TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – SEPT 15
1588 The Spanish Armada, which attempted to invade England, is destroyed by a British fleet.
1616 First non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy
1775 An early and unofficial American flag was raised by Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Mott after the seizing of Fort Johnson from the British. The flag was dark blue with the white word “Liberty” spelled on it.
1789 The U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs changed its name to the Department of State.
1821 Act of Independence of Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras & Nicaragua declare their independence from the Spanish Empire
1858 The Butterfield Overland Mail Company begins delivering mail from St. Louis to San Francisco. The company’s motto is: “Remember, boys, nothing on God’s earth must stop the United States mail!”
1891 The Dalton gang holds up a train and takes $2,500 at Wagoner, Oklahoma.
1914 President Woodrow Wilson orders the Punitive Expedition out of Mexico. The Expedition, headed by General John Pershing, had been searching for Pancho Villa, a Mexican revolutionary.
1916 1st tank used in war, “Little Willies” at Battle of Flors, France
1923 Oklahoma was placed under martial law by Gov. John Calloway Walton due to terrorist activity by the Ku Klux Klan. After this declaration national newspapers began to expose the Klan and its criminal activities.
1928 Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin while studying influenza
1935 The Nuremberg Laws deprived Jews of their citizenship and made the Swastika the official emblem of Nazi Germany.
1937 Prime Minister of England Neville Chamberlain flies to Germany to discuss the future of Czechoslovakia with Adolf Hitler.
1950 U.N. Forces, lead by the U.S. Marine Corps, invade occupied Korea at the port of Inchon. Considered the greatest amphibious attack in history, it is the zenith of General Douglas MacArthur’s career.
1963 A Ku Klux Klan bomb kills 4 young African-American girls… 4 members of the white supremacy group, set off a timed bomb at the 16th Street Baptist Church, a predominantly black church in Birmingham, Alabama. The bombings marked a watershed moment in the Civil Rights Movement in America.
1966 US President Lyndon Johnson urges Congress to adopt gun control legislation in the wake of Charles Whitman’s sniper attack from the University of Texas’s Texas Tower; in all, Whitman shot and killed 15 people before being shot dead himself by an Austin police officer.
1971 The environmental group Greenpeace is founded.
1978 Muhammad Ali defeated Leon Spinks to win his 3rd World Heavyweight Boxing title.
1981 Sandra Day O’Connor is unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee to become the first female justice on the US Supreme Court.
1998 It was announced that 5.9 million people read The Starr Report on the Internet. 606,000 people read the White House defense of U.S. President Clinton.
2008 The largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy in US history is filed by Lehman Brothers financial services firm.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
