On this day thread

[Muteswan]

31st August
12 Caligula [Gaius Caesar], 3rd Roman Emperor (37-41 AD), born in Anzio, Italy (d. 41).
1422 King Henry V of England died of dysentery whilst in France. His son, Henry VI, became King of England at the age of 9 months.
1888 The body of Jack the Ripper's first victim, Mary Ann Nichols, is found in Whitechapel in London's East End.
1897 Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope [kinetographic camera], a device which produces moving pictures.
1900 Coca Cola first went on sale in Britain, fourteen years after it was first sold in the U.S.A.
1908 At the age of 60, and after a career spanning 43 years , the legendary English cricketer W.G. Grace retired from first class cricket. He had scored a total of 54,896 runs (including 126 centuries), taken 2,879 wickets and held 871 catches.
1911 The "Sullivan Act" requiring New Yorkers to possess licences for firearms small enough to be concealed comes into effect.
1913 Sir Bernard Lovell, English radio astronomer, founded Jodrell Bank Observatory, born in Oldland Common, Bristol (d. 2012).
1939 Nazi forces, posing as Poles, mounted a staged attack on the German radio station at Gleiwitz, in Poland, creating an excuse to attack Poland the following day, thus starting World War II in Europe.
1944 Clive Lloyd, West Indies cricket batsman, captain (110 Tests; 7,515 runs @ 46.67), born in Georgetown, British Guiana.
1944 Roger Dean, British artist and album cover designer (Yes; Osibia; Asia), born in Ashford, Kent, England.
1945 (George Ivan)"Van" Morrison, Northern Irish singer-songwriter (Astral Weeks; "Moondance"; "Brown-Eyed Girl"), born in Bloomfield, Belfast.
1946 Foghorn Leghorn, Warner Bros. cartoon character created by Robert McKimson and Warren Foster, (Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series), first debuts in "Walky Talky Hawky".
1949 Richard Gere, actor (Breathless, Cotton Club, Pretty Woman), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1951 1st 33 1/3 album introduced in Dusseldorf.
1967 Rocky Marciano, American boxer (undefeated world heavyweight champion 1952-56), dies in a plane crash at 45.
1968 West Indian cricketer Gary Sobers becomes the first batsman to score six 'sixes' in one over while playing for Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan at Swansea. The unfortunate bowler was Malcolm Nash.
1985 Brothers In Arms by Dire Straits started a nine-week run at No.1 on the US album charts.
1987 Michael Jackson's "Bad" video premieres on CBS TV.
1997 Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Fayed, and their driver were killed in a car crash in the Place de l'Alma underpass in Paris, France. Tests conducted by French police indicated that the driver was intoxicated, may have been travelling at over 100 mph and likely caused the accident while trying to escape the paparazzi photographers.
2006 Stolen on August 22, 2004, Edvard Munch's famous painting "The Scream" is recovered from a raid by Norwegian police. The painting was said to be in a better-than-expected condition.
2018 19-year old Indonesian boy rescued after 49 days afloat when his floating fish trap became adrift.
2018 "A Star is Born" film remake remake directed by and starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga premieres at the Venice Film Festival.

 

[Muteswan]

1st September
1159 The death of Pope Adrian IV, (Nicholas Breakspeare), the only English pope.
1865 Joseph Lister performed the first antiseptic surgery.
1886 The Severn Tunnel, (railway tunnel) between England and Wales, was opened for goods traffic.
1923 Rocky Marciano, American boxer (undefeated world heavyweight champion 1952-56), born in Brockton, Massachusetts (d. 1969).
1925 Art Pepper, American alto saxophonist and clarinetist, born in Gardena, California (d. 1982).
1938 Benito Mussolini cancels civil rights of Italian Jews.
1939 At dawn on 1st September, Germany made a massive invasion of Poland and bombed Warsaw at 6am, beginning World War II in Europe. The service to 2,000 televisions also ceased in Britain. There would be no more TV for seven years.
1939 Adolf Hitler orders extermination of mentally ill through the "T4 Euthanasia Program," arguing that wartime "was the best time for the elimination of the incurably ill".
1939 Switzerland proclaims neutrality at the outbreak of WWII.
1939 Last day of 1st-class cricket in England before the declaration of war against Germany; great slow left-armer Hedley Verity finishes with amazing figures of 7 for 9 v Sussex to give Yorkshire the County Championship.
1941 Jews living in Germany are required to wear a yellow star of David.
1946 Barry Gibb, English singer-songwriter (The Bee Gees), born in Douglas, Isle of Man.
1951 The Premier supermarket opened in Earl’s Court, London; the first supermarket in Britain.
1951 David Bairstow, English cricket wicket keeper, broadcaster (4 Tests; father of England Test 'keeper Jonny), born in Bradford, Yorkshire (d. 1998).
1954 "Rear Window", directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly, is released.
1958 Iceland expanded its fishing zone, putting it into conflict with the United Kingdom and the beginning the Cod Wars.
1960 The Government announced that Britain's first betting shops would be allowed to open for business from May 1961.
1966 The Who single ‘I’m A Boy’ entered the UK chart.
1971 The British penny and the threepenny piece coins ceased to be legal tender as decimalization continued.
1976 Wish You Were Here was close to spending one year on the UK chart.
1981 Garages in Britain began selling petrol in litres.
1985 After 73 years the wreck of the liner 'Titanic' was found, by Dr. Robert Ballard.
2001 Brian Moore, British sports commentator (BBC Radio, London Weekend Television 'The Big Match'), dies of heart failure at 69.
2012 US songwriter Hal David, who wrote dozens of hits with collaborator Burt Bacharach, died in Los Angeles at the age of 91 from complications from a stroke.
2013 Gareth Bale transfers from Tottenham Hotspur FC to Real Madrid for an estimated world record fee of £85.3 million (€100 million).
2015 Pope Francis tells priests to pardon women who have had an abortion, in a letter released by the Vatican.
2019 Co-founder and CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey has his Twitter account hacked.

