October 15 - On this Day

2010 - Global Handwashing Day; White Cane Safety Day in the United States

1582 – Spain, Portugal, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and most of the Italian states became the first countries to replace the Julian calendar with the Gregorian calendar.

1951 – Mexican chemist Luis E. Miramontesconducted the very last step of the first synthesis ofnorethisterone, the progestin that would later be used in one of the first two oral contraceptives.

1954 – Hurricane Hazel (flooding pictured) made landfall in The Carolinas in the United States before moving north to Toronto in Canada later the same day, killing a total of 176 people in both countries.

1970 – Thirty-five construction workers were killed when a section of the West Gate Bridge in Melbournecollapsed due to structural failure.

2003 – Chinese space program: Shenzhou 5, China's first manned space mission, was launched, carrying astronaut Yang Liwei.

2007 – New Zealand Police conducted several anti-terrorism raids in relation to the discovery of an alleged paramilitary training camp in the Urewera mountain ranges, arresting 17 people and seizing four guns and 230 rounds of ammunition.

September 23, 2010 - On this Day

1459 – Yorkist forces led by Richard Neville defeated Lancastrian troops at the Battle of Blore Heath inStaffordshire, England, the first major battle of the Wars of the Roses.
1803 – Maratha troops were beaten byBritish forces at the Battle of Assaye, one of the decisive battles of the Second Anglo-Maratha War.
1846 – Using mathematical predictions by Frenchmathematician Urbain Le Verrier, German astronomerJohann Gottfried Galle became the first person to observe Neptune and recognise it as a hitherto unknown planet (pictured).
1868 – Ramón Emeterio Betances led the Grito de Lares, a revolt against Spanish rule in Puerto Rico.
1952 – In one of the first political uses of television to appeal directly to the populace, Republican vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon delivered the "Checkers speech", denying he received illegalcampaign contributions.

September 21 - On this Day

1792 – French Revolution: The National Convention voted to abolish the monarchy, and proclaimed the First Republic.
1898 – The Hundred Days' Reform inChina was abruptly terminated whenEmpress Dowager Cixi (pictured) forced the reform-minded Guangxu Emperor into seclusion and took over the government as regent.
1937 – J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, a predecessor toThe Lord of the Rings, was first published.
1939 – Romanian Prime Minister Armand Călinescuwas assassinated in Bucharest by pro-Nazi members of the Iron Guard.
1942 – The prototype model of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, a four-engine heavy bomber that became one of the largest aircraft to see service during World War II, flew for the first time.
1999 – A 7.6 Mw earthquake struck Jiji, Nantou County,Taiwan, killing 2,416 people, injuring over 11,000 others and causing about NT$300 billion in damage.

September 20 - On this Day

2010 - Respect for the Aged Day (Japan);Feast Day of the Korean Martyrs (Roman Catholic Church)
1378 – Papal Schism: Unhappy with Pope Urban VI (pictured), a group of cardinalsstarted a rival papacy with the election ofAntipope Clement VII, throwing the Roman Catholic Church into turmoil.
1854 – The Crimean War began with aFranco-British victory over Russian forces at the Battle of Alma near the River Alma in Crimea.
1870 – The Bersaglieri entered Rome, ending thetemporal power of the Pope and completing theunification of Italy.
1946 – The first Cannes Film Festival opened inCannes, France, with eleven films eventually sharing thePalme d'Or award, then known as the Grand Prize of the Festival, that year.
1979 – Jean-Bédel Bokassa, ruler of the Central African Republic, was ousted in a coup d'état backed by the French government.

September 19 - On this Day

2010 - Independence Day in Saint Kitts and Nevis (1983); Armed Forces Day in Chile; International Talk Like a Pirate Day
1796 – George Washington's Farewell Address was published in many American newspapers, warning citizens, among others, about the dangers of political factionalism and to avoid permanent alliances with other foreign powers.
1944 – Finland and the Soviet Union signed the Moscow Armistice to end the Continuation War.
1964 – An armed revolt by Montagnards serving in theArmy of the Republic of Vietnam against the rule ofNguyen Khanh led to the deaths of 70 ethnic Vietnamese soldiers.
1985 – An 8.1 ML earthquake struck Mexico City, killing at least nine thousand people and leaving up to 100,000 homeless.
1991 – Ötzi the Iceman, a well-preserved naturalmummy of a man from about 3300 BC, was discovered by two German tourists.
1995 – The Manifesto of "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski(police sketch pictured) was published in The Washington Post and The New York Times, almost three months after it was submitted.

