September 18th is

U.S. Air Force Birthday *

Chiropractic Founder’s Day *

National Cheeseburger Day *

National Neighborhood Day *

National Respect Day

Water Monitoring Day *

National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day *

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MORE!  Trajan, Agnes de Mille and Ed Sullivan, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Chile – Independence Day

Burundi – Victory of Uprona

Japan – Respect for the Aged Day

Switzerland – Day After the Federal Fast

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On This Day in HISTORY

AD 53 – Trajan born, much-admired Roman Emperor (98-117)

1066 – The Norman Invasion of England begins

1587 –  Francesca Caccini born, Italian composer, singer, lutenist, poet and teacher, known by the nickname “La Cecchina”, one of the most well-known and influential female European composers between Hildegard of Bingen and the 19th century. Her work, La liberazione di Ruggiero, is considered the first opera by a woman composer

1709 – Samuel Johnson, ‘Dictionary Man’ and scholar, poet, essayist and literary critic, is born in Lichfield, England

1714 – The first British Hanoverian King, George I, arrives in his new kingdom

1769 – The French formally surrender Quebec to the British, and the Boston Gazette reports that John Harris made a spinet, the first known ‘piano’ built in North America

1809 – The Royal Opera House opens in London

1830 – ‘Tom Thumb’ the first American-built locomotive loses a race with a horse due to mechanical difficulties

1837 – Tiffany & Young (now Tiffany & Co) is founded in New York City as an emporium of “stationery and fancy goods”

1838 – In Great Britain, the Anti-Corn Law League is founded by Richard Cobden to protest taxes on imported wheat which protect British landowners, but raise the price of bread just as factory-owners are trying to cut wages

1850 – The U.S. Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act, allowing slave owners to reclaim slaves that had escaped into states that banned slavery –Abolitionists dubbed it the ‘Bloodhound Law’ because dogs were often used to track runaway slaves.  In 1842, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled, in Prigg v. Pennsylvania, that states did not have to offer aid in the hunting or recapture of slaves, which greatly undermined the ability of slave owners to recapture slaves who escaped, but the Fugitive Slave Act required all law-enforcement officials to arrest anyone claimed to be a runaway slave by the sworn statement of a slave owner, and the arrested person was no longer entitled to a jury trial or to testify on their own behalf.  An officer who captured a fugitive slave was entitled to a bonus or promotion, but any person who gave aid, food or shelter to a runaway was subject to 6 months in prison and a $1,000 fine. This resulted not only in escaped slaves being returned to enslavement, but also in some free black people being conscripted into slavery on the say-so of Southern slavers.

1851 – The New York Times begins publication, originally as the New-York Daily Times

1858 – Kate Booth born, English Salvation Army officer, daughter of William and Catherine; brought the Salvation Army to France and Switzerland, meeting fierce opposition in both countries

1870 – Henry D. Washburn, leader of the Washburn expedition to explore Yellowstone, observes and times a geyser, then names it Old Faithful

Old Faithful by Ansel Adams

1873 – Panic of 1873 begins when Jay Cooke & Company, a U.S banking firm that was major bond company in America, declares bankruptcy, which triggers bank failures

1888 – ‘Grey Owl’ born Archibald Belaney, English-Canadian environmentalist and author who was not a Native American, which hurt his reputation when it was discovered after his death

1888 – Toni Wolff born, Swiss psychologist, worked closely with Carl Jung

1889 – Doris Blackburn born, Australian activist and Member of Parliament

1891 – Harriet Maxwell Converse, a white woman, is named a chief of the Six Nations Tribe at Towanda Reservation in New York in honor of her untiring efforts on their behalf to gain U.S. citizenship and other benefits

1895 – First ‘adjustment’ by Daniel David Palmer, founder of modern Chiropractic * medicine

1905 – Agnes de Mille born, influential American dancer and choreographer

1912 – María De la Cruz born, Chilean activist and journalist

1914 –  Irish Home Rule received Royal assent

1919 – Dutch women get the right to vote

1924? or 26? – An Origin Myth of the Cheeseburger *– Sometime 1924 and 1926, a  homeless man eating at Lionel Sternberger’s restaurant in Pasadena, California, suggested the addition of a slice of cheese to his hamburger order. Sternberger complied, eventually added it to his menu, and the rest is history – or legend.

1926 – Bud Greenspan born, influential American producer-director-screenwriter for sports documentaries

1927 – Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System (now CBS) debuts network broadcasting over 16 radio stations

1929 – Nancy Kassell Littlefield born, producer-director of documentary programs; Director of NYC Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting (1978-1983)

1939 – ‘Lord Haw-Haw’ radio broadcasts of pro-Nazi/anti-Allied propaganda begin

1940 – You Can’t Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe is published

1947 – Official date of the U.S. Air Force * becoming a separate military branch

1950 – Anna Deavere Smith born, actress and playwright

1955 – Ed Sullivan’s variety show first airs as The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS-TV, after being on the air since 1948 as The Toast of the Town

1965 – I Dream of Jeannie first airs on NBC-TV

1977 – Voyager One takes the first photograph of the Earth and the Moon together

1979 – The Eagles release “Heartache Tonight”

1981 – France’s Assemblée Nationale votes to abolish capital punishment

1994 – Haiti’s military leaders agree to leave the country to avert a U.S.-led invasion

1997 – The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, which was launched by Canada as the Ottawa Process in 1996, is signed by 162 nations, but 34 members of the U.N., including the U.S., Russia and China are not signatories. The Mine Ban Treaty is ratified in 1998, and becomes international law on March 1, 1999

2003 –America’s Clean Water Foundation starts Water Monitoring Day * to raise awareness of water pollution issues and get people to test their local bodies of water

2004 – National Neighborhood Day * is started in Rhode Island by Lorne Adrain

2008 – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day * to focus attention on HIV- issues confronting people aged 55 or older, who account for 24% of an estimated 1.2 million Americans living with HIV. Older adults are less likely to get tested for the virus, so they are often diagnosed late in the course of the infection, when it is more likely to develop into AIDS.

2014 – Scottish voters reject independence from the U.K.

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