 

[Muteswan]

2nd September
490 BC 490 BC Pheidippides, Greek hero and inspiration for the modern marathon, died today.
31 BC Battle of Actium: decisive naval battle that effectively ends the Roman Republic. Octavian's forces defeat those under Mark Antony and Cleopatra off the western coast of Greece.
1192 Sultan Saladin and King Richard the Lionheart of England sign treaty over Jerusalem, at end of the Third Crusade.
1645 Alice Lisle, Last woman to be executed by a judicial sentence of beheading in England, beheaded for harboring fugitives after the defeat of the Monmouth Rebellion at around 68.
1666 The Great Fire of London began in a baker's shop in Pudding Lane, and rapidly spread throughout the city, destroying most of London's buildings and houses. Although 13,000 buildings were destroyed in the four-day blaze only six people died.
1752 Last Julian calendar day in Great Britain and British colonies including America. To sync to the Gregorian calendar, 11 days are skipped and the next date is Sep 14.
1834 Thomas Telford, Scottish civil engineer (designed and constructed Menai Bridge, Wales in 1819-26), dies at 77.
1878 Surrey left-arm slow round-arm bowler Ted Barratt takes 10-43 for the Players in Australia's 1st innings in a cricket tour match on his home ground at The Oval; all ten are caught or stumped; Australia wins by 8 runs.
1898 Machine gun 1st used in battle.
1905 New Zealand beats Australia 14-3 in cold, wet conditions in the first international Rugby Union match between the countries on New Zealand soil at Tahuna Park in Dunedin.
1913 Bill Shankly, Scottish football manager (Liverpool, 1959-74), born in Glenbuck, Ayrshire, Scotland (d. 1981).
1929 Victor Spinetti, Welsh actor (A Hard Day's Night, Help!), born in Cwm, Ebbw Vale, Wales (d. 2012).
1937 Derek Fowlds, British actor (Yes Minister, The Basil Brush Show), born in London, England (d. 2020).
1939 Under the National Service Bill, men aged 19 - 41 were conscripted in Britain.
1944 Holocaust diarist Anne Frank sent to Auschwitz concentration camp.
1945 World War II officially ended when Japanese officials, aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, surrendered on behalf of their country.
1952 Jimmy Connors, American tennis player (8-time Grand Slam winner, 109 titles overall), born in Belleville, Illinois.
1964 Keanu Reeves, Canadian actor (Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, The Matrix), born in Beirut, Lebanon.
1965 Lennox Lewis, British/Canadian boxer (Olympic gold super-heavyweight 1988, undisputed world heavyweight champion 1999), born in London, England.
1972 Rod Stewart's 1st #1 hit single in the UK, "You Wear it Well".
1972 The headquarters of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) in Belfast is severely damaged by an IRA bomb.
1973 The death (aged 81) of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (JRR Tolkein), English writer and poet, best known as the author of the classic fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
1978 Matthew Watkins, Welsh rugby union centre (18 caps; Newport, Llanelli Scarlets), born in Newport, Wales (d. 2020).
1980 Australian cricket batsman Kim Hughes becomes 3rd player to bat on all 5 days of a Test match as the rain affected Centenary Test peters out to a draw at Lord's; BBC's John Arlott calls his final match.
1989 Ozzy Osbourne was charged with threatening to kill his wife Sharon. Ozzy was released on the condition that he immediately went into detox, the case was later dropped when the couple decide to reconcile.
1994 Roy Castle, English dancer, actor and tv presenter (Dr Who & the Daleks), dies of lung cancer at 62.
1995 British boxer Frank Bruno beats American champion Oliver McCall in a unanimous 12 round points decision in London for the WBC heavyweight title.
2015 Earth's trees number just over 3 trillion according to study in "Nature" by Thomas Crowther of Yale University.
2019 British Prime Minister Boris Johnson threatens a snap general election if rebel MPs pass bill against no-deal Brexit.

 

[Muteswan]

3rd September
301 San Marino, one of the smallest nations in the world and the world's oldest republic still in existence, founded by Saint Marinus.
1189 Richard the Lionheart is crowned in Westminster. 30 Jews are massacred after the coronation - Richard ordered the perpetrators be executed.
1651 Battle of Worcester: Oliver Cromwell's New Model army destroys English royalist force of mainly Scots in last battle of English Civil War.
1658 Oliver Cromwell, English general (1653-58)/Lord Protector, dies at 59.
1783 Britain finally recognised the United States of America by signing the Treaty of Paris which officially ended the American War of Independence.
1791 French Revolution: The new French Constitution, declaring France a constitutional monarchy, is passed by the National Assembly.
1812 World's first cannery (Donkin, Hall and Gamble) opens in London, England to supply food to the Royal Navy.
1875 Ferdinand Porsche, German automotive engineer (Volkswagen Beetle, Mercedes-Benz SS) and founder of the Porsche car company, born in Maffersdorf, Bohemia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (d. 1951).
1878 British passenger paddle steamer Princess Alice sunk in a collision on the River Thames with the collier Bywell Castle; 645 die.
1916 Captain Leefe Robinson became the first pilot to shoot down a Zeppelin airship - during a German air raid on London in World War I.
1935 First automobile to exceed 300mph, Malcolm Campbell powers Bluebird to 301.129mph at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah.
1939 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, in a radio broadcast, announced that Britain and France had declared war on Germany. He formed an all-party War Cabinet with Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty.
1939 In Britain, the formation of the Citizens' Advice Bureau - established to help people understand and comply with new rules and regulations that were introduced at the start of World War II.
1940 Adolf Hitler orders an invasion of Great Britain for Sept 21 (Operation Seelöwe/Sealion).
1941 1st use of Zyclon-B gas in Auschwitz (on Russian prisoners of war).
1942 Al Jardine, American guitarist and singer (Beach Boys - "Help Me Rhonda"; "Sloop John B."), born in Lima, Ohio.
1953 European Convention on Human Rights goes into effect.
1966 Donovan went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Sunshine Superman', a No.2 hit in the UK. The track featured then Yardbird and future Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page.
1967 Sweden begins driving on right-hand side of road.
1970 Gareth Southgate, English manager of English national side and footballer (Aston Villa, Middlesbrough), born in Watford, England.
1975 England cricket batsman Bob Woolmer scores 149 on the final day to save the 4th Test v Australia at The Oval; longest first-class match ever played in England; 32 hours 17 minutes.
1976 Viking 2 soft lands on Mars (Utopia), returns photos.
1983 UB40 had their first UK No.1 single with 'Red Red Wine'.
1985 England cricket swing bowler Richard Ellison with 5 for 76 helps dismiss Australia for 129 in 6th Test win at the Oval; England regains Ashes 3-1.
1995 Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Hill Norton, backed claims that the British Government was covering up evidence of a UFO sighting in the south of England in 1990.
2004 The Beslan (Russia) school massacre ends in the deaths of approximately 344 people, mostly teachers and children.
2017 Walter Becker, American rock bassist, guitarist, songwriter and record producer (Steely Dan - "Deacon Blues"; "Peg"), dies of esophageal cancer at 67.
2017 1.4 ton WWII bomb defused in Frankfurt, Germany with 60,000 people evacuated, the largest postwar.
2020 Actor Robert Pattinson tests positive for COVID-19, shutting down production of the Batman film he is shooting.

