September 15th is

Cheese Toast Day

Crème de Menthe Day

Felt Hat Day

Greenpeace Day *

International Dot Day *

UN International Day of Democracy

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MORE! Charles Darwin, Agatha Christie and Peter H. Reynolds, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala
Honduras and Nicaragua – Independence Day

Morocco – Marrakech: Oasis at the Source

Spain – Nuestra Senora de la Bien Aparecida
(Our Lady of the Good Advent)

Slovakia – Our Lady of Many Sorrows

Wales – Flintshire:
The Good Life Experience

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On This Day in HISTORY

994 – Battle of Orontes is won by forces of Manjutakin, the Fatimid vizier of Damascus, over allied armies of the Byzantine Empire and Hamdanids, led by Michael Bourtzes, attempting to relieve Fatamid siege of Apamea by the Orontes River in Syria

1440 – Gilles de Montmorency-Laval, Baron de Rais, is arrested, Jean de Malestroit, Bishop of Nantes, accuses him of murdering dozens of children after committing sodomy and torture on them between 1432 and 1440; one of the earliest known serial killers, he  is executed on October 26, 1440

1616 – First non-aristocratic free public school in Europe opens in Frascati, Italy

1776 – American Revolution: British forces occupy New York City

1789 – U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs renamed Department of State

1789 – James Fenimore Cooper born, American novelist; his Leatherstocking Tales help create an American style of literature; best known for The Last of the Mohicans

1821 – Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador become independent from Spain

1830 – The Liverpool-to-Manchester railway line opens in Great Britain

1835 – Charles Darwin, aboard HMS Beagle, arrives at the Galápagos Islands

1853 – Reverend Antoinette Brown Blackwell ordained, first U.S. female minister

1857 – Timothy Alder patents a typesetting machine

1857 – William Howard Taft born, the only person to serve as both U.S President and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

1858 – Jenő Hubay born, Hungarian violinist and composer

1867 – Bruno Walter born, German conductor

https://youtu.be/i8kKY74L7sQ

1868 – Lida Shaw King born, American classical scholar; professor of classical literature and archaeology at Vassar (1894-1897); dean of the Women’s College at Brown University (1905-1922); published in the American Journal of Archaeology

1876 – Frank Gannett born, American newspaper publisher

1881 – Ettore Bugatti born, Italian builder of racing and luxury automobiles

1883 – The University of Texas at Austin opens

1889 – Robert Benchley born, American drama critic, actor and humorist

1890 – Agatha Christie born, DBE, British mystery writer and playwright; featured the characters Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple in many of her mysteries

1894 – First Sino-Japanese Way, Battle of Pyongyang: An army of Meiji Japan defeats China’s Qing Dynasty in Pyongyang, now the capital of North Korea

1903 – Roy Acuff born, American country music singer-songwriter

https://youtu.be/8V4nGywSfNc

1915 – Fawn M. Brodie born, American biographer, historian; noted for psychobiography of Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History and No Man Knows My History, a biography of Joseph Smith

1916 – Tanks are first used in warfare, at the WWI Battle of the Somme

1919 – Heda Margolius Kovály born, Czech writer and translator; noted for her memoir Under a Cruel Star – A Life in Prague 1941-1968

1923 – Oklahoma Governor John Calloway Walton declares martial due to Ku Klux Klan terrorism – national newspapers begin to expose the Klan’s illegal activities

Ku Klux Klan in Tulsa OK, 1923

1928 – Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin in the mold Penicillium notatum

1928 – Cannonball Adderley born, American jazz saxophonist and bandleader

1929 – Eva Burrows born, Australian Salvation Army officer; at 56, she became the organization’s youngest commander, the 13th General of the Salvation Army

1930 – Hoagy Carmichael records “Georgia on My Mind”

1935 – Nazi Germany enacts the Nuremberg Laws, stripping all German Jews of civil rights, and they adopt the swastika as their official symbol

1940 – Anne Moody born as Essie Mae Moody, American author and civil rights worker, known for her acclaimed autobiography Coming of Age in Mississippi which won the Brotherhood Award from the National Council of Christians and Jews and the Best Book of the Year Award from the National Library Association

1940 – WWII: The Royal Air Force inflicts heavy losses on the Luftwaffe as the tide turns in the Battle of Britain

1945 – Jessye Norman born, American dramatic soprano, famed for her Wagnerian repertoire, Grammy Award winner

1948 – F-86 Sabre sets the world aircraft speed record of 671 mph

1949 – “The Lone Ranger” premieres on ABC with Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels as Tonto

1950 – Korean War: UN forces land ay Inchon, southern Korea, driving toward Seoul

1955 – Betty Robbins, first woman cantor officially appointed by a congregation, leads Rosh Hashanah services at Temple Avodah in Oceanside NJ

1963 – Four black girls are killed when the African American 16^th Street Baptist Church is bombed in Birmingham, Alabama

https://youtu.be/t8YCHrGM92o

1966 – President Lyndon Johnson, reacting to the sniper shootings at the University of Texas at Austin, urges Congress to enact gun control legislation

1965 – “Green Acres” and “Lost in Space” premiere on CBS

1968 – Soviet spaceship Zond launched, becomes first space craft to circle the Moon and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere

1971 – Greenpeace is founded by 17 activists in Vancouver protesting off-shore nuclear testing in Alaska – In 2011, on the 40^th anniversary of Greenpeace, Vancouver city officials plant a yellow cedar tree and proclaim Greenpeace Day *

1982 – USA Today: first issue goes to press

1983 – Huey Lewis and the News release their album Sports

1995 – U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women is held in Beijing

2000 – The Summer Olympics open in Sydney, Australia

2005 – George W. Bush addresses the nation from storm-ravaged New Orleans, acknowledging the government has failed to respond adequately to Hurricane Katrina and urging Congress to approve a massive reconstruction program.

2009 – Terry Shay starts International Dot Day * when he shares The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds with his students, which is the story of a teacher who challenges her insecure student to “Just make a mark and see where it takes you.”

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