September 20th is

Pepperoni Pizza Day

Rehabilitation Awareness Day

Rum Punch Day

String Cheese Day

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MORE! Kyun Yeo, Rose F. Rogombé and Dan Choi, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Islam – Ashura begins at sundown – for most Shia and some Sunni Muslims, it marks the climax of the Remembrance of Muharram, and commemorates the death of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad

France – Paris:
International Film Festival

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On This Day in HISTORY

622 – Muhammad and Abu Bakr arrive in Medina

917 – Kyun Yeo born, Korean poet, noted for “Songs of the Ten Vows Samantabhara” which were included in the 1075 biography The Life of Kuehne, the earliest extant collection of Korean poetry

1058 – Regent of the Holy Roman Empire Agnes of Poitou meets with Andrew I of Hungary to resolve a border-zone dispute concerning Burgenland

Henry III on left, Agnes of Poitou in center, from Codex Aureus

1187 – Saladin begins the Siege of Jerusalem

1519 – Ferdinand Magellan sets sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda with about 270 men on his expedition to circumnavigate the globe

1596 – Diego de Montemajor founds the city of Monterrey in Alta California

Foundation-of-Monterrey – mosaic mural by Joaquin Mora

1737 – The ‘Walking’ Treaty, based on how far a man could walk in a given time, is signed – Sons of William Penn claim 1,200,000 acres of land, showing the Lenape (also known as the Delaware) Tribe an unsigned, possibly forged, deed dated 1686, which the Lenape reluctantly accept when they are shown a distorted map of the area, and then their appeal to the Iroquois for aid is refused

1758 – Jean-Jacques Dessalines born as the slave Jean-Jacques Duclos,  a leader of the Haitian Revolution. He was bought by a free black man, but became free three years later during the slave uprising of 1791. He gained military experience rising to become an officer in the French colonial army. During the revolution, he was a key military leader, and became the leader of the revolution when Toussaint Louverture was captured. He was the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the its new constitution, initially as governor-general, but was quickly proclaimed Emperor Jacques I of Haiti. One of his first acts as head of state was ordering the massacre of all white people on the island, resulting in deaths estimated to be between 3,000 and 5,000.  His reign lasted from 1804 until his assassination by members of his own administration in 1806

1822 – Elizabeth ‘Libby’ Smith Miller born, author, suffragist and financial supporter of the women’s movement; creator of the “bloomer costume” named after Amelia Bloomer who first exhibited it in her magazine, The Lily

1831 – Kate Harrington born, teacher, author of children’s books and educational materials; pioneer in developing a sequential reading program, with emphasis on phonics, complete with a separate teacher’s manual and spelling and reading books; noted for innovative use of music and reading materials geared to children’s interests

1835 – The Ragamuffin War begins in Rio Grande do Sul, a Republican uprising led by generals Bento Gonçalves da Silva and Antônio de Sousa Neto with the support of the Italian nationalist Giuseppe Garibaldi. Rio Grande do Sul cattlemen were facing hardship because of competing imports of charque (dried salted beef) from Argentina and Uruguay. The rebels were called farrapos (ragamuffins) because of the fringed leather worn by the gauchos (cowhands)

1842 – Sir James Dewar born, inventor of the Dewar flask, the first insulated bottle

1847 – Susanna Rubinstein born in the Ukraine, Austrian psychologist, noted for her study of the senses, and her 1878 work “Psychologisch-Asthetische Essays” (“Psychological-Aesthetic Essays”), considered a major contribution to the study of human emotions

1853 – Chulalongkorn born, became King Rama V of Siam, Phra Piya Maharat (Great Beloved King) whose major governmental and social reforms, including an end to slavery, modernized Siam. Thanks to these changes, and his adroitness in dealing with the British and the French over territorial concessions, his country avoided becoming a colony or a protectorate. In 1897, he became the first Siamese monarch to visit Europe, appointing Queen Saovabha as regent during his absence, and cementing European recognition of Siam as a fully independent power

