September 15

Events

Up to 1900

• 668 – Eastern Roman Emperor Constans II is murdered in his bath.
• 1440 – Gilles de Rais, one of the earliest-known serial killers, is taken into custody upon an accusation brought against him by the Bishop of Nantes.
• 1616 – The first non-aristocratic free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy.
• 1762 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Signal Hill.
• 1776 – American Revolutionary War: British forces land at Kip's Bay, during the New York Campaign.
• 1789 – The United States Department of State is founded, as the Department of Foreign Affairs.
• 1812 – The French army under Napoleon Bonaparte enters Moscow.
• 1812 – War of 1812: A second supply train sent to relieve Fort Harrison is ambushed in the Attack of the Narrows.
• 1820 – Constitutionalist Revolution in Lisbon
• 1821 – Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica jointly declare independence from Spain.
• 1830 – The Liverpool to Manchester railway line opens. On the same day, William Huskisson becomes the first railway fatality after being hit by a locomotive.
• 1835 – The HMS Beagle arrives in the Galapagos Islands with a young Charles Darwin on board.
• 1851 – Saint Joseph's University is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• 1862 – American Civil War: Confederate forces capture Harper's Ferry, then in Virginia, now in West Virginia.
• 1873 – Franco-Prussian War: The last German troops leave France.
• 1875 – Indianola, Texas, is destroyed by a Hurricane, killing between 150 and 300 people.
• 1894 – First Sino-Japanese War: Japan defeats China in the Battle of Pyongyang.

1901 – 2000

• 1916 – World War I: Tanks are used in battle for the first time, in the Somme, northern France.
• 1935 – With the Nuremberg Laws, the Nazis strip Jews of German citizenship.
• 1935 – The Nazis adopt the Swastika flag as the flag of Germany.
• 1940 – World War II: Climax of the Battle of Britain.
• 1942 – World War II: United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Wasp is torpedoed at Guadalcanal, present-day Solomon Islands.
• 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Peleliu (in Palau), between US and Japanese forces, begins.
• 1944 – World War II: Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt meet in Quebec as part of the Octagon conference to discuss strategy.
• 1945 – A hurricane in South Florida and the Bahamas destroys 366 planes and 25 blimps at NAS Richmond
• 1947 – Typhoon Kathleen kills 1,077 people in the Kanto region of Japan.
• 1948 – The F-86 Sabre sets the world aircraft speed record, at 671 miles per hour (1,080 kilometres per hour).
• 1949 – Konrad Adenauer becomes the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.
• 1950 – Korean War: US forces land at Inchon.
• 1952 – The UN gives Eritrea to Ethiopia.
• 1958 – A Central Railroad of New Jersey commuter train runs through an open drawbridge at the Newark Bay, killing 58 people.
• 1959 – Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet leader to visit the US.
• 1961 – Hurricane Carla hits Texas.
• 1962 – Soviet ship Poltava heads towards Cuba, one of the events that lead to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
• 1963 – "Birmingham Sunday" when a bomb killed 4 black girls in a church in Birmingham, Alabama.
• 1966 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to United States Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation.
• 1968 – The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter Earth's atmosphere.
• 1969 – US ice breaker tanker SS Manhattan passes through the Northwest Passage, after four weeks.
• 1972 – Scandinavian Airlines System domestic flight from Gothenburg to Stockholm, Sweden, is hijacked and flown to Malmo Bulltofta Airport.
• 1973 – Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden becomes King.
• 1975 – The French department of Corse, on the island of Corsica, is divided in two, into Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud.
• 1981 – Vanuatu joins the UN.
• 1981 – The Senate Judiciary Committee approves Sandra Day O'Connor to become a Justice on the United States Supreme Court, being the first female in such a role.
• 1983 – Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin resigns.
• 1990 – France announces it will send 4,000 troops to the Persian Gulf.
• 1991 – Bangladesh becomes a parliamentary democracy.
• 1993 – Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein disbands his country's parliament.
• 1994 – For the first time, a planet outside the Solar System is discovered.
• 1997 – New York City's Museum of Jewish Heritage opens.
• 2000 – The 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney begin.

From 2001

• 2007 – Former world Rally champion Colin McRae dies in a helicopter crash in Lanarkshire, Scotland, along with his son and two family friends.
• 2008 – Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
• 2011 – A parliamentary election is held in Denmark, resulting in Helle Thorning-Schmidt becoming Prime Minister on October 3.
• 2015 – Malcolm Turnbull replaces Tony Abbott as Prime Minister of Australia.
• 2015 – Aksel V. Johannesen becomes Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands.