Category: Today

September 29

1227 – Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, is excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX for his failure to participate in the Crusades

1578 – Spaniards lay claim on the site of a settlement of the Lenca and Tolupan tribes in Honduras and found the city Real de Minas de San Miguel de Tegucigalpa as the capitol of the area

1789 – As the 1st U.S. Congress adjourns, the U.S. Department of War establishes a regular army.

1864 – Union forces under General Grant assaulting Confederates under General Lee along their lines on New Market Road cause them to retreat from Fort Harrison in Henrico County south of Richmond.

1907 – The cornerstone is laid at the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, the Washington National Cathedral, in Washington, D.C.

1918 – As the St Quentin Canal, France’ sector of the German defensive Hindenburg Line is breached by an Allied attack, General Erich Ludendorff of Germany’s Supreme Army Command calls for the Kaiser and the Chancellor to open negotiations for an armistice.

1923 – The League of Nations’ British Mandate for Palestine takes effect.

1941 – German forces, with the aid of local Ukrainian collaborators, begin the 2 day long Babi Yar valley Kyiv massacre, murdering over 33,000 Jews

1954 – The convention establishing CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) is signed at the University of Copenhagen.

1959 – Braniff International Airways Flight 542, a Lockheed L-188 Electra,  disintegrates in flight from unknown causes and crashes near Buffalo, Texas, killing all 34 people passengers and crew aboard.

1988 – NASA launches Shuttle Discovery on STS-26, the first mission since the Challenger disaster.

1990 – Construction is completed of the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, the Washington National Cathedral, in Washington, D.C.

2004 – Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne performs a successful spaceflight, the first of two required to win the Ansari X Prize.

2005 – John Roberts is confirmed as Chief Justice of the United States.

2006 – Master at Arms 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor USN jumps onto a grenade thrown at his SEAL team, covering it with his body and absorbing  most of the force of the blast, killing him. For his actions he is awarded the Medal of Honor.

2008 –  After the first House of Representatives vote on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (called the ‘Wall Street Bailout’) fails, the stock market crashes over 700 points – about 10% –  precipitating a financial recession many economists calculated was the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

2020 – Feminist and singer, Helen Reddy dies, age 78 at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Los Angeles.

September 28

48 BC – Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus -Pompey- is assassinated by order of King Ptolemy XIII upon arriving in Egypt.

1066 – William, Duke of Normandy, and in the  lands in Pevensey Bay, Sussex, on the south coast of England, beginning the Norman conquest.

1238 – King James I of Aragon retakes Valencia from the Moors during the Reconquista.

1542 – Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo of Portugal, the first European in California, arrives at what is now San Diego.

1779 – Samuel Huntington is elected President of the Continental Congress, succeeding John Jay.

1781 – American and French forces begin the siege of Yorktown, the last major land battle of the Revolution.

1871 – The Brazilian Parliament passes a law that frees all children thereafter born to slaves, and all government owned slaves.

1889 – The General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM), meeting in Paris, defines the length of a meter

1892 – The first night game for American football takes place in a contest between Wyoming Seminary and Mansfield State Normal in Mansfield, Pennsylvania.

1912 – U.S. Army Corporal Frank S. Scott becomes the first enlisted man, the pilot, Lt. Lewis Rockwell being the fourth officer, to die in an airplane crash as a passenger aboard a Wright Model B Biplane

1928 – Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later becomes known as penicillin.

1939 – Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a division of Poland as the siege of Warsaw comes to an end.

1941 – Ted Williams achieves a .406 batting average for the season, and becomes the last major league baseball player to bat .400 or better.

1951 – CBS makes the first color televisions available for sale to the general public.

1991 – The Strategic Air Command stands down from alert all ICBMs scheduled for deactivation under treaty, as well as its strategic bomber force.

1995 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat sign the Interim Agreement (Oslo 2) on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

2008 – Space X’ Falcon 1 becomes the first privately developed liquid fueled, ground launched vehicle to put a payload into orbit.

September 27

1066 – William, Duke of Normandy and his army set sail from the Somme river, headed towards England.

1529 – The 1st Siege of Vienna begins when Suleiman I attacks the city.

1669 – The Venetians surrender the fortress of Candia to the Ottomans,  ending a 21 year long siege.

1722 – Samuel Adams is born in Boston.

1777 – After evacuating Philadelphia from the British occupation, the U.S. government selects Lancaster, Pennsylvania as the capital of the United States for one day before continuing on to York, Pennsylvania

1822 – Egyptologist Jean-François Champollion officially informs the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres in France that he has deciphered the Rosetta Stone.

1854 – The U.S. Collins Line steamship SS Arctic collides with the French steamer Vesta off the coast of Newfoundland and sinks, taking down with it 300 of the 400 passengers and crew on board.