September 17 - On this Day

2010 – Yom Kippur begins at sunset (Judaism); Constitution Day in the United States.
1176 – Byzantine–Seljuk wars: TheSeljuk Turks prevented the Byzantinesfrom taking the interior of Anatolia at the Battle of Myriokephalon inPhrygia.
1787 – The text of the United States Constitution was finalized at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
1894 – The Imperial Japanese Navy defeated theBeiyang Fleet of Qing China in the Battle of the Yalu River at the mouth of the Yalu River in Korea Bay, the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War.
1916 – World War I: Manfred von Richthofen ("The Red Baron"), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, won his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France.
1939 – World War II: The Soviet Union invaded Polandfrom the east, sixteen days after Nazi Germany's attack on that country from the west.
1978 – President Anwar Al Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel (pictured with U.S. President Jimmy Carter) signed the Camp David Accords after twelve days of secret negotiations atCamp David.

September 16 - On this Day

2010 – Bicentennial of Dieciséis de septiembre in Mexico; Hari Malaysia in Malaysia; Independence Day inPapua New Guinea
1701 – Prince James Francis Edward Stuart (pictured), more commonly referred to as the "Old Pretender", became theJacobite claimant of the thrones ofEngland and Scotland.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: On hearing the British troops sounding their bugles as if it were a fox hunt, the Americans held their ground and achieved a victory at the Battle of Harlem Heights in present-day New York City.
1963 – Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo (present-daySabah), and Sarawak merged to form Malaysia.
1982 – A Lebanese militia under the direct command ofElie Hobeika carried out a massacre in the Palestinianrefugee camp of Sabra and Shatila, killing at least 700 civilians.
1987 – The Montreal Protocol, an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of a number of substances believed to be responsible for ozone depletion, opened for signature.

September 12 - On this Day

2010 – Fast of Gedalia (Judaism);National Grandparents' Day (United States);National Day in Cape Verde
1609 – While sailing aboard the Halve Maen, English explorer Henry Hudson began his exploration of theHudson River, laying the foundation forDutch colonization of present-day New York.
1683 – Great Turkish War: Polish troops led by John III Sobieski (pictured) joined forces with a Habsburg army to defeat the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vienna.
1848 – Switzerland became a federal state with the adoption of a new constitution.
1940 – Four teenagers discovered the Lascaux caves near Montignac, in the Dordogne département of France, containing cave paintings that are estimated to be 17,000 years old.
1974 – Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, considered to be the religious symbol for God incarnateamong the Rastafari movement, was deposed in a coup d'état by the Derg, a military junta.
1992 – Aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour, the 50th mission of the Space Shuttle program, American Mae Carol Jemison became the first Black woman in space.

September 11 - On this Day

2010 – Ganesh Chaturthi (Hinduism)New Year's Day in the Coptic and the Ethiopian calendars;Patriot Day in the United States; National Day ofCatalonia; Teachers' Day in parts of Latin America
1297 – First War of Scottish Independence: The Scots defeatedEnglish troops at the Battle of Stirling Bridge on the River Forth(pictured) near Stirling.
1709 – An allied British-Dutch-Austrian force defeated the French at the Battle of Malplaquet, one of the bloodiest battles of the War of the Spanish Succession.
1789 – U.S. Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, co-writer of the Federalist Papers, became the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.
1945 – The Japanese-run camp at Batu Lintang,Sarawak in Borneo was liberated by the Australian 9th Division, averting the planned massacre of its 2,000-plus Allied POWs and civilian internees by four days.
1973 – A coup d'état in Chile led by General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the government of PresidentSalvador Allende and established an anti-communist military dictatorship.
1992 – The eye of Hurricane Iniki, the most powerfulhurricane to strike the state of Hawaii and the Hawaiian Islands in recorded history, passed directly over the island of Kauai, killing six people and causing around USD$1.8 billion dollars in damage.

September 10 - On this Day

2010 – Eid ul-Fitr ends at sunset (Islam)

1967 – National Day in Gibraltar 

1798 – At the Battle of St. George's Caye, a small force of British settlers called Baymen defeated an invading force from Mexico who were attempting to claim what is now Belize for Spain.
1897 – A peaceful labor demonstrationmade up of mostly Polish and Slovak anthracite coalminers in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, USA, was fired upon by a sheriff's posse comitatus in the Lattimer Massacre.
1898 – In an act of "propaganda of the deed", Italiananarchist Luigi Lucheni fatally stabbed Empress Elisabeth of Austria (pictured) in Geneva, Switzerland.
1945 – Mike the Headless Chicken was decapitated in a farm in Colorado; he survived another 18 months as part of sideshows before choking to death in Phoenix,Arizona.
1977 – Hamida Djandoubi became the last person to beguillotined in France, the official method of execution in that country. France would later abolish the death penalty in 1981.
1990 – Pope John Paul II consecrated the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire, one of the largest churches in the world.