This Week in History 9/12 – 9/18

This Week in History

September 12:

• US Revolutionary War: Nathan Hale leaves Harlem Heights Camp, now 127th St, for spy mission (1776)
• US, England, France, USSR, East & West Germany sign agreements allowing two Germanys to merge (1990)
• US Supreme Court orders Little Rock Ark high school to integrate (1958)
• Leó Szilárd, waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, conceives idea of a nuclear chain reaction (1933)
• Article V of the NATO agreement is invoked for the first and only time in response to the September 11 attacks against the United States of America (2001)
• Palestinian terrorists blow up three hijacked airliners in Jordan and continue to hold the passengers hostage in various undisclosed locations in Amman (1970)
• United States’ first known female cop appointed, Alice Stebbins Wells by LAPD (1910)
• US Civil War: Battle of Harpers Ferry, Virginia (1862)
• Bonanza premieres on NBC-TV (1959)
• First submarine publicly tested in London on the Thames before James I (1624)
• Switzerland becomes a Federal state (1848)
• A. B. Simpson, founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, was ordained (1865)
• French astronomer Charles Messier mistakenly identifies the Crab Nebula so begins his Messier Catalogue (1758)

September 13:

• Massachusetts General Court banished Separatist preacher Roger Williams for criticizing the Massachusetts Bay Company charter and for perpetually advocating a separation of church and state (1635)
• New York City became the first capital of United States (1788)
• Robert Thomas became the first protestant missionary to Korea (1865)
• IBM introduces the first computer disk storage unit (1956)
• Civilian aircraft traffic resumes in the U.S. after the September 11 attacks (2001)
• First United Negro College Fund (1980)
• Church of Holy Sepulchre consecrated in Jerusalem (335 AD)
• Building begins on Hadrian’s Wall, Northern England (122 AD)
• The temple of Jupiter on Rome’s Capitoline Hill is dedicated on the ides of September (1509 BC)

September 14:

• Francis Scott Key writes Star Spangled Banner (1814)
• US President McKinley dies of infection from gunshot wounds from his assassination a week earlier (1901)
• Britain and American colonies adopt the Gregorian calendar – no Sept 3rd-Sept 13th that year (1752)
• Historic National Prayer Service held at Washington National Cathedral for victims of the September 11 attacks (2001)
• Walt Disney awarded Medal of Freedom at White House (1964)
• Ground breaking ceremony for UN world headquarters (1948)
• WW2: Nazis gain 107 seats in German election (1930)
• German composer George Frederick Handel finished composing The Messiah after only 21 days (1741)
• Francis of Assissi had a vision of Christ is afflicted with stigmata (1224)

September 15:

• 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed during Sunday morning service killing 4 girls in a racially motivated act of terrorism (1963)
• Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin while studying influenza (1928)
• Mayflower departs from Plymouth England with 102 pilgrims (1620)
• Antoinette L. Brown became the first woman formally ordained to a pastorate in the United States (1853)
• Google.com is registered as a domain name (1998)
• In the Act of Independence, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras & Nicaragua declare their independence from the Spanish Empire (1821)
• Lone Ranger premieres on ABC-TV (1949)
• Colonel George and Sarah Clarke opened first mission in the slums of Chicago on South Clark Street (1877)
• Lost in Space premieres (1965)
• First non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe opened in Frascati, Italy (1616)

September 16:

• Great Seal of US used for first time (1782)
• Bomb explosion in Wall Street killing 30 (1920)
• Gandhi began a fast in prison to protest British electoral caste system (1932)
• Blimp is moored to Empire State Building (1931)
• General Motors began (1908)
• Largest land run in history began with more than 100,000 people pouring into the Cherokee Strip of Oklahoma (1893)
• Mexico issues Grito de Dolores, calling for the end of Spanish rule, Mexican Independence Day (1810)
• Norwegian explorer Ronald Amundsen discovers the Magnetic South Pole (1906)
• WW2: US imposed draft (1940)
• Fire of Moscow (1812)
• Torquemada, grand inquisitor during the Spanish Inquisition under King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella who tortured and killed thousands, died (1498)
• Slavery abolished in all French territories (1848)

September 17:

• US constitution adopted by Philadelphia convention (1787)
• US Civil War: Battle of Antietam, bloodiest day in Civil War where 23,110 died (1862)
• Massachusetts enacted severe laws against Quakers (1656)
• Harriet Tubman first escapes slavery in Maryland with two of her brothers (1849)
• RCA Victor released its first 33 1/3 RPM recording – Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (1934)
• US space officials announced selection of 9 new astronauts (1962)
• WW2: Soviet Union invaded Poland (1939)
• Last Russian troops left Poland (1993)
• Donner Party sent two men ahead to California for food and supplies (1946)
• Great fire of San Francisco (1850)
• US Civil War: Battle of Cumberland Gap, Tennessee (1862)
• Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek is the first to report the existence of bacteria (1683)
• Commonwealth of Australia proclaimed (1900)
• 247 Spanish colonists consecrated their newly-founded mission known as San Francisco (1776)
• Fugitive first appeared on ABC-TV (1963)
• City of Boston, Massachusetts founded
• 19 students attended opening class at Ohio State University (1873)
• US Civil War: The Allegheny Arsenal explosion resulted in the single largest civilian disaster during the war killing 78 workers (1862)
• Arabs conquer Alexandria, library destroyed (642)
• WW1: Manfred von Richthofen, The Red Baron – a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, won his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France (1816)
• Massachusetts Bay Colony granted new charter (1691)
• Major trading markets in the United States, including the New York Stock Exchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), reopen for the first time since September 11 (2001)
• First class of escaped slaves taught by Mary Peake at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, now Hampton University (1861)
• Walter Gowan, missionary to the Sudan and founder of Sudan Interior Mission, was born (1868)
• Joshua Abraham Norton proclaimed himself his Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I, Emperor of the United States of America (1959)

September 18:

• US President George Washington lays cornerstone of Capitol building (1793)
• US Air Force formed (1947)
• Congress passed Fugitive Slave Law as part of Compromise of 1850 (1850)
• WW2: The order for ‘extermination asocials through labour’ is approved by Otto Thierack, Nazi minister of justice (1942)
• Government bond agent Jay Cooke & Co collapses, causing panic on Wall St, the start of the panic of 1873 and the long depression (1873)
• The Full Gospel Fellowship of Churches and Ministers International, now known as Christ for the Nations, was founded (1962)
• Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN, founded (1998)
• Harriet Maxwell Converse became first white woman to become an Indian chief (1891)
• Great Fire of Moscow burns out after 5 days, 75% of the city destroyed and 12,000 killed (1812)
• WW2: A railway explosion is faked by the Japanese to create a pretext for the invasion of Manchuria, China,  (1931)
• Get Smart, Adam’s Family, and I Dream of Jeannie premiered on television (1965)
• New York Times started publishing (1851)