1903 – The Southern Railway mail train number 97, officially known as the Fast Mail , while en route from Monroe, Virginia, to Spencer, North Carolina, derails at the Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia, killing 11 crew on board and injuring 7 others.

1908 – Production of the Model T automobile begins at the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit.

1940 – The Tripartite Pact is signed in Berlin by Germany, Japan and Italy forming the Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis.

1941 – The first Liberty ship, the SS Patrick Henry is launched at the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard in Baltimore, Maryland

1942 – The last day of the Matanikau action on Guadalcanal ends as U.S. Marines successfully retire from an attempted Japanese encirclement

1956 – Shortly after exceeding Mach 3 for the 1st time in a Bell X-2 aircraft, USAF Captain Milburn Apt is killed when the craft goes out of control and his escape module crashes due to a parachute failure.

1962 – The Yemen Arab Republic is established.

1973 – Texas International Airlines Flight 655, a Convair 600, en route from Memphis to Dallas, crashes into the Black Fork Mountain Wilderness near Mena, Arkansas, killing all 11 passengers and crew on board.

1996 – The Battle of Kabul, the last battle of the 1992-1996 Afghan civil war, ends in a Taliban victory, establishing the 1st Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which will only last until 2001.

1998 – The Google internet search engine claims this date as its origin.

2001 – In the city of Zug, Switzerland’s parliament, a gunman who believed himself subject to unfair treatment by the government, shoots 18 politicians of the city government and some local journalists, killing 14 and then uses a bomb to commit suicide.

2012 – In Minneapolis, an employee in the process of being fired from Accent Signage Systems, shoots 8 people there, killing 4 before committing suicide. 2 of the wounded later succumbing to their injuries.

September 26

1371 – Ottoman Turks commanded by Lala Şahin Pasha, inflict a severe defeat against Serbian forces commanded by King Vukašin Mrnjavčević  at the Maritsa River near present-day Ormenio, Greece, resulting in parts of Macedonia and Thrace falling under Ottoman rule after the battle.

1580 – Francis Drake finishes his circumnavigation of the Earth.

1687 – The Parthenon in Athens, used as a gunpowder depot by the Ottoman garrison, is partially destroyed after being bombarded during the Siege of the Acropolis by Venetian forces during the Morean War.

1688 – The city council of Amsterdam votes to support William of Orange’s invasion of England, which became the ‘Glorious Revolution’, which resulted in the passage of the English Bill or Rights where the individual right to arms was first specified and the Crown’s power restricted from.

1777 –British troops occupy Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War

1789 – President Washington appoints Thomas Jefferson the first United States Secretary of State.

1820 – Daniel Boone dies at his son Nathan’s house near Defiance, Missouri

1905 – Albert Einstein publishes the 3rd of his Annus Mirabilis papers, introducing the special theory of relativity.

1918 – The principal engagement of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I begins on the Verdun Sector as part of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive on the Western Front.

1933 – As gangster Machine Gun Kelly surrenders to the FBI, he shouts out, “Don’t shoot, G-Men!”, which becomes a nickname for FBI agents.

1950 – 11 days after landing at Inchon Harbor, United Nations troops recapture Seoul from North Korean forces during the Korean War

1960 – In Chicago, the first televised debate takes place between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy.

1973 – The Concorde makes its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic

1981 – Houston Astros’ pitcher Nolan Ryan sets a Major League Baseball record by throwing his 5th ‘no-hitter’ game at the Astrodome against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

1983 – Australia II, skippered by John Bertrand, wins the America’s Cup, ending the New York Yacht Club’s 132 year long domination of the race.

1984 – Nearing the end of the 99 year lease on the area, the United Kingdom and China agree to a transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong, to take place in 1997

2008 – Swiss pilot and inventor Yves Rossy becomes first person to fly a jet engine powered wing as a personal aircraft, across the English Channel.

 

September 25

275 – For the last time, the Roman Senate chooses an emperor, electing 75 year old Marcus Claudius Tacitus, who rules for less than a year before dying of an illness.

1066 – Having arrived at York by forced march from London 200 miles away, King Harold Godwinson and his army surprise the army of Norse King Harald Hardrada near Stamford Bridge. Despite suffering heavy casualties, Godwinson’s army defeats and nearly annihilates the Norsemen.

1396 – Forces of Ottoman Emperor Bayezid I defeat and rout a Christian army at the Battle of Nicopolis in northern Bulgaria.

1513 – Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa, crosses the isthmus of Panama and reaches what would become known as the Pacific Ocean.

