September 19 - Events

Events

• 335 – Flavius Dalmatius is raised to the rank of Caesar by his uncle Constantine I.
• 1356 – Battle of Poitiers: an English army under the command of Edward, the Black Prince defeats a French army and captures the French king, John II.
• 1676 – Jamestown is burned to the ground by the forces of Nathaniel Bacon during Bacon's Rebellion.
• 1692 – Giles Corey is pressed to death after refusing to plead in the Salem witch trials.
• 1777 – American Revolutionary War: British forces win a tactically expensive victory over the Continental Army in the First Battle of Saratoga.
• 1778 – The Continental Congress passes the first budget of the United States.
• 1796 – George Washington's farewell address is printed across America as an open letter to the public.
• 1799 – French Revolutionary Wars: French-Dutch victory against the Russians and British in the Battle of Bergen.
• 1846 – Two French shepherd children, Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud, experience a Marian apparition on a mountaintop near La Salette, France, now known as Our Lady of La Salette.
• 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Iuka – Union troops under General William Rosecrans defeat a Confederate force commanded by General Sterling Price.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Chickamauga.
• 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: the Siege of Paris begins, which will result on January 28, 1871 in the surrender of Paris and a decisive Prussian victory.
• 1870 – Having invaded the Papal States a week earlier, the Italian Army lays siege to Rome, entering the city the next day, after which the Pope described himself as a Prisoner in the Vatican.
• 1879 – The Blackpool Illuminations are switched on for the first time.
• 1881 – U.S. President James A. Garfield dies of wounds suffered in a July 2 shooting.
• 1893 – Women's suffrage: in New Zealand, the Electoral Act of 1893 is consented to by the governor giving all women in New Zealand the right to vote.
• 1934 – Bruno Hauptmann is arrested for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr..
• 1939 – World War II: The Battle of Kępa Oksywska concludes, with Polish losses reaching roughly 14% of all the forces engaged.
• 1940 – Witold Pilecki is voluntarily captured and sent to Auschwitz in order to smuggle out information and start a resistance.
• 1944 – Armistice between Finland and Soviet Union is signed. (End of the Continuation War).
• 1944 – Battle of Hürtgen Forest between United States and Nazi Germany begins.
• 1945 – Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce) is sentenced to death in London.
• 1946 – The Council of Europe is founded following a speech by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich.
• 1946 – The first Cannes Film Festival is held, having been delayed seven years due to World War II.
• 1952 – The United States bars Charlie Chaplin from re-entering the country after a trip to England.
• 1957 – First American underground nuclear bomb test (part of Operation Plumbbob).
• 1959 – Nikita Khrushchev is barred from visiting Disneyland due to security concerns.
• 1970 – The first Glastonbury Festival is held at Michael Eavis's farm in Glastonbury, United Kingdom.
• 1970 – Kostas Georgakis, a Greek student of geology, sets himself ablaze in Matteotti Square in Genoa, Italy, as a protest against the dictatorial regime of Georgios Papadopoulos.
• 1971 – Montagnard troops of South Vietnam revolt against the rule of Nguyen Khanh, killing 70 ethnic Vietnamese soldiers.
• 1972 – A parcel bomb sent to Israeli Embassy in London kills one diplomat.
• 1973 – King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden has his investiture.
• 1976 – Turkish Airlines Boeing 727 hits the Taurus Mountains, outskirt of Karatepe, Osmaniye, Turkey, killing all 155 passengers and crew.
• 1976 – Two Imperial Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom II jets fly out to investigate an unidentified flying object when both independently lose instrumentation and communications as they approach, only to have them restored upon withdrawal.
• 1978 – The Solomon Islands join the United Nations.
• 1981 – Simon & Garfunkel reunite for a free concert in New York's Central Park.
• 1982 – Scott Fahlman posts the first documented emoticons :-) and :-( on the Carnegie Mellon University Bulletin Board System.
• 1983 – Saint Kitts and Nevis gains its independence.
• 1985 – A strong earthquake kills thousands and destroys about 400 buildings in Mexico City.
• 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.
• 1989 – A terrorist bomb explodes UTA Flight 772 in mid-air above the Tùnùrù Desert, Niger, killing 171.
• 1991 – Ötzi the Iceman is discovered by German tourists.
• 1995 – The Washington Post and The New York Times publish the Unabomber's manifesto.
• 1997 – Guelb El-Kebir massacre in Algeria; 53 killed.
• 2006 – The Thai military stages a coup in Bangkok. The Constitution is revoked and martial law is declared.
• 2010 – The leaking oil well in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is sealed.