 

[Muteswan]

4th September
476 Romulus Augustulus, last Western Roman Emperor, abdicates after forces led by Odoacer invade Rome. Traditional end of the Western Roman Empire.
1609 English navigator Henry Hudson, working for the Dutch East India Company, arrived at the island of Manhattan, before sailing up the river that now bears his name.
1815 Sir Humphrey Davy invented the miner's safety lamp.
1860 The first weather forecast appeared in The Times.
1882 In its 1st large-scale test, Thomas Edison's light bulb is used to light NY's Pearl Street Station.
1884 Britain stopped sending convicts to New South Wales in Australia.
1886 Apache Chief Geronimo surrenders ending last major US-Indian war.
1888 George Eastman patents the first roll-film camera & registers "Kodak".
1893 Beatrix Potter introduced Peter Rabbit, Squirrel Nutkin, Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail in an illustrated note to her governess’s five-year-old son, Noel Moore.
1912 First accident (collision) in London Underground: 22 people injured.
1922 William Walmsley and William Lyons officially found the Swallow Sidecar Company (later Jaguar Cars) in Blackpool, England.
1934 Clive Granger, Welsh-born British economist (Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences 2003), born in Swansea, Wales (d. 2009). His work on analysing economic data was credited with improving the forecasting performance of the Treasury and the Bank of England.
1955 British TV newsreaders were seen in vision for the first time. The first was the BBC's Kenneth Kendall.
1957 Governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, calls out National Guard to prevent 9 black students from entering Little Rock's Central High School.
1962 The Beatles started their first recording session at EMI's Abbey Road Studios, London, with their producer, George Martin.
1964 Queen Elizabeth II opened the Forth Road Bridge across the Firth of Forth in Scotland.
1965 The Who had their van stolen containing over £5000 worth of equipment outside the Battersea Dogs Home. The band were inside the home at the time buying a guard dog.
1979 Sunil Gavaskar scores his third double century in Test cricket (221) to guide India to a famous draw against England in the 4th Test at The Oval.India needed 438 to win v England, game ends at 429-8.
1982 Survivor were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with the theme from the film Rocky III 'Eye Of The Tiger'.
1984 Thomas the Tank Engine was first broadcast on television. In 1943, Reverend Wilbert Awdry, whilst a curate in Kings Norton, Birmingham, invented stories about railway engines to amuse his son Christopher during a bout of measles. Awdry was then encouraged to produce books about these stories, the first 'The Three Railway Engines' was released in 1945, followed by 'Thomas the Tank Engine' in 1946.
1998 Google is formally incorporated by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University.
1998 1st ever "Who wants to be a Millionaire?" hosted by Chris Tarrant debuts on ITV in Britain.
2000 England claim first series (3-1) over West Indies since 1969; win 5th Test by 158 runs at The Oval, London; Windies captain Courtney Walsh's 132nd and final Test.
2006 Steve Irwin, Australian naturalist and TV personality (The Crocodile Hunter), attacked and killed by a stingray at 44.
2016 Mother Teresa canonized by Pope Francis in a ceremony at the Vatican.
2019 British rebel alliance of MPs vote to ban a no-deal Brexit and reject PM Boris Johnson's call for a snap election.
2179 Nyota Uhura, Fictional Star Trek communications officer, born in Nairobi, Kenya.

 

[Muteswan]

5th September
1646 Following Cromwell's victory in the English civil war, the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury was abolished.
1666 The end of the Great Fire of London, that had started on 2nd September at the bakery of Thomas Farriner on Pudding Lane. 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral had been destroyed, but only 6 people are known to have died.
1698 Russian Tsar Peter the Great imposes a tax on beards.
1774 With the meeting of the Continental Congress, Philadelphia becomes the 1st capital of the United States.
1800 Following a blockade by Admiral Horatio Nelson, French troops surrendered the Mediterranean island of Malta to Britain.
1839 The First Opium War begins in China.
1847 Jesse James, American outlaw and son of a clergyman, born in Kearney, Missouri (d. 1882).
1877 Crazy Horse [Tashunka Witko], last great Sioux war chief, dies at 37.
1914 The First Battle of the Marne began. German, British and French troops fought for six days. Half a million people were killed.
1940 Raquel Welch, American actress and singer (Myra Breckenridge; 1,000,000 BC; 100 Rifles), born in Chicago, Illinois.
1946 Freddie Mercury [Farrokh Bulsara], British singer-songwriter (Queen - "Bohemian Rhapsody"), born in Stone Town, Sultanate of Zanzibar (d. 1991). He died of bronchopneumonia brought on by AIDS on 24th November 1991, only one day after publicly acknowledging that he had the disease.
1957 "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac is published by Viking Press in New York.
1958 "Doctor Zhivago" novel by Boris Pasternak published in US.
1958 "The Huckleberry Hound Show" by Hanna-Barbera featuring Yogi Bear premieres on US TV.
1959 The first trunk dialling system from a public call-box was launched during a ceremonial phone call from Bristol to London.
1959 Born on this day in Blaina, Mike Ruddock, former Wales Grand Slam winning rugby coach, who won the Welsh Coach of the Year in 1992 and 2005. As a player Ruddock made 119 appearances for Swansea, scoring 43 tries and played for Wales B. before his playing days were ended prematurely in 1985. Working as an electricity linesman, he fell from a pole, suffering serious injuries including three compressed vertebrae and a fractured skull.
1960 Cassius Clay [Muhammad Ali] beats 3-time European champion Zbigniew Pietrzykowski of Poland by unanimous points decision to win Olympic light heavyweight boxing gold medal at the Rome Games.
1964 The Animals started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'House Of The Rising Sun'.
1972 11 Israeli athletes taken hostage and later killed by Palestinian Black September group at the Munich Olympics.
1975 Two people were killed and 63 injured as a suspected IRA bomb exploded in the lobby of the Hilton hotel in central London.
1976 Jim Henson's "The Muppet Show" premieres on television with Mia Farrow as the guest star.
1979 The BBC began broadcasting the hit American series 'Dallas' which soon became one of the most popular programmes on British TV.
1981 Soft Cell were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with their version of 'Tainted Love.'
1987 Bill Bowes, English cricketer (Bodyline bowler, 68 wkts for England), dies at 79.
1990 Iraqi President Saddam Hussein urges Arabs to rise against the West.
1991 Nelson Mandela chosen as president of African National Congress.
1997 Mother Teresa [Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu], Albanian born Indian nun and founder of Missionaries of Charity (Nobel Peace Prize, 1979), dies of cardiac arrest at 87.
1998 Manic Street Preachers scored their first UK No.1 single with 'If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next'.
1998 Aerosmith scored their first US No.1 single with the Diane Warren written song 'I Don't Want To Miss A Thing'.
2000 Roy Fredericks, West Indian cricketer (brilliant WI lefty opener 169 v Aust 1975), dies at 57.
2016 An asteroid was named after Freddie Mercury to mark what would have been the singer's 70th birthday. The Queen frontman has had his name attached to Asteroid 17473, which was discovered in 1991 - the year he died.
2018 UK Prime Minister Theresa May confirms in parliament two Russian military intelligence officers undertook novichok nerve agent attack, prompts international condemnation.
2019 Erramatti Mangamma becomes the world's oldest living mother giving birth to twins aged 74 in Hyderabad, India.