1775 – In the Battle of Longue-Pointe, Ethan Allen and his force of American and Quebec militia are forced to surrender to the British after failing to capture Montreal

1789 – The Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added;
Thus, the U.S. Congress passes twelve articles termed The Bill Of Rights and submits them to the states for ratification.

1804 – During the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Teton Sioux demand one of the company’s boats as a toll for allowing it to move further upriver. However, the demonstration of the firepower the expedition had on hand, especially the Girardoni air rifle, convinced the tribe to back down.

1890 – Congress establishes Sequoia National Park.

1912 – Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is founded in New York City.

1944 – Surviving elements of the British 1st Airborne Division withdraw from Arnhem via Oosterbeek having failed to take the last bridge necessary to cross the Nederrijn river and open the way to invade Germany in Operation Market Garden.

1956 – TAT-1, the first submarine transatlantic telephone cable system becomes operational

1964 – The Mozambican War of Independence against Portugal begins.

1978 – PSA Flight 182, a Boeing 727, collides in mid-air with a Cessna 172 and crashes in San Diego, killing all 137 people aboard both planes and 7 on ground.

1992 – NASA launches the Mars Observer probe. 11 months later, the probe would fail while preparing for orbital insertion.

2006 – Jeff Cooper dies at age 86 at his home in Paulden, Arizona

September 24

787 – The Seventh Ecumenical Council, the Second Council of Nicaea, is convened at the church of Hagia Sophia in Nicea, present day Iznik Turkey

1572 – Túpac Amaru the last Emperor (Sapa Inca) of the Incas is executed on order of Viceroy Francisco Álvarez de Toledo on the charge of murdering priests in Vilcabamba.

1789 – Congress passes the Judiciary Act, creating the office of the Attorney General and federal judiciary system and ordering the composition of the Supreme Court.

1846 –The U.S. Army of the Occupation under General Zachary Taylor captures Monterrey, Nuevo León during the Mexican -American War.

1869 – The Black Friday Gold Panic begins as gold prices plummet after President Grant orders the Treasury to sell large quantities of gold after Jay Gould and James Fisk plot to control the market and force up the price on the New York Gold Exchange

1890 – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officially renounces polygamy.

1906 – President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower in Wyoming as the nation’s first National Monument.

1929 – Jimmy Doolittle performs the first flight of an airplane without without a view outside the cockpit, proving that full instrument flying from take off to landing is possible.

1948 – Soichiro Honda forms the Honda Motor Company

1957 – President Eisenhower sends the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce desegregation of Central High School.

1960 –Sponsored by Mrs. W. B. Franke, the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, CVA(N)-65 USS Enterprise, is launched at Newport News Virginia.

1991 – Theodor “Doctor Seuss”  Geisel dies at his home in La Jolla San Diego

2005 – Hurricane Rita, the most intense tropical cyclone on record in the Gulf of Mexico, makes landfall in the United States at category 5 power, causing 120 deaths and $18 billion in damage in southwestern Louisiana, southeastern Texas and on into the midwestern states

2015 – At least 2,000 people are killed and another 900 injured during a stampede during the Hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

September 23

1215 – Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan is born in Mongolia.

1338 – A naval battle during the ‘Hundred Years War’ off the North Sea coast of modern Belgium between French and English fleets is the first in which gunpowder artillery is used

1779 – Aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard, Captain John Paul Jones, as Commodore of a combined French and American squadron, engages and captures the British ship HMS Serapis near Flamborough Head off the coast of Yorkshire.

1780 – British Major John André is arrested as a spy by American soldiers, exposing Benedict Arnold’s treason.

1806 – Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery Expedition return to St. Louis from exploring the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

1845 – The Knickerbockers Baseball Club, the first baseball team to play under the modern rules, is founded in New York.

1846 – At the Berlin Observatory, European astronomers Urbain Le Verrier, John Couch Adams and Johann Gottfried Galle collaborate on the discovery of Neptune.

1889 – The game manufacturer Nintendo Koppai is founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi, in Kyoto.

1899 – During the Philippine–American War, the American Asiatic Squadron destroys a Filipino coastal battery at Olongapo, which had been harassing U.S. shipping, in Subic Bay, Luzon island.

1911 – Pilot Earle Ovington makes the first official airmail delivery in America under the authority of the United States Post Office Department

1942 – On Guadalcanal, U.S. Marines begin an attack on Japanese units along the Matanikau River

1950 – During the Battle of Hill 282 in the Korean War, British troops of the 1st Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders mistakenly come under fire from U.S. Air Force F-51 Mustangs of the 18th Fighter Bomber Wing. The first ‘friendly fire’ incident of the war.

1981 – Chief Dan George dies in Vancouver, British Columbia.

1992 – Author Glendon Swarthout, dies of emphysema in his home in Scottsdale, Arizona.

