The History Shack

  OTD September 14th is the two hundredth-ninth day of the year, and there are 109 days remaining until the end of the year.   Event 1682 – Bishop Gore School, one of the oldest schools in Wales, is founded. 1723 – Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena lays down the first stone of Fort Manoel in Malta. 1752 – The British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar, skipping eleven days (the previous day was September 2). 1812 – Napoleonic Wars: The French Grande Armée enters Moscow. The Fire of Moscow begins as soon as Russian troops leave the city. 1901 – U.S. President William McKinley dies after being mortally wounded on September 6 by anarchist Leon Czolgosz and is succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. 1917 – The Russian Republic formally replaces the Russian Empire. 1954 – In a top-secret nuclear test, a Soviet Tu-4 bomber drops a 40-kiloton atomic weapon just north of Totskoye village. 1958 – The first two German post-war rockets, designed by the German

  OTD September 12th is the two hundredth-seventh day of the year, and there are 111 days remaining until the end of the year.   Event  1609 – Henry Hudson begins his exploration of the Hudson River while aboard the Halve Maen. 1762 – The Sultanate of Sulu ceded Balambangan Island to the British East India Company 1846 – Elizabeth Barrett elopes with Robert Browning. 1848 – A new constitution marks the establishment of Switzerland as a federal state. 1906 – Viscount Tredegar opened The Newport Transporter Bridge in Newport, South Wales. 1915 – French soldiers rescue over 4,000 Armenian genocide survivors stranded on Musa Dagh. 1933 – Leó Szilárd, waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, conceives the idea of the nuclear chain reaction. 1958 – Jack Kilby demonstrates the first working integrated circuit while working at Texas Instruments. 1962 – President John F. Kennedy delivers his "We choose to go to the Moon" speech at Rice Universi

  OTD September 11th is the two hundredth-sixth day of the year, and there are 112 days remaining until the end of the year.   Event  9 – The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest ends: The Roman Empire suffers the most significant defeat of its history, and the Rhine is established as the border between the Empire and the so-called barbarians for the next four hundred years. 1541 – Santiago, Chile, is attacked by indigenous warriors led by Michimalonco to free eight indigenous chiefs held captive by the Spaniards. 1565 – Ottoman forces retreat from Malta, ending the Great Siege of Malta. 1609 – Henry Hudson arrives on Manhattan Island and meets the indigenous people there. 1714 – Siege of Barcelona: Barcelona, the capital city of Catalonia, surrenders to Spanish and French Bourbon armies in the War of the Spanish Succession. 1789 – Alexander Hamilton was appointed the first United States Secretary of the Treasury. 1826 – Captain William Morgan, an ex-freemason, is arreste

  OTD September 10th is the two hundredth-fifth day of the year, and there are 113 days remaining until the end of the year.   Event  1509 – An earthquake called "The Lesser Judgment Day" hits Constantinople. 1608 – John Smith is elected council president of Jamestown, Virginia. 1776 – American Revolutionary War: Nathan Hale volunteers to spy for the Continental Army. 1813 – The United States defeats a British Fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. 1846 – Elias Howe was granted a patent for the sewing machine. 1918 – Russian Civil War: The Red Army captures Kazan. 1932 – The New York City Subway's third competing subway system, the municipally-owned IND, is opened. 1936 – First World Individual Motorcycle Speedway Championship, Held at London's (England) Wembley Stadium 1960 – At the Summer Olympics in Rome, Abebe Bikila became the first sub-Saharan African to win a gold medal, winning the marathon barefoot. 1977 – Hamida Dj

  OTD September 9th is the two hundredth-fifty-second day of the year, and there are 114 days remaining until the end of the year.   Event  1000 – Battle of Svolder, Viking Age. 1776 – The Continental Congress officially names its union of states the United States. 1839 – John Herschel takes the first glass plate photograph. 1845 – Possible start of the Great Famine of Ireland. 1892 – Amalthea, the third closest and fifth found moon of Jupiter, was discovered by Edward Emerson Barnard. 1914 – World War I: The creation of the Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade, the first fully mechanized unit in the British Army. 1940 – George Stibitz pioneers the first remote operation of a computer. 1943 – World War II: The Allies land at Salerno and Taranto, Italy. 1956 – Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time. 1971 – The four-day Attica Prison riot begins, eventually resulting in 39 dead, most killed by state troopers retaking the prison. 19

