September 18
Today is
National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day in the United States.
324 –
Constantine the Great decisively defeats
Licinius in the
Battle of Chrysopolis, establishing Constantine's sole control over the Roman Empire.
1502 –
Christopher Columbus lands at Honduras on his fourth, and final, voyage.
1618 – The twelfth
Baktun in the
Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar begins.
1793 – The first cornerstone of the
Capitol building is laid by
George Washington.
1809 – The
Royal Opera House in London opens.
1812 – The
1812 Fire of Moscow dies down after destroying more than three-quarters of the city.
Napoleon returns from the
Petrovsky Palace to the
Moscow Kremlin, spared from the fire.
1837 –
Tiffany and Co. (first named Tiffany & Young) is founded by
Charles Lewis Tiffany and Teddy Young in New York City. The store is called a "stationery and fancy goods emporium".
1838 – The
Anti-Corn Law League is established by
Richard Cobden.
1850 – The U.S. Congress passes the
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
1851 – First publication of The New-York Daily Times, which later becomes
The New York Times.
1870 –
Old Faithful Geyser is observed and named by
Henry D. Washburn during the
Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition to Yellowstone.
1895 – Booker T. Washington delivers the "
Atlanta Compromise" address.
1906 – A
typhoon with
tsunami kills an estimated 10,000 people in Hong Kong.
1919 –
Fritz Pollard becomes the first African American to play professional football for a major team, the Akron Pros.
1927 – The
Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air.
1928 –
Juan de la Cierva makes the first
autogyro crossing of the English Channel.
1939 – The Nazi propaganda broadcaster known as
Lord Haw-Haw begins transmitting.
1944 – World War II: The British submarine
HMS Tradewind torpedoes
Jun'yō Maru, 5,600 killed.
1948 –
Margaret Chase Smith of Maine becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate without completing another senator's term, when she defeats Democratic opponent Adrian Scolten.
1960 - On his twenty-first birthday,
Frankie Avalon was given $600,000 that he earned as a minor from such hits as his 1959 US No.1 single '
Venus'.
1961 – U.N. Secretary-General
Dag Hammarskjöld dies in a plane crash while attempting to negotiate peace in the war-torn Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
1970 -
Jimi Hendrix was found unconscious and unresponsive at the residence of
Monika Dannemann in London. An ambulance was dispatched and arrived at 11:27 a.m. Hendrix was taken to
St Mary Abbot's Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 12:45 p.m. It was determined that Hendrix aspirated his own vomit and died of asphyxia while intoxicated with barbiturates. Dannemann later revealed that Hendrix had taken nine of her prescribed
Vesparax sleeping tablets, 18 times the recommended dosage.
1976 - One hit wonders
Wild Cherry started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with '
Play That Funky Music'. The song started life as a B-side.
1977 –
Voyager I takes first
photograph of the Earth and the Moon together.
1983 -
KISS appeared
without their 'make-up' for the first time during an interview on MTV promoting the release of their newest album,
Lick It Up.
1984 –
Joe Kittinger completes the first solo balloon crossing of the Atlantic.
1997 – United States media magnate
Ted Turner donates US$1 billion to the United Nations.
2001 – First mailing of anthrax letters from Trenton, New Jersey in the
2001 anthrax attacks.
2006 - 73 year old country singer
Willie Nelson and four members from his band were charged with drug possession after marijuana and magic mushrooms were found by police on his tour bus near Lafayette, Louisiana.
2009 – The
72-year run of the soap opera
The Guiding Light ends as its final episode is broadcast.
2014 –
Scotland votes against independence from the United Kingdom.
Births
1819 – Léon Foucault (
Foucault's Pendulum); 1872 – Carl Friedberg

; 1895 – John Diefenbaker; 1905 – Eddie "Rochester" Anderson ("valet" to Jack Benny); 1905 – Greta Garbo; 1916 – Rossano Brazzi; 1917 – June Foray (voice of 'Rocky The Flying Squirrel', 'Cindy Lou Who', et al.); 1920 – Jack Warden; 1924 – J. D. Tippit (shot by Lee Harvey Oswald Nov. 22, 1963); 1926 – Bud Greenspan; 1933 – Jimmie Rodgers♪ ♫(
Kisses Sweeter Than Wine); 1939 – Fred Willard; 1940 – Frankie Avalon♪ ♫; 1945 – P. F. Sloan♪ ♫(wrote
Secret Agent Man, Eve of Destruction, et al.); 1945 – John McAfee (computer programmer & wacko, founded McAfee security software company); 1950 – Anna Deavere Smith (hospital administrator 'Gloria Akalitus' on
Nurse Jackie); 1951 – Ben Carson, Dee Dee Ramone

(The Ramones); 1952 – Rick Pitino; 1961 – James Gandolfini, Mark Olson♪ ♫(The Jayhawks); 1962 – Boris Said

; 1964 – Holly Robinson Peete; 1967 – Ricky Bell♪ ♫(Bell Biv Devoe), Tara Fitzgerald; 1970 – Aisha Tyler

; 1971 – Lance Armstrong; 1971 – Jada Pinkett Smith; 1972 – Adam Cohen♪ ♫(son of Leonard Cohen); 1973 – James Marsden ('Cyclops' in
X-Men movies); 1975 – Jason Sudeikis
Deaths
1949 – Frank Morgan ('The Wizard' in
The Wizard of Oz); 1961 – Dag Hammarskjöld; 1964 – Seán O'Casey;
1970 – Jimi Hendrix
; 1980 – Katherine Anne Porter;
1997 – Jimmy Witherspoon♪ ♫; 2004 – Russ Meyer; 2012 – Steve Sabol (co-founded NFL Films); 2013 – Ken Norton