September 10, 1813: Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry and a U.S. Navy squadron defeat a British squadron in the Battle of Lake Erie, the most significant naval battle ever fought on the Great Lakes. Perry wrote a famous letter to his regional superior, Gen. (and future President) William Henry Harrison, that day:
Dear General:
We have met the enemy and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop.
Yours with great respect and esteem,
O.H. Perry
September 12, 1846: Elizabeth Barrett elopes with Robert Browning.
September 13, 1501: Michelangelo begins work on his statue of David.
September 15, 1935: Nazi Germany adopts a new national flag bearing the swastika.
September 15, 1940: The largest battle between Nazi German and British and allied warplanes during World War II raged in the skies over the British Isles, with over 1,500 aircraft involved. The Germans lost and were thus unable to establish air superiority, making an invasion (Operation Sea Lion) very unlikely. The event is now commemorated in the UK as Battle of Britain Day.
September 16, 1966: The new Metropolitan Opera House opens at Lincoln Center in New York City with the world premiere of Samuel Barber’s opera Antony and Cleopatra, starring Leontyne Price.
September 16,
1630: The Massachusetts village of Shawmut changed its name to Boston.
1987: Two dozen countries signed the Montreal Protocol, a treaty designed to save the Earth’s ozone layer by calling on nations to reduce emissions of harmful chemicals by the year 2000!
September 17, 1849: Abolitionist Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery.
September 17, 1787: The Constitutional Convention adjourns in Philadelphia, with most of the delegates, including George Washington as presiding officer, signing the proposed Constitution.
September 17, 1862: The Battle of Antietam, the single bloodiest day of the American Civil War, is fought in Maryland. It is more or less a draw, but a tactical victory for the United States forces over those of the Confederacy, as it ends Gen. Robert E. Lee’s invasion of Maryland.
Sept 17 1820: birthday of CSA General Earl Van Dorn. killed not in battle but by a jealous husband. A beau sabreur who lunged unwisely.
September 18, 1793: The first cornerstone of the United States Capitol is laid by George Washington.
September 18, 1851: The first edition of the New York Times was published.
[Is today’s edition number on its masthead? I remember buying #50,000 a few years ago.]
September 19, 1985: Tipper Gore and other political wives form the Parents Music Resource Center, as Frank Zappa and other musicians testify at U.S. Congressional hearings on obscenity in rock music.
September 20, 2011: The United States military ends its “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly for the first time.
September 21, 1981: Sandra Day O’Connor is unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate as the first female Supreme Court justice.
September 22, 1941: On the Jewish New Year Day, the German SS murders 6,000 Jews in Vinnytsia, Ukraine. Those are the survivors of the previous killings that took place a few days earlier in which about 24,000 Jews were executed.
September 23, 1909: The novel Le Fantôme de l’Opéra (The Phantom of the Opera), by Gaston Leroux, is published as a serialization in Le Gaulois.
September 24, 1957: President Eisenhower sends the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce desegregation.
September 25, 1513: Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa is the first European to reach the eastern shore of what would become known as the Pacific Ocean.
September 25, 1911: Ground was broken for Boston’s Fenway Park