 

[Muteswan]

6th September
1620 149 Pilgrims, The Pilgrim Fathers, set sail from Plymouth in the Mayflower bound for America - the New World.
1642 English Long Parliament issues Ordinance ordering closure of London theatres including the Globe theatre, once part-owned by William Shakespeare.
1651 Charles II famously spent the night hidden in an oak tree at Boscobel after his defeat by Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester.
1666 After St Paul's Cathedral and much of the city had been burned down over four days, the Great Fire of London is finally extinguished.
1766 John Dalton, English physicist and chemist who developed the atomic theory of matter and researched colour blindness, born in Eaglesfield, England (d. 1844).
1879 The opening of Britain's first telephone exchange - at Lombard Street in London.
1880 W. G. Grace scores 152 in debut Test Cricket innings, v Aust The Oval.
1899 Carnation processes its first can of evaporated milk.
1920 Born on this day in Gorslas, near Cross Hands, Trevor Morris, professional footballer, manager and secretary of the FAW (the Football Association of Wales). The son of a miner, Morris began his career with Ipswich Town. With the outbreak of World War II, Morris' playing career came to an end when he served in RAF Bomber Control and piloted the lead aircraft in a squadron of 40 Lancaster Bombers on D-Day. He flew over 40 missions over enemy territory and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Coss.
Morris returned to football and became manager-secretary of Cardiff City in 1954 and the following season, took over at Swansea.
1943 [George] Roger Waters, English rock bassist and vocalist (Pink Floyd), born in Cambridge, England.
1944 World War II: The city of Ypres in Belgium was liberated by allied forces.
1963 Cilla Black signed a contract with Beatles manager Brian Epstein. She changed her name from White to Black after a misprint in the music paper Mersey Beat.
1965 India invades West Pakistan, beginning the Indo-Pakistani War.
1967 Engelbert Humperdinck was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'The Last Waltz'.
1968 Eric Clapton records guitar tracks for George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".
1970 Jimi Hendrix made his final live appearance when he appeared at the Isle Of Fehmarn in Germany. The guitarist died 12 days later on 18th Sept 1970 after choking on his own vomit.
1971 Dolores O’Riordan, Irish musician and singer-songwriter (The Cranberries - "Zombie", "Linger"), born in Ballybricken, County Limerick, Ireland (d. 2018).
1972 Idris Elba, English actor (The Wire, Luther), born in London, England.
1972 Summer Olympics resume in Munich, Germany after massacre of 11 Israeli athletes by Black September Palestinian terrorist organisation.
1973 Greg Rusedski, Canadian-British tennis star (1995 Seoul), born in Montreal, Quebec.
1974 Tim Henman, English tennis player, born in Oxford, England.
1975 Glen Campbell started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Rhinestone Cowboy'.
1975 Czech tennis star Martina Navratilova asks for US political asylum in New York City during the US Open.
1986 The first series of the British medical drama television series 'Casualty'.
1989 Amateur Athletic Fed strips Ben Johnson of all track records.
1990 Tom Fogerty rhythm guitarist with Creedence Clearwater Revival died aged 49, due to complications from AIDS acquired during a blood transfusion.
1990 Sir Len Hutton, cricketer, and the first professional to captain England, died at the age of 74.
1991 USSR recognizes the independence of the 3 Baltic republics (Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania).
1992 Gay Kelleway becomes the 1st female jockey to ride a winner at England’s famous Royal Ascot.
1994 James Clavell, author/director (King Rat, Shogun), dies at 69.
1997 The funeral service for Diana, Princess of Wales, was held in Westminster Abbey, London. An estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide watched the service on television.
2007 Luciano Pavarotti, Italian operatic tenor (Oh Giorgio, The Three Tenors), dies at 71.
2012 Barack Obama accepts the Democratic nomination for US President.
2018 Burt Reynolds, American actor (Deliverance, Evening Shade, Strip Tease, Cannonball), dies of cardiac arrest at 82.

 

[Muteswan]

7th September
1533 Elizabeth I Tudor [Virgin Queen], Queen of England and Ireland (1558-1603) and daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, born in Greenwich, London (d. 1603).
1548 Catherine Parr, 6th wife of Henry VIII, died in childbirth.
1888 Edith Eleanor McLean is 1st baby to be placed in an incubator at State Emigrant Hospital on Ward’s Island, New York.
1895 The first game of what would become known as rugby league football, was played in England, starting the 1895–96 Northern Rugby Football Union season.
1902 In Australia, the whole nation observes a 'day of humiliation' and prays for rain, as a terrible drought kills livestock and threatens crops; rain begins to appear on 10 September.
1907 Ocean liner RMS Lusitania begins her maiden voyage sailing from Liverpool to New York City.
1920 Harri Webb, Welsh poet and nationalist, born in Swansea, Wales (d. 1994).
1923 Interpol forms in Vienna.
1925 Laura Ashley, Welsh fashion designer, businesswoman and co-founder of Laura Ashley, born in Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales (d. 1985).
1930 Sonny Rollins, American jazz saxophonist (Blue Room), born in NYC, New York.
1936 Buddy Holly [Charles Holley], American musician (Peggy Sue, That'll Be the Day), born in Lubbock, Texas (d. 1959).
1936 Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam) begins operation.
1940 Beginning of the Blitz as the German Luftwaffe bomb London for the 1st of 57 consecutive nights losing 41 bombers as the Nazis prepare to invade Britain.
1950 Julie Kavner, American actress and voice artist (Brenda-Rhoda, Marge-Simpsons), born in Los Angeles, California.
1956 Byron Stevenson, British footballer (Leeds United), born in Llanelli, Wales (d. 2007).
1968 US Open Women's Tennis, Forest Hills, NY: England's Virginia Wade wins first Open era US singles title; beats Billie Jean King 6-4, 6-2.
1968 Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham made their live debut as Led Zeppelin but billed as The New Yardbirds at Teen Club in Gladsaxe (a suburb in the outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark).
1969 Scottish Matra-Ford driver Jackie Stewart wins the Italian Grand Prix at Monza to clinch his first Formula 1 World Drivers Championship; his 6th F1 win of the season.
1976 ABBA were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Dancing Queen'.
1976 US courts find George Harrison guilty of 'subconsciously' plagiarizing "He's So Fine" for his song "My Sweet Lord".
1978 Keith Moon, British rock drummer (The Who), dies of drug overdose of heminevrin prescribed to combat alcoholism. A post-mortem confirmed there were 32 tablets in his system, 26 of which were undissolved.
1978 While walking across Waterloo Bridge in London, Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was assassinated by a Bulgarian secret police agent using a ricin pellet fired from a specially-designed umbrella.
1999 A 5.9 magnitude earthquake rocks Athens, rupturing a previously unknown fault, killing 143, injuring more than 500, and leaving 50,000 people homeless.
2004 Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) held their first debate in the new Scottish Parliament building. It was built at a cost : £414 million (ten times over the original budget).
2019 US President Donald Trump says he has cancelled a secret meeting with the Taliban for peace talks at Camp David.