2002 – The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox -Phoenix 0.1- is released.

2018 – American film director and producer Gary Kurtz dies, age 78, in London.

September 22th

1554 – Spanish Conquistador and explorer of Mexico and the North American plains, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, dies in Mexico City.

1692 – The last woman convicted in the Salem witch trials is hanged.

1711 – The Tuscarora War between the Tuscarora tribe and their allies on one side and European American settlers, and Yamassee tribes, and other allies on the other begins in North Carolina.

1776 – Nathan Hale is hanged by the British for spying.

1789 – The office of United States Postmaster General is established.

1823 – Joseph Smith states that after being directed by God through the Angel Moroni to the place where they were buried, that he has found golden plates which he translates into English and publishes as the Book of Mormon.

1862 –President Lincoln issues proclamation and executive order number 95 stating that on January 1, 1863,  all persons held as slaves within any State in rebellion will be considered emancipated and free by the Union.

1896 – Queen Victoria surpasses her grandfather King George III as the longest reigning monarch in British history at that time.

1919 – A labor strike led by the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, begins in Pennsylvania before spreading across many of the steel manufacturers of the nation.

1941 – On the Jewish New Year Day of Rosh Hashanah, German SS troops murder 6,000 Jews in Vinnytsia, Ukraine that survived a massacre a few days earlier.

1948 – USAF Lieutenant Gail Halvorsen officially starts parachuting candy to children as part of the Berlin Airlift.

1975 – Sara Jane Moore tries to assassinate President Gerald Ford.

1980 – Iraq invades Iran, beginning the nearly eight year long Iran–Iraq War.

1991 – The Dead Sea Scrolls are made available to the public for the first time.

1993 – A barge being pushed by the towboat Mauvilla runs into a bridge crossing the Big Bayou Canot, near Mobile, Alabama, causing the derailment minutes later of the Amtrak Sunset Limited train, killing 5 crew, 42 passengers and injuring another 103 people aboard.

1995 – U.S. Air Force E-3B AWACS,  callsign Yukla 27, crashes outside Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska after multiple bird strikes disable 2 engines soon after takeoff, killing all 24 crew on board.

2000 – World War II Imperial Japanese Navy pilot and author, Saburō Sakai dies after attending a formal dinner given in his honor by the U.S. Navy at Atsugi Naval Air Station in Japan.

2015 – Yogi Berra, American baseball player, coach, and manager dies, age 90 of natural causes at his home in West Caldwell, New Jersey, U.S.

September 21

454 – Roman Imperial General Flavius Aetius, victor over the forces of Attila the Hun at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, is murdered by Emperor Valentinian in Ravenna, Italy.

1776 – Part of New York City is burned shortly after being occupied by British forces.

1780 – Benedict Arnold gives the British the plans to West Point.

1938 – A category 3 power hurricane hits Long Island in New York, causing some 500-700 deaths and over $300 million in damage.

1942 – In Seattle, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress makes its first flight.

1953 – North Korean pilot Lieutenant No Kum Sok, the late Kenneth H. Rowe, defects to South Korea with his MiG-15 jet fighter and is awarded a $100,000 bounty.

1964 – In Palmdale California, the North American XB-70 Valkyrie makes its first flight

1974 – Actor Walter Brennan dies at his ranch in Ventura County, California.

1976 –  Former Chilean Marxist government official Orlando Letelier is assassinated by a car bomb in Washington D.C

1981 – Sandra Day O’Connor is unanimously approved by the Senate as the first female Supreme Court Justice.

1993 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin suspends the Russian parliament and scraps the existing soviet era constitution causing widespread violence lasting over a week.

1996 – The Defense of Marriage Act is passed by the United States Congress.

2001 – America: A Tribute to Heroes, is broadcast by over 35 network and cable channels, raising over $200 million for the victims of the September 11 attacks.

2003 – NASA’s Galileo orbiter is purposefully crashed into Jupiter’s atmosphere.

2013 – Al-Shabaab Islamic militants attack the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya, killing at least 67 people.

September 20

1066 –The defeat  of the armies of Earls Morcar and Edwin at Fulford England by Harald Hardrada’s invading Norse army, compels King Harald Godwinson to force march his army the 190 miles from London to York in less than 6 days.

1187 – The Saracen army of Salah ad-Din begins the Siege of Jerusalem, ending with the surrender of the city by Balian of Ibelin less than two weeks later on October 2nd.

1519 – Ferdinand Magellan’s fleet sets sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda on his expedition to the east indies from the west, that will eventually circumnavigate the globe

1737 – By terms of a 1686 treaty, the Lenape-Delaware tribe sign a new treaty ceding 1.2 million acres of land to the Pennsylvania Colony

1835 – In the Brazilian province of Rio Grande do Sul, Generals Bento Gonçalves da Silva and Antônio de Sousa Neto begin a rebellion called the Revolução Farroupilha or The Ragamuffin War.

