15th September, on this day

608 St Boniface IV begins his reign as Catholic Pope
668 Eastern Roman Emperor Constans II is assassinated in his bath at Syracuse, Italy.
921 Saint Ludmila is murdered at the command of her daughter-in-law at Tetin.
1556 Vlissingen ex-emperor Charles V returns to Spain.
1584 San Lorenzo del Escorial Palace in Madrid is finished.
1600 Battle of Sekigahara
1616 The first non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy.
1620 Mayflower departs from Plymouth, England with 102 pilgrims
1683 Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is founded by 13 immigrant families.
1762 Battle of Signal Hill : last skirmish of the French and Indian War
1776 British forces capture Kip's Bay Manhattan during the Revolution
1812 The French army under Napoleon reaches the Kremlin in Moscow.
1820 Constitutionalist revolution in Lisbon, Portugal
1821 Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala Honduras and Nicaragua gain independ
1830 In England, the opening of the Liverpool to Manchester railway line - and the first railway fatality. As MP William Huskisson steps from a train to shake hands with the Duke of Wellington he's run over and killed
1831 The locomotive John Bull operates for the first time in New Jersey on the Camden and Amboy Railroad.
1835 The HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the Galápagos Islands.
1853 1st US woman ordained a minister, Antoinette Blackwell
1862 Stonewall Jackson takes Harpers Ferry
1873 Franco-Prussian War: The last German troops leave France upon completion of payment of indemnity.
1883 The Bombay Natural History Society is founded in Bombay (now Mumbai), India.
1894 Japan defeats China in Battle of Ping Yang
1904 Wilbur Wright makes his 1st airplane flight
1910 South African Party wins the first South African elections and Louis Botha becomes Prime Minister
1913 1st US milch goat show held, Rochester, NY
1914 Battle of Aisne between Germans and French during WW I
1916 The first effective military tanks are first used by the British on the Somme during World War I - the new weapon designed by Sir Ernest Swinton
1917 Russia proclaimed a republic by Alexander Kerensky
1930 1st international bridge match is held in London. US team defeats England
1931 British naval force mutinies at Invergordon over pay
1935 At a Nazi rally in Nuremberg, German leader Adolf Hitler issues new decrees which relegate Jews to sub-human status and make the Swastika the official German flag
1938 British PM Chamberlain visits Hitler at Berchtesgarden
1938 John Cobb sets world auto speed record at 350.2 MPH (lasts 1 day)
1938 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain meets Adolf Hitler to negotiate a compromise over German expansionism in Europe
1940 Tide turns in Battle of Britain in WW II, when the Royal Air Force shoot down large numbers of Luftwaffe.
1941 Nazis kill 800 Jewish women at Shkudvil, Lithuania
1942 The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Wasp is torpedoed at Guadalcanal.
1944 Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet in Quebec as part of the Octagon Conference to discuss strategy.
1945 A hurricane in southern Florida and the Bahamas destroys 366 planes and 25 blimps at NAS Richmond.
1947 RCA releases the 12AX7 vacuum tube.
1947 1st 4 engine jet propelled fighter plane tested, Columbus, Oh
1948 F-86 Sabre sets world aircraft speed record of 1080 kph
1949 "The Lone Ranger" premiers on ABC-TV
1950 During Korean conflict, UN forces land at Inchon in the south
1952 Britain hands the North African area known as Eritrea, to Ethiopia
1954 Conductor Sir Thomas Beecham makes his debut a the Proms - the annual Promonade Concerts in London
1957 West Germany holds its third parliamentary election. Konrad Adenauer remains chancellor.
1958 A New Jersey commuter train runs through an open drawbridge at the Newark Bay, killing 58.
1959 Soviet Premier Khrushchev arrives in US to begin a 13-day visit
1960 London introduces traffic wardens onto the streets of the capital
1961 Hurricane Carla strikes Texas with winds of 175 mph
1962 Australia's 1st entry in America's Cup yacht race (US wins)
1962 The Soviet ship Poltava heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis
1963 4 children killed in bombing of a black Baptist church in Birmingham
1964 First edition of the Sun newspaper in Britain - the replacement for the Daily Herald
1965 "Lost in Space" premiers
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.
1966 Gemini XI returns to Earth
1968 Launch of Zond 5, the 1st lunar flyaround with Earth reentry. Probable test flight for a manned fly-around (scooped by Apollo 8)
1970 Decca awards Bing Crosby a 2nd platinum disc for selling 300 million
1972 A SAS domestic flight from Gothenburg to Stockholm was hijacked and flown to Malmö-Bulltofta Airport.
1973 "Star Trek-Animated" premiers on TV
1974 The begining of the civil war between Christians and Muslims in Beirut
1974 Air Vietnam flight 727 is hijacked, then crashes while attempting to land with 75 on board.
1975 The French department of Corse (the entire island of Corsica) is divided into two: Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud.
1976 Soyuz 22 carries 2 cosmonauts into Earth orbit for 8 days
1978 American boxer Muhammed Ali (formerly Cassius Clay) beats Leon Spinks to win his third world heavyweight title
1981 The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution operates it under its own power outside Washington, DC.
1981 Vanuatu becomes a member of the United Nations.
1982 1st issue of "USA Today" published by Gannett Co Inc
1982 Israeli forces began pouring into west Beirut
1983 Israeli premier Menachem Begin resigns.
1985 In golf, the European team captained by Tony Jacklin ends years of American domination by winning the Ryder Cup
1987 U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze sign a treaty to establish centers to reduce the risk of nuclear war
1988 Lillehammer, Norway upsets Anchorage to host 1994 Winter olympics
1989 The U.S. Congress recognizes Terry Anderson's continued captivity in Beirut.
1990 France announce it will send 4,000 troops to the Persian Gulf
1993 Liechtenstein Prince Hans-Adam II disbands parliament
1997 Former Eurovision song contest winner Dana - real name Rosemary Scallon - announces she is a candidate in the Irish presidential elections
 