 

[Muteswan]

9th September
1087 William the Conqueror, the first Norman king of England (1066-1087) and Duke of Normandy (1035-1087), dies at about 59.
1513 The Scots were heavily defeated by the English at the Battle of Flodden Field and James IV was killed, along with all his nobles.
1543 Mary Stuart, at nine months old, is crowned "Queen of Scots" in the central Scottish town of Stirling.
1754 Birth date of William Bligh, British naval officer who was the victim of two mutinies, the most famous on the HMS Bounty which was taken over by Fletcher Christian.
1776 Congress officially renames the country as the United States of America (from the United Colonies).
1828 William Bligh, British naval commander (mutinied against on HMS Bounty), born in Plymouth (probable), England (d. 1817).
1839 English scientist and astronomer John Herschel takes 1st glass plate photograph.
1879 The death of John Smith, English brewer, best known for operating the John Smith's Brewery in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire.
1890 Colonel Harland Sanders, American founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, born in Henryville, Indiana (d. 1980).
1901 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter, dies at 36.
1908 Orville Wright makes 1st 1-hr airplane flight, Fort Myer, Va.
1914 Meeting held at Gaelic League headquarters between Irish Republican Brotherhood and other extreme republicans; initial decision made to stage an uprising while Britain is at war.
1926 National Broadcasting Company created by Radio Corporation of America.
1935 [Chaim] Topol, actor (Fiddler on the Roof), born in Tel Aviv, Israel.
1941 Otis Redding, American singer-songwriter ("Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay"; "Respect"), born in Dawson, Georgia (d. 1967).
1953 Today, Welsh poet and playwright Dylan Thomas handed the barely completed script for the play for voices Under Milk Wood to the BBC before embarking on a reading tour of the United States. His intention was to revise the script before its first broadcast. However, Dylan died during the American tour and was never able to edit the play.
1956 Elvis Presley appears on "The Ed Sullivan Show" for the 1st time.
1960 Hugh Grant, English actor (4 Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones' Diary), born in London, England.
1963 The Beatles were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'She Loves You.' 'Please Please Me' was at No.1 on the UK album chart.
1965 The Rolling Stones were at No.1 in the UK with ’(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’, giving the band their 4th UK No.1 single.
1971 Born on this day in San Antonio, Texas, U.S, Henry Jackson Thomas Jr, the actor best known for his role as eight-year old Elliott in Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Thomas is very proud of his Welsh ancestry, which he has confirmed from DNA testing. His father's side of the family originate from North Wales and his mother's from Carmarthenshire. He is attempting to learn some Welsh and is also a Swansea City football supporter.
1972 Slade were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Mama Weer All Crazee Now', the group's third UK No.1.
1974 Gok Wan [Kowkhyn Wan], British fashion consultant, author and TV presenter (How to Look Good Naked, Gok Cooks Chinese), born in Leicester, England.
1975 Michael Bublé, Canadian Grammy and Juno Award winning singer ("Haven't Met You Yet"; "It's A Beautiful Day"), and actor, born in Burnaby, British Columbia.
1975 Paul McCartney & Wings begin their "Wings Over The World" tour in Southampton, England; 65 concerts in Europe, Australia, Canada, and United States, runs through October of 1976.
1976 Mao Zedong, Chinese revolutionary and Chairman of the Communist Party of China (1949-76), dies of a heart attack at 82.
1987 Twenty five English football fans involved in the Heysel stadium disaster were extradited to Belgium.
1988 The Indian cricket tour was cancelled as English cricket captain Graham Gooch and seven other members of his squad were refused visas to travel to India.
1997 Burgess Meredith, American actor (Mr Novak, The Penguin in Batman, Rocky), dies at 88.
2004 Ernie Ball, American entrepreneur and musician who pioneered the development of guitar-related products, dies at 74. He developed the guitar strings called 'Slinkys' specifically designed for rock and roll electric guitar.
2015 Queen Elizabeth II becomes Great Britain's longest-reigning monarch at 63 years and seven months, beating the previous record set by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.
2015 Apple unveils the iPad Pro and iPhone 6S in San Francisco.
2020 Donald Trump purposely downplayed the pandemic in early 2020 to avoid panic according to Bob Woodward's new book "Rage"

 

[Muteswan]

10th September
1224 The Franciscans, founded in 1209 by St. Francis of Assisi, first arrived in England. They were originally called Grey Friars because of their grey 'habits'.
1349 Jews who survived a massacre in Constance Germany are burned to death.
1882 1st international conference to promote anti-semitism meets Dresden Germany (Congress for Safeguarding of Non-Jewish Interests).
1897 George Smith, a London cab driver, became the first person to be convicted for drunken driving. He was fined £1.
1919 China becomes a member of the League of Nations.
1926 Germany joins League of Nations.
1929 Arnold Palmer, American golfer (7 major titles; US Masters 1958, 60, 62, 64), born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania (d. 2016).
1933 English tennis player Fred Perry became the first Briton to win the US Open men's singles championship since Laurence "Laurie" Doherty in 1903.
1940 Buckingham Palace hit by German bomb.
1942 In a single raid, the RAF dropped 100,000 bombs on Dusseldorf.
1945 Mike the Headless Chicken is decapitated in Fruita, Colorado; he survives for another 18 months before choking to death.
1948 Bradman scores 153 in his last 1st-class cricket innings in England.
1950 Don Powell, English rock drummer (Slade), born in Bilston, England.
1950 Joe Perry, American rock guitarist (Aerosmith - "Walk This Way"), born in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
1960 A goal-less draw between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers became the first English League game shown live on TV.
1960 Colin Firth, English actor (Bridget Jones' Diary, The King's Speech), born in Grayshott Hampshire.
1960 Harold Gillies, New Zealand father of modern plastic surgery who pioneered skin graft techniques on injured soldiers in WWI, dies at 78 of a slight cerebral thrombosis gained while operating on the leg of an 18-year-old girl.
1964 Palestinian Liberation Army (PLA) forms.
1966 Beatles' "Revolver," album goes #1 & stays #1 for 6 weeks in the UK.
1967 Gibraltar votes 12,138 to 44 to remain British & not Spanish.
1973 Scotland Yard began hunting for a teenage suspect after two bombs at mainline stations injured 13 people and brought chaos to central London.
1975 Rock band Kiss release their 1st live album "Alive!".
1977 Today in Swansea, Miss Cygnet became Mrs Mute.
1980 Peter Comita replaces Tom Peterson of Cheap Trick.
1985 Jock Stein, Scottish footballer and manager, dies at 62.
1988 Guns N' Roses started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Sweet Child O' Mine'.
1990 Hard Rock Cafe opens in Las Vegas Nevada.
1991 Rock band Nirvana release their single "Smells like Teen Spirit".
1993 "The X-Files", created by Chris Carter and starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson debuts on Fox.
2001 Charles Ingram won one million pounds on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. He was later accused of cheating by having his wife, Diana, and an accomplice, Tecwen Whittock, cough as Ingram announced the correct answer from the available choices.
2008 The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, described as the biggest scientific experiment in the history of mankind is powered up in Geneva, Switzerland.
2012 US Open Men's Tennis: Andy Murray of Scotland wins his first Grand Slam event; beats defending champion Novak Đoković 7-6, 7-5, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2.
2015 New human-like species - Homo Naledi announced by Scientists and a team of female archaeologists, found deep in caves in South Africa.
2020 Diana Rigg, English actress (Emma Peel-Avengers, Game of Thrones), dies at 82.