1881 – Chester A. Arthur is officially sworn in as President after the death of President Garfield the day before.

1893 – Charles Duryea and his brother road test the first American made, gasoline powered automobile.

1973 – At Natchitoches, Louisiana’s regional airport, Jim Croce’s chartered light plane, a Beech E18Sm, crashes on takeoff, killing all 6 aboard.

1984 – A suicide bomber in a car attacks the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 22 people.

1989 – USAir Flight 5050,  a Boeing 737, crashes into Bowery Bay during a rejected takeoff from LaGuardia Airport, killing 2 passengers of the 63 pass people.

2001 – In an address to a joint session of Congress and the American people, President George W. Bush declares a “War on Terror”.

2005 – Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal dies in Vienna, Austria.

2011 – The United States military ends its “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy

2017 – Hurricane Maria hits Puerto Rico as a Category 4 hurricane, resulting in 2,975 deaths and $90 billion in damage

September 19

634 – The moslem Rashidun Arabs under Khalid ibn al-Walid capture Damascus from the Byzantine Empire.

1676 – Jamestown Virginia Colony is burned to the ground by the forces of Nathaniel Bacon during Bacon’s Rebellion.

1777 – Attempting to flank Continental forces under General Benedict Arnold at Bemis Heights, New York; British forces under General John ‘Gentleman Johnny’ Burgoyne win a costly tactical victory in taking the Freeman Farm near Albany in the First Battle of Saratoga.

1778 – The Continental Congress passes the first United States federal budget.

1796 – George Washington’s Farewell Address is published across America as an open letter to the public.

1862 – Near Luka Mississippi, on the opening day of the Luka-Corinth Campaign, the Union Army of the Mississippi, under General William Rosecrans engages the Confederate Army of the West, under General Sterling Price, and forces them to withdraw.

1863 – Near Chickamauga Creek in northwestern Georgia, the Confederate Army of Tennessee under General Braxton Bragg, engages the Army of the Cumberland, under General William Rosecrans; forcing them to retreat back into Union occupied Chattanooga,  effectively ending the Chickamauga Campaign.

1864 – Near Winchester, Virginia, during the Valley Campaign; the Union VI Corps, XIX Corps, Cavalry Corps and the Army of West Virginia under General Philip Sheridan engages the Confederate Army of the Valley District under General Jubal Early, forcing them to retreat and ending with the Union occupation of Winchester.

1881 – President James A. Garfield dies of wounds suffered in a July 2 assassination attempt; Vice President Chester A. Arthur becoming President.

1940 – Polish Cavalry officer Witold Pilecki is voluntarily captured and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp to gather and smuggle out information of Nazi atrocities for the resistance movement.

1944 – Units of the U.S. First Army under the command of Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges engage the Nazi 275th and 353rd Infantry Divisions under Generalleutnant Hans Schmidt holding positions within the Hürtgen Forest on the border between Belgium and Germany.

1950 – During the Korean War, an attack by North Korean forces along the Nam River at the Pusan Perimeter is repelled by U.S. troops of the 25th Infantry Division & South Korean National Police.

1976 – As 2 Imperial Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom jets fly out to investigate an unidentified flying object detected by radar near Tehran, both independently lose instrumentation and communications as they approach, only to have them restored upon withdrawal.

1985 – Tipper Gore and other politician’s wives form the PMRC -Parents Music Resource Center

1991 – Ötzi the Iceman is discovered in the Alps on the border between Italy and Austria.

1995 – The Washington Post and The New York Times co-publish the Unabomber manifesto.

2010 – The leaking oil well in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is sealed.

2016 – The suspect – Ahmad Khan Rahimi- in a series of bombings in New York and New Jersey is apprehended after a shootout with police. At trial he is later sentenced to life in prison, without parole.

September 18

324 – The forces of Co-Emperor Constantine decisively defeats those of Co-Emperor Licinius in the Battle of Chrysopolis, near modern day Kadıköy (Chalcedon) Turkey, establishing him as sole Emperor in control over the Roman Empire.

1066 – The fleet of Norwegian King Harald Sigurdsson Hardrada lands with his brother Tostig Godwinson and a force of 10,000 men at the mouth of the Humber River on the central east coast of England to back his claim to the throne.

1793 – The first cornerstone of the United States Capitol is laid by George Washington.

1837 – Tiffany & Young company is founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and Teddy Young in New York City.

1850 – The U.S. Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

1850 – The U.S. Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

1851 – The New-York Daily Times, which later becomes The New York Times goes into publication

1864 – Confederate General John Bell Hood begins the Franklin–Nashville Campaign in an unsuccessful attempt to draw General William Sherman out of Georgia.