King and Queen of Siam – Le Petit Journal, 1893

1848 – The American Association for the Advancement of Science is founded in Philadelphia PA with William C. Redfield as its first president

1859 – George B. Simpson patents an electric range

1861 – Herbert Putnam born, American longest-serving Librarian of Congress (1899-1939), under eight U.S. Presidents, undertaking a massive reorganization of the library’s materials which took 25 years to complete, while adding many new books to create a universal collection in many languages; the system of classifying books which he introduces, now known as the Library of Congress Classification, is still in use

1870 – Italian troops take control of the Papal States, leading to the unification of Italy

1878 – Upton Sinclair born, author and crusader for social reforms, from clean meat to trade unionism and abolition of child labor, birth control, Socialism, morality in business and industry, education reform and civil liberties; his novel The Jungle helped the passage of the first U.S. pure-food statute; awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1943 for Dragon’s Teeth

1884 –The Equal Rights Party forms in San Francisco CA, nominating Belva Lockwood and Marietta Snow as the party’s candidates for President and Vice President

1884 – Maxwell Perkins born, American book editor, credited with discovering Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe

1888 – Sue S. Dauser born, serves as a Navy nurse from 1917 until her appointment as Superintendent of the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps during WWII; retires in 1945

1890 – ‘Jelly Roll’ Morton born, legendary Blues musician

1890 – Linda Eenpalu born, Estonian politician and a leading women’s rights activist; first woman member of the National Constituent Assembly (1937) and the Second Chamber of the National Council (1938-1940); co-founder of the Estonian Female Student’s Society (1911), member of the central committee of the Estonian Women’s Club (1928-1940), and member of the National Economic Council (1935-1938); a librarian (1913-1920) and high school teacher (1920-1926). In 1940, when the Soviet Union annexed and occupied Estonia, her husband, Prime Minister Kaarel Eenpalu, was among the leading Estonian politicians who were arrested and deported to Russia, where he died in 1942 in a Soviet prison camp. She was arrested in 1941 and deported, with thousands of other Estonians, to Siberia, where she was held until 1956

1893 – Charles Edgar Duryea road-tests his “motor wagon,” the first gasoline-powered automobile, with his brother Frank in Springfield MA

1899 – Leo Strauss born in Germany, American political philosopher, lecturer and writer; political science professor at University of Chicago

1902 – Stevie Smith born, English poet, novelist and short story writer

1904 – Orville & Wilbur Wright fly in a circle for the first time, in their Flyer II

1906 – Vera Faddeeva born, Soviet mathematician, a pioneer in the field of linear alegebra. Her 1950 work, Computational methods of linear algebra, was translated into other languages, widely acclaimed and won a USSR State Prize

1906 –The Cunard Line launches RMS Mauretania in Newcastle upon Tyne, England

1909 – The British Parliament passes the South Africa Act 1909, creating the Union of South Africa from British Colonies: Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Orange River Colony, and the Transvaal Colony

1920 – Jay Ward born, American animator; creator and producer of animated TV series, notably Crusader Rabbit, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, and George of the Jungle; founder of Jay Ward Productions, which also made Cap’n Crunch and Quisp commercials for Quaker Oats

1922 – Alfred Goodman and Harold Atteridge’s The Passing Show of 1922, a musical revue, opens at NYC’s Winter Garden Theatre

1923 – Geraldine Clinton Little born in Northern Ireland, American author, playwright,  poet and singer; her book-length poem Hakugai (Persecution) is based on the Japanese-American internment during WWII, but her best-known work is her historical play Heloise and Abelard; sang with the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia

1927 – John Dankworth born, English jazz and film score composer, saxophonist; also music director for his wife, Jazz singer Dame Cleo Lane. Made a Knight Bachelor (rank of knighthood, not marital status) in 2006