 

[Muteswan]

11th September
1297 Battle at Stirling Bridge, Scottish rebel William Wallace defeats the English.
1836 Register Office marriages were introduced in Britain.
1862 Hawley Harvey Crippen [Dr Crippen], American homeopath and first killer to be caught with the aid of wireless telegraphy, born in Coldwater, Michigan (d. 1910).
1879 268 miners died in an explosion at the Prince of Wales Colliery, at Abercarn, South Wales.
1885 D. H. Lawrence, English poet and writer (Lady Chatterley's Lover), born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire (d. 1930).
1895 The prestigious FA Cup trophy was stolen from football outfitters William Shillock of Birmingham. 68 years later an 83 year old man confessed he'd melted it down to make counterfeit halfcrown coins.
1915 The first Women's Institute meeting in Britain was held in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch today.
1940 Hitler begins operation Seelöwe (Sealion - aborted invasion England).
1941 Construction of the Pentagon begins in Arlington County, Virginia (completed Jan 15, 1943).
1942 Enid Blyton publishes "Five on a Treasure Island" first of her "Famous Five" children's novels, start of one of the best-selling children's series ever with over 100 million sold.
1945 Physician Willem J Kolff performs the first successful kidney dialysis using his artificial kidney machine.
1952 West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer signs a reparation pact for the Jewish people.
1961 Foundation of the World Wildlife Fund.
1962 The Beatles completed the recording of their first single 'Love Me Do' at the Abbey Road Studios in north London.
1965 The Beatles started a nine-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with Help!
1966 Rolling Stones perform on "The Ed Sullivan Show".
1967 Beatles' Magical Mystery Bus driven around England.
1971 Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet premier, dies of a heart attack at 77.
1977 Matthew Stevens, Welsh snooker player, born in Carmarthen, Wales.
1977 The Atari 2600, originally known as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) is released in North America, revolutionizing the video game industry.
1978 The last known person dies of smallpox - medical photographer Janet Parker through infection in a laboratory, in Birmingham, England.
1982 46 people, including 14 from South Wales, died today when a Chinook helicopter crashed into a motorway in Mannheim in Germany. Members of the Swansea Skydiving Club had been invited to take part in an air show to celebrate the 375th anniversary of the city of Mannheim. They were part of a group trying to set a free-falling world record.
1985 Sri Lanka score their 1st Test Cricket victory, by 149 runs v India.
1988 Roger Hargreaves, author and creator of the Mr. Men books died.
1997 After a nationwide referendum, Scotland votes to establish a devolved parliament, within the United Kingdom.
2001 Two passenger planes hijacked by Al Qaeda terrorists crash into New York's World Trade Towers causing the collapse of both and deaths of 2,606 people. Terrorists hijack a passenger plane and crash it into the Pentagon causing the deaths of 125 people. Attempt by passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93 to retake control of their hijacked plane from terrorists causes plane to crash in Pennsylvania field killing all 64 people on board.
2014 South African athlete Oscar Pistorius is found not guilty of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp (and is later found guilty of culpable homicide).
2015 "The Martian" based on the novel by Andy Weir, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival.
2017 Hurricane Irma leaves 7 million US homes without power in Florida and Georgia.
2018 James Anderson takes his 564th Test wicket to become the most prolific fast bowler in cricket history as England beats India by 118 runs in the 5th Test at The Oval for a 4-1 series victory; Alistair Cook's final Test.
2018 Russia launches its largest military exercise since 1981 involving 300,000 personal with Chinese troops participating.
2019 Water detected for first time on planet outside out solar system, on exoplanet K2-18b 110 light-years away, in findings published in "Nature Astronomy".

 

[Muteswan]

