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 t...

  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 Univ...

  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-freemas...

  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 th...

  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 – ...