On September 15th...

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1620 The Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, England, bound for America.

1789 The United States Department of Foreign Affairs was officially renamed the Department of State.
1789 Novelist James Fenimore Cooper was born.

1821 Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua gained independence from Spain.

1830 The first regularly scheduled passenger train line began service, pulled by George Stephenson's Rocket.
1830 Porfírio Díaz, two-time President of Mexico, was born.

1834 William Harris Crawford, U.S. Senator, Secretary of War and Secretary of the Treasury, died.

1835 Richard Olney, U.S. Attorney General and Secretary of State, was born.

1857 Timothy Alder patented a typesetting machine.
1857 William Howard Taft, 27th President of the United States, was born.

1862 Confederates captured the Union weapon arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

1864 John Hanning Speke, African explorer, died.

1876 Orchestra conductor Bruno Walter was born.

1889 Author Robert Benchley was born.

1890 Author Agatha Christie was born.

1899 Milton Eisenhower, government official and university president, was born.

1903 Musician Roy Acuff was born.

1904 Wilbur Wright made his first airplane flight.
1904 King Umberto II of Italy was born.

1907 Actress Fay Wray was born.

1908 Actress Penny Singleton was born.

1913 John Mitchell, Attorney General of the United States during the Watergate Affair, was born.

1914 Creighton Williams Abrams, Jr., U.S. Army General, was born.

1916 The British army became the first to use military tanks in battle.

1922 Actor Jackie Cooper was born.

1927 Comic Norm Crosby was born.

1928 Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin.
1928 Jazz musician Cannonball Adderley was born.

1938 Baseball player Gaylord Perry was born.

1940 Football player-turned actor Merlin Olsen was born.

1946 Actor Tommy Lee Jones was born.
1946 Film director Oliver Stone was born.

1947 The first four-engine jet-propelled fighter plane was tested.

1949 Konrad Adenauer took office as the first Chancellor of West Germany.
1949 "The Lone Ranger" premiered on ABC-TV.

1950 United Nations forces led by U.S. General Douglas MacArthur launched a counter-attack against North Korean forces at Inchon.

1961 Football player Dan Marino was born.

1963 A bomb exploded in a Birmingham, Alabama, church, killing four black girls.

1965 "Lost in Space" premiered on CBS-TV.

1971 "Columbo" premiered on NBC-TV.

1973 King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden died.

1982 The first issue of USA Today was published.

1984 Prince Harry of Great Britain was born.

1986 "LA Law" premiered on NBC-TV.

1996 The Texas Rangers retired Nolan Ryan's #34.

2007 Actress Brett Somers died.

2008 Pink Floyd keyboardist Rick Wright died.

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This page was last updated on September 15, 2018.