1870 – Observing the regularity of a geyser’s eruption during the exploration of Northwest Wyoming Territory by the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition, Henry D. Washburn names it “Old Faithful“.

1873 – The Jay Cooke & Company bank in Philadelphia declares bankruptcy, starting a financial crisis and economic depression in Europe and North America that lasts until 1877

1895 – Booker T. Washington gives a speech on racial relations at the Cotton States and International Exposition world fair at Piedmont Park in  Atlanta

1905 – Greta Garbo is born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson in Stockholm Sweden

1927 – The Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air.

1931 – The Mukden Incident gives Japan a pretext to invade and occupy Manchuria, China.

1945 – General Douglas MacArthur moves his general headquarters from Manila to Tokyo.

1947 – The National Security Act goes into effect, reorganizing the United States government’s military and intelligence services, creating the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Council, separating the Army Air force into the Department of the Air Force and the United States Air Force, forming the Marine Corps as an independent service under the Department of the Navy, and merging the Department of the Navy into the Department of War as the ‘National Military Establishment’, later named the Department of Defense in 1948.

1977 – NASA’s Voyager I probe takes the first distant photograph of the Earth and the Moon together.

1984 – Retired USAF Colonel Joe Kittinger completes the first solo balloon crossing of the Atlantic.

1997 – United States media magnate Ted Turner donates $1 billion to the United Nations.

2001 – Letters originating from Trenton, New Jersey, containing anthrax spores, begin to be received the offices of several U.S. Senators and news media.

2020 – Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies of complications of pancreatic cancer in Washington D.C.

September 17

1176 – The Battle of Myriokephalon is the last attempt by the Byzantine Empire to recover central Anatolia (modern Turkey) from the Seljuk Turks.

1620 –  The Ottoman Empire defeats the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Battle of Cecora during the Polish–Ottoman War

1630 – The city of Boston, Massachusetts is founded.

1683 – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek writes a letter to the Royal Society in London describing “animalcules” – bacteria he observed through a microscope he had constructed.

1775 – U.S. forces invade Canada during the American Revolution by besieging Fort St. Jean, Quebec

1776 – The Presidio of San Francisco is founded in New Spain, modern day California

1778 – The first formal treaty between the U.S. and an American Indian tribe, the Lenape, is signed at Fort Pitt in Pennsylvania.

1787 – At the Federal Convention in Philadelphia, the delegates sign the United States Constitution and prepare to transmit it to the states for ratification.

1849 – Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in Maryland.

1858 – Dred Scott, a year after being manumitted, dies of Tuberculosis in St Louis.

1862 – Across Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland, General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and General McClellan’s Army of the Potomac
engage in the bloodiest single day of combat in American military history with over 22,700 total casualties, effectively ending Lee’s Maryland Campaign.

1868 – Tracking a raiding party of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors from Kansas into Colorado, U.S. mounted scouts, encamped on Beecher island in the Arikaree River, south of present day Wray, Colorado, foil an ambush but are still surrounded, suffering heavy casualties until relieved.

1900 – In the Philippine–American War, Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat Americans under Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham Jr. at Mabitac on Luzon.

1908 – The first airplane fatality occurs when the Wright Flyer, flown by Orville Wright, crashes, killing U.S. Army Lt. Thomas Selfridge aboard as a passenger.

1916 – Baron Manfred von Richthofen wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France during World War I.

1928 – The Okeechobee hurricane at category, 5 strength, strikes southeastern Florida hitting land near West Palm Beach, Florida,  killing more than 2,500 people as it traverses the state.

1932 – After discovering an incursion and occupation of the towns  of Leticia and Tarapacá by Peruvian military forces that had occurred on the 1st of the month, the Colombian Senate minority leader and future President Laureano Gómez calls for war to be declared against Peru.

1940 – Due to setbacks in the aerial Battle of Britain, Hitler postpones Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of Britain.

1944 – Allied airborne troops parachute into the Netherlands as the “Market” half of Operation Market Garden begins.

1961 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 706, a Lockheed L-188 Electra, crashes during takeoff from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, killing all 37 passengers and crew aboard

1976 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise is unveiled by NASA.

1978 – The Camp David Accords are signed by Israel and Egypt.

1996 – Former Vice President Spiro Agnew dies of acute leukemia at Atlantic General Hospital in Ocean City, Maryland.

2001 – The New York Stock Exchange reopens for trading after the September 11 attacks

2016 – A pipe bomb and a pressure cooker bomb set by a moslem terrorist explode in Seaside Park, New Jersey, and Manhattan. 3 police officers and the terrorist are injured in the New Jersey bombing and 31 people are injured in Manhattan. The terrorist is later sentenced to life without parole.