12th September
1440 Eton College was founded by Henry VI. Prefects were warned to look out for "ill-kempt heads and unwashed faces."
1575 Henry Hudson, English navigator and explorer (Hudson River), born in England (d. 1611).
1624 1st submarine publicly tested in London on the Thames for King James I.
1755 Giacomo Casanova is sentenced to 5 years imprisonment in Venice without trial for affront to religion and common decency.
1792 Court martial begins for instigators of the mutiny on the Bounty on board HMS Duke in Portsmouth harbour, presided over by Vice-Admiral Samuel Hood.
1869 Peter Mark Roget, British lexicographer (Roget's Thesaurus) and inventor (slide rule, pocket chessboard), dies at 90.
1878 Cleopatra's Needle, the obelisk of Thothmes II, was erected on London's Embankment.
1885 The Scottish football team of Arbroath beat Bon Accord (from Aberdeen) by 36 goals to nil in the first round of the Scottish Cup, making it a record breaking score for professional football. Thirteen goals were scored by centre-forward John Petrie.
1888 Maurice Chevalier, French actor and singer ("Thank Heaven For Little Girls"), born in Paris (d. 1972).
1906 The opening of the Newport Transporter Bridge in south east Wales. Only eight such bridges remain in use worldwide and this is the oldest and largest of the three historic transporter bridges which remain in Britain. Vehicles are tranported on the 'gondola' across the River Usk.
1913 Jesse Owens, American athlete (4 Olympic gold 1936), born in Oakville, Alabama (d. 1980).
1914 Desmond Llewelyn,(Q in James Bond) Welsh actor, born in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales (d. 1999).
1919 Adolf Hitler joins the obscure German Worker's Party as its seventh member, agreeing not with worker's rights, but with its German Nationalism and antisemitism.
1931 Sir Ian Holm, eminent English actor (The Lord of the Rings, Alien, King Lear), born in Goodmayes, Essex (d. 2020).
1933 Born on this day in Swansea, Len Allchurch, former wales soccer international, whose playing career spanned almost twenty years, most notably he played in the top flight with Sheffield United and had lengthy spells with Swansea City and Stockport County. He is the brother of the late Ivor Allchurch and had the distinction of never receiving a booking or a caution throughout his entire Football League career. Allchurch earned 11 caps for Wales and was part of the Welsh squad at the 1958 FIFA World Cup. On his retirement Allchurch became an hotelier in Swansea before running a leather goods business.
1940 Four teens, following their dog down a hole near Lascaux, France discover 17,000 year old drawings now known as the Lascaux Cave Paintings.
1948 Indian Army Invades the State of Hyderabad a day after Pakistani leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah passes away.
1951 Born today in Kidwelly, Ray Gravell, former Llanelli, Wales and Lions international.
1952 Neil Peart, Canadian musician and drummer (Rush-A Farewell to Kings), born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
1958 US Supreme Court orders the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas to integrate.
1958 Jack Kilby demonstrates his first integrated circuit (IC) to his supervisor.
1959 "Bonanza" premieres on NBC-TV.
1959 Luna 2 launched by USSR; 1st spacecraft to impact on the Moon.
1960 Ministry of Transport (MoT) tests on motor vehicles were introduced in the UK.
1964 Film that started Spaghetti Western genre "A Fistful of Dollars" premieres, directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood in his first leading role.
1970 Smokey Robinson and The Miracles were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'The Tears Of A Clown'.
1970 The supersonic Concorde passenger jet landed at Heathrow Airport for the first time to a barrage of complaints from nearby residents about noise.
1975 Pink Floyd releases their ninth album "Wish You Were Here".
1977 Anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko dies in police custody from his injuries after being beaten and tortured by police.
1978 Michael Paget, Welsh guitarist (Bullet for My Valentine), born in Bridgend, South Wales.
1990 US, United Kingdom, France, USSR, East & West Germanys sign agreements allowing 2 Germanys to merge.
1992 Anthony Perkins, American actor (Psycho), and singer, dies from AIDS at 60.
2000 Britain was brought to a standstill as fuel tax protesters, backed by tanker drivers, caused petrol shortages.
2001 Article V of the NATO agreement is invoked for the first and only time in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States of America.
2003 Johnny Cash, American country singer ("I Walk the Line"; "Ring of Fire"; "A Boy Named Sue"), dies at 71.
2008 On its completion, The Tower, Meridian Quay in Swansea, became the tallest building in Wales at 107m (351ft).The tower, which has 29 storeys, houses mainly residential apartments, with a restaurant on the top three floors. It is reported that a penthouse apartment on the 26th floor was sold for £1 million.
2012 Excavators announce that they may have found the remains of King Richard III of England under a carpark in Leicester.
2013 The Church in Wales made the historic decision to create women bishops.
2013 Ray Dolby, sound expert/inventor (Dolby noise limiting system), dies of leukemia at 80.
2014 Ian Paisley, First Minister of Northern Ireland (Democratic Unionist Party: 2007-08), loyalist politician and Protestant religious leader, dies at 88.
2015 Jeremy Corbyn is elected leader of the UK Labour party.
2017 Monster fatburg 250m long, 130 tons, size of 11 buses found in sewers under east London.
2017 Apple unveils premium iPhone X costing $999, along with iPhone 8.
2018 Oldest known human drawing discovered, a hashtag-like abstract drawing with red ochre, 73,000 years old, in Blombos Cave, South Africa published in "Nature".
2018 More than 3,600 children reported abused by Catholic priests in Germany (1946-2014) in leaked report.
2021 All Britain's major newspapers carried the story of unseeded 18 year old Emma Raducanu winning the US Open, after beating Leylah Fernandez in straight sets. She did not drop a set through qualifying or the main draw, was the first qualifier to ever win a Grand Slam and was the first British woman to win a Grand Slam trophy since Virginia Wade at Wimbledon in 1977.
Today is the feast day of Saint Elvis. Saint Ailbe (Elvis, Eilfyw or Eilfw), was a 'pre-Patrician' bishop from Ireland who is credited with having baptised St David. The parish of St Elvis (Llaneilfyw) 4 miles east of St David's is named after him.

 

[Muteswan]

13th September
122 Building begins on Hadrian's Wall, Northern England.
1501 Michelangelo begins work on his statue of David, a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture.
1660 Daniel Defoe, English novelist (Robinson Crusoe), born in London, England (d. 1731).
1759 British troops, under the command of General Wolfe, secured Canada for the British Empire after defeating the French at the Battle of Quebec. Wolfe and the French commander were killed during the battle.
1845 English chemist Michael Faraday discovers the 'Faraday effect', the influence of a magnetic field on polarized light.
1902 The first conviction in Britain using finger-prints as evidence was in the case against Harry Jackson by the Metropolitan Police at the Old Bailey. He had left his thumbprint in wet paint on a window sill and was tracked down through it.
1907 Lusitania arrives in New York City after record 5 day crossing of Atlantic.
1916 The birth, in Cardiff, (to Norwegian parents) of the author Roald Dahl.
1922 The Straw Hat Riot begins in New York City as people protest the right to wear straw hats beyond the accepted end date of September 15.
1924 Maurice Jarre, French Academy and Grammy Award-winning film composer (Lawrence Of Arabia; Doctor Zhivago; Witness; Fatal Attraction), born in Lyon, France (d. 2009).
1957 The Mousetrap became Britain's longest running play, reaching its 1,998th performance. The Mousetrap opened in London's West End in 1952 and ran continuously until 16 March 2020, when the stage performances had to be discontinued due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
1958 Cliff Richard made his British TV debut on Jack good's 'Oh Boy', performing 'Move It'.
1965 Beatles release single "Yesterday" - just Paul, with a strings arranged by George Martin in the US, not released in the UK as a single until 1976.
1969 "Scooby-Doo Where are You" by Hanna-Barbera debuts on CBS in the US.
1969 Shane Warne, Australian cricket spin bowler and broadcaster (145 Tests, 708 wickets; 194 ODIs), born in Melbourne, Australia.
1977 2nd Test flight of Space Shuttle Enterprise.
1985 Super Mario Bros game first appears, created by Shigeru Miyamoto at Nintendo.
1997 Elton John releases "Candle in the Wind 1997", a tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales in the UK.
2001 Civilian aircraft traffic resumes in the U.S. after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
2009 Vera Lynn went to No.1 on the UK album chart with 'We'll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn'. At the age of 92 it made her the oldest living artist to achieve this feat with an album.
2015 Brian Close, English cricketer (played for England between 1949 & 1976), dies at 84.

