September 15
Today is
Battle of Britain Day in England, commemorating
The Battle of Britain.
"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few". ~Winston Churchill
1440 –
Gilles de Rais, one of the earliest known serial killers, is taken into custody upon an accusation brought against him by the
Jean de Malestroit, Bishop of Nantes.
1616 – The first non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy.
1816 –
HMS Whiting became wrecked on the
Doom Bar, a treacherous shoal off the coast of Cornwall, England, that has caused over 600 known shipwrecks.
*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. The ship lands at Chatham or San Cristobal, the easternmost of the archipelago.
1851 –
Saint Joseph's University is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1916 – World War I:
Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the
Battle of the Somme.
1940 – World War II: The climax of the
Battle of Britain, when the Royal Air Force shoots down large numbers of
Luftwaffe aircraft.
1945 – A
hurricane strikes southern Florida and the Bahamas, destroying 366 airplanes and 25 blimps at
Naval Air Station Richmond.
1948 – The
F-86 Sabre sets the world aircraft speed record at 671 miles per hour (1,080 km/h).
1950 –
Korean War: United States forces
land at Inchon.
1958 – A Central Railroad of New Jersey commuter train
runs through an open drawbridge at the Newark Bay, killing 48.
1959 –
Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet leader to visit the United States.
1961 –
Hurricane Carla strikes Texas with winds of 175 miles per hour.
A group from Hawthorne, California called The Pendletones attend their first real recording session at Hite Morgan's studio in Los Angeles. The band recorded '
Surfin', a song that would help shape their career as
The Beach Boys.
1962 – The Soviet ship
Poltava heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the
Cuban Missile Crisis.
1965 - The
Ford Motor Company became the first automaker to offer an
8-track tape player as an option for their entire line of vehicles in the US. Tapes were initially only available at auto parts stores, as home 8-track equipment was still a year away.
1970 - US Vice-President
Spiro Agnew said in a speech that the youth of America were being "brainwashed into a drug culture" by rock music, movies, books and underground newspapers.
1971 – The first
Greenpeace ship sets sail to protest against nuclear testing on
Amchitka Island.
*1981 – The
John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution operates it under its own power outside Washington, D.C.
The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves
Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
1984 -
Frankie Goes To Hollywood's '
Relax' became the longest running chart hit since
Engelbert Humperdink's '
Release Me', after spending 43 weeks on the UK singles chart.
1990 - The
Steve Miller Band had a UK No.1 with '
The Joker' 16 years after it's first release. The song topped the US Billboard Hot 100 in early 1974. More than 16 years later, it reached No.1 in the UK Singles Chart after being used in "Great Deal", a Hugh Johnson-directed television advertisement for
Levi's, thus holding the record for the longest gap between transatlantic chart-toppers.
2001 – George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States, gives Post 9-11 Weekly Address, foreshadowing an interventionist United States Foreign Policy, leading to the Iraq, and Afghanistan Wars.
2008 –
Lehman Brothers files for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.
Births
1254 – Marco Polo;
1789 – James Fenimore Cooper; 1830 – Porfirio Díaz; 1857 – William Howard Taft (27th POTUS); 1881 – Ettore Bugatti (yeah,
that one); 1890 – Agatha Christie; 1903 –
Roy Acuff
; 1907 – Fay Wray; 1914 – Creighton Abrams (M1 Abrams battle tank); 1918 – Nipsey Russell; 1922 – Jackie Cooper; 1927 – Norm Crosby; 1940 – Merlin Olsen (
Father Murphy); 1946 – Tommy Lee Jones

, Oliver Stone; 1951 – Pete Carroll; 1958 – Wendie Jo Sperber (
Bosom Buddies); 1961 – Dan Marino; 1964 – Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein

(The Misfits); 1969 – Allen Shellenberger

(Lit); 1972 – Jimmy Carr; 1977 – Tom Hardy
Deaths
1851 - James Fenimore Cooper; 1885 –
Jumbo ("The only good thing you ever did for the gals was get hit by that train!"); 1938 – Thomas Wolfe; 1978 – Willy Messerschmitt (yes,
that Messerschmitt); 1989 – Robert Penn Warren; 2003 – Garner Ted Armstrong; 2004 – Johnny Ramone

(The Ramones); 2007 – Brett Somers (Match Game panelist); 2008 – Richard Wright

(Pink Floyd)