September 16

1498 – Tomás de Torquemada, the first Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition at the end of the Reconquista, dies at the monastery of St. Thomas Aquinas in Ávila, Spain.

1776 – Having withdrawn to defensible positions on Harlem Heights after British troops land on Manhattan Island, superior numbers of American troops,  under General Washington, fight advancing British troops causing them to withdraw after overextending their lines.

1779 – A combined force of French and American troops besiege British occupied Savannah, Georgia.

1863 – American philanthropist, Christopher Robert, founds Robert College, in Istanbul. The first American educational institution outside the United States.

1893 – Settlers begin the next to last land run in the Cherokee Outlet Opening in present day Oklahoma.

1908 – The General Motors Corporation is founded.

1920 – A bomb in a horse wagon explodes in front of the J. P. Morgan building in New York City killing 38 people and injuring 400.

1943 – The German Tenth Army reports that it can no longer contain the Allied bridgehead at Salerno during World War II.

1959 – The first successful photocopier, the Xerox 914, is introduced in a demonstration on live television from New York City.

1961 – The United States National Hurricane Research Project drops 8 cylinders of silver iodide into the eyewall of Hurricane Esther. Wind speed reduces by 10%, giving rise to Project Stormfury.

1970 – King Hussein of Jordan declares war against the Palestine Liberation Organization, the conflict came to be known as Black September 

1979 – Eight people escape from East Germany to the west in a homemade hot air balloon.

1992 – The trial of the deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega ends in the U.S. with a him receiving a 40 year sentence for drug trafficking and money laundering.

2004 – Hurricane Ivan makes landfall in Gulf Shores, Alabama as a Category 3 hurricane, causing 25 deaths due to outbreaks of tornados in several states and over $20 billion in damage

2011 – Piloting the modified P-51 racer, Galloping Ghost, Jimmy Leeward crashes at the National Championship Air Races at Reno, Nevada, killing himself, 10 people on the ground and injuring another 69.

2013 – A contract computer worker at the base kills 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard before being killed by Police.

2019 – 5 months before the COVID-19 stock market crash, an overnight spike in lending rates in the United States prompts the Federal Reserve to provide inexpensive funding in the repurchase market.

September 15

1776 – Supported by naval gunfire, causing New York Militia to retreat from the landing zone and Continental Army troops to withdraw to Harlem Heights, British forces land unopposed at Kip’s Bay on Manhattan island.

1789 – The U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs is renamed the Department of State.

1862 – Confederate forces under General Lee, capture Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

1916 – Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme in World War I

1935 – The Nazi regime passes the Nuremberg Laws depriving German Jews of citizenship.

1940 – The Battle of Britain reaches its climax when the Luftwaffe launches its largest attack of the entire campaign.

1942 – The carrier USS Wasp is sunk by a Japanese submarine off Guadalcanal.

1944 – U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army troops invade the island of Peleliu in the Palau archipelago to secure the right flank for the Philippine invasion.

1948 – Flying a F-86 Sabre, from Muroc Dry Lake, USAF Major Richard L. Johnson sets the world aircraft speed record at the time of 671 miles per hour.

1950 – The U.S. X Corps lands at Inchon during the Korean War.

1967 – Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation.

1981 – The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves Sandra Day O’Connor to become the first female justice of the Supreme Court.

2008 – Lehman Brothers, the 4th largest investment bank in the United States files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to its involvement in the economic collapse of mortgage backed securities (MBS), the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.

2020 – The Bahrain–Israel normalization agreement is signed in Washington, D.C., normalizing relations between Israel and 2 Arab nations, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

September 14

1723 – Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller, António Manoel de Vilhena lays down the first stone of Fort Manoel in Malta.

1741 – George Frideric Handel completes his oratorio Messiah.

1752 – The British Empire adopts the Gregorian calendar, skipping eleven days, the previous day being September 2.

1763 – Seneca warriors inflict heavy casualties at almost no cost as they defeat British forces near Niagara Gorge in New York during Pontiac’s War.

1782 – Rendering honors to French General Rochambeau as he departs with his army, General Washington forms the Continental Army for a formal Pass In Review at Verplanck’s Point, New York.

1829 – The Ottoman Empire signs the Treaty of Adrianople with Russia, ending the Russo-Turkish War.

1862 – At the end of the Battle of South Mountain, Maryland, with his troops suffering heavy casualties, General Lee is forced to withdraw his army after losing one engagement at Crampton’s Gap and nearly losing at the engagements at Turner’s and Fox gaps.

1901 – President William McKinley dies after being mortally wounded on September 6th with Theodore Roosevelt succeeding him in office.

