – Victor Jara, Chilean musician (b. 1941)
 * 1978 – Willy Messerschmitt, German aircraft designer (b. 1898)
 * 1978  – Robert Cliche, French Canadian politician and judge (b. 1921)
 * 1980 – Bill Evans, American jazz pianist (b. 1929)
 * 1981 – Harold Bennett, English actor (b. 1899)
 * 1981  – Rafael Mendez, Mexican trumpet virtuoso (b. 1906)
 * 1982  – Jeannie Saffin, Spontaneous Human Combustion victim
 * 1983 – Prince Far I, reggae toaster and producer
 * 1985 – Cootie Williams, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1910)
 * 1987 – Steven Tuomi, murder victim of Jeffery Dahmer (b. 1963)
 * 1989 – Robert Penn Warren, American writer (b. 1905)
 * 1991 – John Hoyt, American actor (b. 1904)
 * 1993 – Ethan Allen, American baseball player (b. 1903)
 * 1995 – Harry Calder, South African cricketer (b. 1901)
 * 2000 – Vincent Canby, American movie critic (b. 1924)
 * 2003 – Jack Brymer, English clarinetist (b. 1915)
 * 2003  – Josef Hirsal, Czech novelist (b. 1920)
 * 2004 – Johnny Ramone, American guitarist (The Ramones) (b. 1948)
 * 2004  – Walter Stewart, Canadian journalist (b. 1931)
 * 2005 – Sidney Luft, American film director (b. 1915)
 * 2006 – Raymond Baxter, British television presenter (b. 1922)
 * 2006  – Oriana Fallaci, Italian journalist and writer (b. 1929)
 * 2006  – Pablo Santos, Mexican actor (b. 1987)
 * 2007 – Colin McRae, Scottish rally driver (b. 1968)
 * 2007  – Aldemaro Romero, Venezuelan musician (b. 1928)
 * 2007  – Brett Somers, Canadian-born American actress and Match Game panelist (b. 1924)
 * 2008 – Richard Wright, keyboardist and founding member of Pink Floyd (b. 1943)

Holidays and observances

 * International Day of Democracy.
 * In ancient Greece, the second day of the Eleusinian Mysteries, when the priests of Demeter declared the public start of the rites.
 * Catholic Calendar of Saints – Feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows.
 * Also see September 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics).
 * The United Kingdom – the British commemorate the Battle of Britain on the day of the last massive Luftwaffe attack in 1940.
 * Japan – Respect for the Aged Day before 2003; beginning in 2003, Respect for the Aged Day is held on the third Monday of September.
 * Thailand – Silpa Bhirasri Day.
 * In India Engineer's Day celebrated on birthday of Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya.
 * Slovenia – Restoration of Primorska to the Motherland Day
 * Honduras-Independence Day