15th September 2005

Seven held in security operation

Baghdad reels from new bombings

Harry 'loves wonderful Camilla'

15th September 2006

Pope 'meant no offence' to Islam

Ford cutting thousands of US jobs

Trenches plan to secure Baghdad

15th September 2007

Flood misery hits arc of Africa

Bounty set over Prophet cartoon

Desertification budget setback

15th September 2008

Lehman Bros files for bankruptcy

Ten killed in Iraq Ramadan blast

Troops die in Mauritania ambush

15th September 2009

Kenyan rustlers in deadly attack

UN condemns 'war crimes' in Gaza

Scale of gorilla poaching exposed

15th September 2010

Birthdates which occurred on 15th September:

53 Trajan 13th Roman emperor (98-117), conqueror of Ctesiphon
1613 Francois duc de la Rochefoucald Paris France, writer (Memoires)
1789 James Fenimore Cooper 1st major American novelist (Prairie)
1830 Porfirio D¡az soldier, president of Mexico (1877-1911)
1857 William Howard Taft Cin, (R) 27th pres (1909-13), chief justice
1876 Bruno Walter (B.W. Schlesinger), Berlin Germany, conductor (NY Phil)
1876 Frank E Gannett Rochester, newspaper publisher (Gannett)
1881 Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti Milan, race car builder (Amaz Bugattis)
1889 Robert Benchley author (My 10 Years in a Quandary)
1890 Dame Agatha Christie mystery writer (Murder on the Orient Express)
1890 Frank Martin Geneva Switzerland, composer (In Terra Fax)
1894 Jean Renoir cin‚aste (Grand Illusion)
1899 Milton S Eisenhower Dwight's brother/Pennsylvania State president
19-- Francine Tacker Flushing NY, actress (Elizabeth-Paper Chase, Dallas)
1903 Roy Acuff Maynardville Tenn, country musician (Hee Haw)
1904 Tom Conway Russia, actor (Mark Saber, Betty Hutton Show)
1904 Umberto II king of Italy (1946)
1906 Kathryn Murray Jersey City NJ, dancer (Arthur Murray Dance Party)
1906 Penny Singleton Phila Pa, voice (Jane Jetsons)/actress (Blondie)
1907 Fay Wray Alberta, actress (King Kong)
1907 Jack Bailey Hampton Iowa, TV host (Queen for a Day)
1913 Henry Dreyfus Brant Montreal Canada, composer (Great American Goot)
1913 John Mitchell Nixon's attorney general who went to jail
1914 Creighton Abrams US, army general (Vietnam War)
1915 John Conte Plamer Mass, actor (Mantovani)
1916 Margaret Lockwood actress (Lady Vanishes)
1921 Jackie Cooper LA Calif, actor/director (Hennesey, People's Choice)
1924 Bobby Short singer/pianist (Carlisle Hotel)
1925 Forrest Compton Reading Pa, actor (Gomer Pyle USMC, Edge of Night)
1927 Norm Crosby Boston Mass, comedian/double talker (Liar's Club)
1928 Cannonball Adderley singer (Black Messiah, Beginnings)
1929 Murray Gell-Mann physicist who predicted quarks
1933 Henry Darrow NYC, actor (Harry O, New Dick Van Dyke Show)
1933 Rafael Frbeck de Burgos Burgos, Spain, conductor (World of Song)
1938 Gaylord Perry baseball player (1972 AL Cy Young winner)
1940 Merlin Olsen UT, NFL tackle (Rams)/sportscaster/actor (Father Murphy)
1941 Miroslaw Hermaszewski 1st Polish space traveler (Soyuz 30)
1946 Oliver Stone NYC, director (Wall St, Good Morning Vietnam, Platoon)
1946 Tommy Lee Jones actor (Executioner's Song, Bloody Monday)
1953 Jerry Page golfer (largest PGA victory margin)
1956 Jaki Graham British personality
1956 Tawny Schneider Portland Me, newscaster (Eye on Hollywood)
1960 Scott Thompson Baker Minneapolis, actor (Gen Hosp, All My Children)
1961 Dan Marino NFL quarterback (Miami Dolphins)
1962 Wendie Jo Sperber Glendale Calif, actress (Amy-Bossom Buddies)
1967 Jerry Dixon heavy metal bassist (Warrant-Cherry Pie)
1968 Danny Nucci actor (Gabriel Ortega-Falcon Crest)
1984 Prince Henry Charles Albert David of Wales, 3rd in British sucession

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Deaths which occurred on September 15th:
1963 Fred Hillebrand actor (Martin Kane), dies at 69
1979 Tommy Leonetti singer/actor (Gomer Pyle USMC), dies at 50
1981 Sara Haden actress (A Family Affair), dies at 83
1982 Sadegh Ghotbzadeh Iran's former foreign minister, executed by Iran
1983 LeRoy Prinz choreographer, dies at 88
1983 Willie Bobo jazz drummer (Cos), dies at 49
1986 Virginia Gregg actress (Little Women), dies at 69