  OTD September 8th is the two hundredth-fifty-first day of the year, and there are 115 days remaining until the end of the year.   Event  1264 – The Statute of Kalisz, guaranteeing Jews's safety and personal liberties and giving Battei din Jurisdiction over Jewish matters, is promulgated by Bolesław the Pious, Duke of Greater Poland. 1504 – Michelangelo's David is unveiled in Piazza Della Signoria in Florence. 1522 – Magellan–Elcano circumnavigation: Victoria arrives at Seville, technically completing the first circumnavigation. 1565 – St. Augustine, Florida, is founded by Spanish admiral and Florida's first governor, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. 1727 – A barn fire during a puppet show in the village of Burwell in Cambridgeshire, England, kills 78 people, many of whom are children. 1781 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Eutaw Springs in South Carolina, the war's last significant battle in the Southern theater, ends in a narrow British tactical

  OTD September 7th is the two hundredth-fiftieth day of the year, and there are 115 days remaining until the end of the year.   Event 1228 – Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II lands in Acre, Israel, and starts the Sixth Crusade, which results in a peaceful restoration of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. 1630 – Boston, Massachusetts, was founded in North America. 1695 – Henry Every perpetrates one of the most profitable pirate raids in history by capturing the Grand Mughal ship Ganj-i-Sawai. In response, Emperor Aurangzeb threatened to end all English trading in India. 1812—French invasion of Russia: The bloodiest battle of the Napoleonic Wars, the Battle of Borodino, was fought near Moscow, resulting in a French victory. 1864 – American Civil War: Atlanta is evacuated on orders of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman. 1876 – In Northfield, Minnesota, Jesse James and the James–Younger Gang attempt to rob the town's bank but are driven off by armed citizens. 1907 – Cunar

  OTD September 6th is the two hundredth-forty-ninth day of the year, and there are 116 days remaining until the end of the year.   Event  1492 – Christopher Columbus sailed from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, his final port of call, before crossing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. 1522 – The Victoria returns to Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain, the only surviving Ferdinand Magellan's expedition and the first known ship to circumnavigate the world. 1620 – The Pilgrims sail from Plymouth, England, on the Mayflower to settle in North America. (Old Style date; September 16th per New Style date.) 1628 – Puritans settled in Salem, which became part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. 1803 – British scientist John Dalton began using symbols to represent the atoms of different elements. 1870 – Louisa Ann Swain of Laramie, Wyoming, becomes the first woman in the United States to cast a vote legally after 1807. 1901 – Leon Czolgosz, an unemployed anarchist, shoots and

  OTD September 5th is the two hundredth-forty-eighth day of the year, and there are 117 days remaining until the end of the year.   Event 1622 – A hurricane overruns a Spanish fleet bound from Havana to Cadiz and sinks the ship Atocha. Only five men are rescued, but 260 passengers and 200 million pesos are buried with the Atocha under 50 feet of water. 1666—The Great Fire of London ends. Ten thousand buildings, including Old St Paul's Cathedral, are destroyed, but only six people are known to have died. 1698 – To Westernize his nobility, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposed a tax on beards for all men except the clergy and peasantry. 1774 – First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia. 1836 – Sam Houston was elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas. 1882 – The first United States Labor Day parade was held in New York City. 1887 – A fire at the Theatre Royal, Exeter, kills 186, making it the UK's deadliest-ever building fire. 1905 – Russo-

  OTD September 4th is the two hundredth-forty-seventh day of the year, and there are 118 days remaining until the end of the year.   Event  476 – Romulus Augustulus is deposed when Odoacer proclaims himself "King of Italy," thus ending the Western Roman Empire. 1666 – In London, England, the most destructive damage from the Great Fire occurs. 1781 – Los Angeles was founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de los Ángeles (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels) by 44 Spanish settlers. 1812 – War of 1812: The Siege of Fort Harrison begins when the fort is set on fire. 1867—Sheffield Wednesday Football Club was founded at the Adelphi Hotel in Sheffield, becoming one of the first football clubs in the world. 1882 – The Pearl Street Station in New York City became the first power plant to supply electricity to paying customers. 1888 – George Eastman registered the trademark Kodak and received a patent for his roll film camera. 1923 – Maiden