 

[Muteswan]

14th September
1682 Bishop Gore School, in Swansea was founded. It is one of the oldest schools in Wales and its most famous former pupil is almost certainly the poet, playwright and author Dylan Thomas who, it is said, was not a distinguished pupil. His father was Senior English Master at the school, which was then known as Swansea Grammar School.
1741 George Frideric Handel finishes his "Messiah" oratorio after working on it non-stop for 23 days.
1752 Britain and the British Empire (including the American colonies) adopt the Gregorian Calendar. The 3rd of September became the 14th as the Gregorian Calendar was introduced.
1812 Great Fire of Moscow begins as Napoleon approaches the city and retreating Russians burn it - fire continues to burn for five days.
1814 Francis Scott Key pens the poem "Defence of Fort M'Henry", later known as "The Star-Spangled Banner" while witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry from a ship in Baltimore harbour.
1868 Golf's 1st recorded hole-in-one by Tom Morris at Prestwick's 8th hole, Scotland.
1891 The first penalty kick in an English League football game was taken by Heath of Wolverhampton Wanderers against Accrington.
1914 Lord Kitchener: "Your country needs you" appears as front cover design for the London Opinion magazine.
1936 1st prefrontal lobotomy in America performed by Walter Freeman and James W. Watts at George Washington University Hospital in Washington D.C.
1938 Graf Zeppelin II, world's largest airship, makes its maiden flight.
1939 World’s 1st practical helicopter, the VS-300 designed by Igor Sikorsky takes (tethered) flight in Stratford, Connecticut.
1950 Born today, Paul Kossoff, guitar, Free (1970 UK No.2 & US No.4 single 'All Right Now'). Formed Back Street Crawler. Kossoff died of a heart attack on 19th March 1976 during a flight from Los Angeles to New York.
1953 Nikita Khrushchev appointed First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, succeeding Malenkov.
1955 Little Richard records "Tutti Frutti" at J & M Studio in New Orleans, Louisiana. With only fifteen minutes left in the session, Richard recorded the song and coined the phrase, ‘a-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-lop-bam-boom.’
1956 IBM introduces the RAMAC 305,1st commercial computer with a hard drive that uses magnetic disk storage,weighs over a ton
1960 Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi-Arabia and Venezuela form the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
1965 Western sitcom "F-Troop" premieres in the US on ABC. Later seen on the North Bank.
1968 While on tour in England, a fire at singer Roy Orbison's Henderson, Tennessee home kills the two eldest of his three sons.
1972 "The Waltons" TV program premieres on CBS starring Richard Thomas, Ralph Waite, Michael Learned, and Will Geer.
1978 The Provisional Irish Republican Army explode over 50 bombs in towns across Northern Ireland over the next 5 days, injuring 37 people.
1979 The film "Quadrophenia", loosely based on The Who's 1973 rock opera of the same name, is released.
1983 Born today, Amy Jade Winehouse in Enfield.
1996 England Test cricket fast bowler Dean Headley equals WR by taking his 3rd hat-trick of the English County season for Kent v Hampshire at Canterbury.
1998 British TV show "The Royle Family" written and starring Caroline Adherne and Craig Cash, also starring Ricky Tomlinson and Sue Johnston premieres on BBC Two.
2000 Born on this day in Exeter, Ethan Ampadu, Wales football international who qualifies to play for Wales through his Welsh mother.
2009 David Attenborough and Prince William officially open the Darwin Centre at the National History Museum London, in what is the Museum's most significant expansion since 1881.
2017 Bodleian Library reveals earliest evidence of the zero symbol in 3rd or 4th Century Bakhshali (Pakistan) manuscript, through carbon dating.
2019 Former Welsh rugby union and league player Gareth Thomas reveals he is HIV positive.

 

[Muteswan]

15th September
1254 Marco Polo, Italian explorer (Il Milione), born in Venice, Venetian Republic (d. 1324).
1795 "Lyrical Ballads" published by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth - 1st work of English Romantic movement.
1812 French army under Napoleon Bonaparte reaches the Kremlin in Moscow.
1830 George Stephenson's Manchester and Liverpool railway opened. During the ceremony, William Huskisson, MP, became the first person to be killed by a train when he crossed the track to shake hands with the Duke of Wellington.
1835 HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin on board reaches the Galapagos Islands.
1859 Isambard Kingdom Brunel, British engineer (SS Great Britain, Great Western Railway), dies of a stroke at 53.
1881 Ettore Bugatti, Italian-French automobile designer and manufacturer (Automobiles E. Bugatti), born in Milan, Italy (d. 1947).
1890 Agatha Christie, English crime writer (Murder on the Orient Express), born in Torquay, Devon (d. 1976).
1916 Military tanks, designed by Ernest Swinton, were first used by the British Army, in the Somme offensive.
1928 Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin while studying influenza.
1940 The tide turned in the Battle of Britain as the German air force sustained heavy losses inflicted by the Royal Air Force. The defeat was serious enough to convince Nazi leader Adolf Hitler to abandon his plans for an invasion of Britain. The day was chosen as "Battle of Britain Day".
1949 "Lone Ranger" premieres on ABC-TV. Hi-yo, Silver! Away!
1960 London introduced Traffic Wardens onto the streets of the capital.
1961 A group from Hawthorne, California called The Pendletones attend their first real recording session at Hite Morgan's studio in Los Angeles. The band recorded 'Surfin', a song that would help shape their career as The Beach Boys.
1962 The Four Seasons started a five week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Sherry'.
1965 US TV series "Lost in Space" premieres.
1966 First British nuclear ballistic missile submarine HMS Resolution launched.
1966 U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to the United States Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation.
1978 Willy Messerschmitt, German aircraft builder, dies at 80.
1980 Bill Evans, American jazz pianist ("Peace Piece"; "Waltz For Debbie"), dies of a bleeding ulcer at 51.
1984 Prince Harry [Henry Charles Albert David Windsor], Prince of Wales, 6th in British succession, born in London, England.
1985 Tony Jacklin's team of golfers beat the United States in the Ryder Cup for the first time in 28 years.
1986 1st broadcast of legal drama "L.A. Law" created by Steven Bochco, with ensemble cast including Corbin Bersen, Jill Eikenberry and Harry Hamlin on NBC.
1992 George Soros' Quantum Fund begins selling large amounts of pound sterling, labelled "the man who broke the Bank of England" when pound crashes out of the ERM next day.
1997 Google.com is registered as a domain name.
2004 Johnny Ramone, American lead guitarist of the punk rock band The Ramones, dies of prostate cancer at 55.
2008 Richard Wright, English rock keyboardist and songwriter (Pink Floyd), dies of cancer at 65.
2011 The Gleision Colliery mining accident occurred in a drift mine at Cilybebyll near Pontardawe in the Tawe Valley. The accident occurred while seven miners were working underground with explosives. An initial explosion caused the tunnel in which the miners were working to begin to fill with water. Three of the men managed to escape but the rescue operation to find the remaining four men found them dead the following day. This disaster was the worst to occur in Wales for three decades.
2017 Terrorist bomb only partially explodes in attack at Parsons Green tube station, London, injuring 29.
2018 Archaeologists find the oldest-known brewery and remains of 13,000-year-old beer in Haifa cave, Israel, belonging to nomadic Natufian people.