1929 – Anne Meara born, American actress, comedian and writer; she and her husband, Jerry Stiller, performed as the comedy team Stiller and Meara; she wrote the play, After-Play, and won a Writers Guild Award for The Other Woman. Meara was nominated for 4 Emmys and a Tony Award

1934 – Sophia Loren born, Italian International Film Star, first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in a non-English language film, for Two Women (originally called La ciociara in Italy)

1937 – Birgitta Dahl born, Swedish Social Democratic Party politician: Member of Parliament (1969- 2002; Minister for Energy Affairs (1982-1990); Minister for the Environment (1986- 1991); Speaker of the Parliament (1994- 2002). Since 2005, chair of the Swedish section of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

1938 – Dmitri Shostakovitch’s Suite for Jazz Orchestra #2, premieres

1940 – Anna Pavord born, Welsh-English gardening expert and writer; correspondent for The Independent newspaper since 1986, associate editor of Gardens Illustrated magazine,  contributor to The Observer newspaper, and to the magazines Country Life, Country Living and Elle Decoration. Author of a number of books, including The Curious Gardener, The Tulip, Landskipping, and The Naming of Names: The Search for Order in the World of Plants

1942 – Rose Francine Rogombé born, Gabonese Democratic Party politician; acting President of Gabon (June to October 2009) after the death of President Omar Bongo; President of the Senate and Senator from Lambaréné (2009)

1946 – Opening day of first Cannes Film Festival, 18 nations represented, after being delayed from 1939 by WWII. The films shown include David Lean’s Brief Encounter, Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend, Roberto Rossellini’s Open City, and René Clement’s The Battle of the Rails

1954 – The first program written in FORTRAN is run. IBM develops this general-purpose computer programming language, but the FORTRAN compiler won’t be delivered until three years later; still in use for engineering and scientific applications

1956 – Jennifer Tour Chayes born, American mathematician and computer scientist; Managing Director of Microsoft Research New England since 2008; known for work on phase transitions in discrete mathematics and computer science, structural and dynamical properties of self-engineered networks, and algorithmic game theory, as well as an expert in the modeling and analysis of dynamically growing graphs; holder of over 25 patents, and author of over 100 published papers; honored with the 2015 John von Neumann Lecture Prize by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics

1959 – Meral Okay born, Turkish film producer, screenwriter and actress; producer of the TV series Second Spring (1998-2001), and screenwriter for the historical soap opera, Muhteşem Yüzyil, based on the life of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent

1960 – Deborah Roberts born, American television journalist; 20/20 correspondent (1995 to present), Dateline NBC (1991-1995)

1961 – Caroline Flint born, British Labour politician; Member of Parliament for Don Valley since 1997; Minister for Public Health (2005-2007)

1962 – James Meredith, a black student, is blocked from enrolling at University of Mississippi by Governor Ross R. Barnett, but later admitted, escorted by U.S. Marshalls

1967 – The ocean liner Queen Elizabeth II (QE2) is launched

1973 – Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in ‘The Battle of the Sexes’ tennis match at the Houston Astrodome in Houston, Texas

1977 – The first “boat people” arrive in San Francisco from Southeast Asia under a new U.S. resettlement program

1989 – F.W. de Klerk is sworn in as president of South Africa

1995 – U.S. House of Representatives votes to drop the national speed limit, allowing states to decide their own speed limits

2011 – Repeal of the U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” compromise takes effect, allowing gay and lesbian service members to serve openly

West Point graduate/LGBT activist Dan Choi removes symbolic ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ duct tape

2017 – Hurricane Maria makes landfall in Puerto Rico, a powerful Category 4 hurricane which results in 2,975 deaths, over $90 billion USD in damage, and a major humanitarian crisis. Over 400,000 Puerto Ricans left the island between October 2017 and February 2018, about 43% of them going to Florida. Accurate figures on those still remaining in the continental U.S. are harder to find, but at least 50,000, and probably many more, have not been able to return home

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