1917 – The Russian Empire is formally replaced by the very short-lived Russian Republic.

1944 –  Maastricht becomes the first Dutch city to be liberated by allied forces in World War II

1959 – The first man made object to reach the Moon, the Soviet Luna 2 probe, crashes on the surface.

1960 – The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is founded.

1982 – Her Serene Highness Princess Grace Kelly Grimaldi of Monaco dies at Monaco Hospital, of injuries suffered in an auto accident.

1984 – Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to fly a gas balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean.

1989 –Before committing suicide, Joseph T. Wesbecker, kills 8 and wounds 12 people at his former workplace, Standard Gravure, in Louisville, Kentucky.

1994 – The Major League Baseball season is canceled because of a strike by the players.

1998 – Telecommunications companies MCI Communications and WorldCom complete a $37 billion merger to form MCI WorldCom.

2001 – A National Prayer Service is held at the Washington National Cathedral for victims of the September 11 attacks.

2015 – Staff at the National Science Foundation’s LIGO interferometer laboratories in the U.S. collaborating with the European Gravitational Observatory’s Virgo laboratory near Pisa, Italy make the first direct observations of gravitational waves, confirming Albert Einstein’s prediction under General Relativity.

September 13

1229 – Ögedei Khan, the 3rd son of Genghis Kahn, is proclaimed Khagan of the Mongol Empire

1501 – Italian Renaissance: Michelangelo begins work on his statue of David.

1541 – After three years of exile, John Calvin returns to Geneva to begin his reformation of the church

1609 – Henry Hudson reaches the river that would later be named after him – the Hudson River.

1788 – The Philadelphia Convention sets the date for the first presidential election in the United States, and New York City becomes the nation’s temporary capital.

1814 – Observing, through the night, the battle against the British attempt to capture Baltimore, Francis Scott Key composes his poem “Defence of Fort McHenry“, which is later set to music and becomes the national anthem.

1847 – During the final assault on Chapultepec Castle, 6 Mexican military cadets known as Niños Héroes refuse to surrender and die in its defense as U.S. troops under General Winfield Scott capture Mexico City

1862 –  At the Best Farm, outside Frederick, Maryland, Union Corporal Barton W. Mitchell of the 27th Indiana Volunteers finds a copy of General Robert E. Lee’s Special Order 191, detailing upcoming battle plans. Union forces use this knowledge to good effect in engaging Confederate forces at Antietam and the South Mountain area in Maryland. Later, author Harry Turtledove writes an alternate history novel – How Few Remain – where the plans are not intercepted, and how that would likely have changed not just the outcome of the war, and U.S./C.S. history, but world history.

1898 – Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film.

1899 – Henry Bliss is the first person in the United States to be killed in an automobile accident.

1942 – On the second day of the Battle of Edson’s Ridge in the Guadalcanal Campaign, U.S. Marines successfully defeat attacks, with heavy losses inflicted on the Japanese forces.

1948 – Margaret Chase Smith is elected United States senator becoming the first woman to serve in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

1956 – The IBM 305 RAMAC computer is introduced, the first commercial computer to use disk storage.

1971 – New York State police and National Guardsmen storm Attica Prison to quell a prison revolt.

1977 – General Motors introduces Diesel engines for the first time in passenger vehicle models Delta 88, Oldsmobile 98, and Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser.

1993 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat sign the Oslo Accords at the White House granting limited Palestinian autonomy.

1998 – Former Alabama Governor George Wallace dies at Jackson Hospital in Montgomery, Alabama.

2001 – Civilian aircraft traffic resumes in the United States after the September 11 attacks.

2005 – Former President of Columbia, Julio César Turbay Ayala dies in Bogotá, Colombia

2008 – Hurricane Ike makes landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast of the United States, killing 214 people and causing $38 Billion in damage to Galveston Island, Houston, and surrounding areas.

2018 – 1 person is killed, 25 are injured, and 40 homes are destroyed when excessive pressure in natural gas lines owned by Columbia Gas of Massachusetts causes fires and explosions in the Merrimack Valley, in Massachusetts

September 12

490 BC – The Athenians and their Plataean allies defeat the first Persian invasion force of Greece at Marathon. Afterwards, the Greek messenger Pheidippides runs with the news of the victory to Athens. Announcing νικῶμεν – nikomen –  (We’ve won) – he then dies of exhaustion after the 25+ mile run.

1229 – During the Spanish Reconquista, the Aragon army under the command of James I of Aragon, lands at Santa Ponça, Majorca, held by the Almohad caliphate.

1309 – During the Spanish Reconquista, the Castile army under the command of Juan Núñez II de Lara, lays siege to Gibraltar, held by the Emirate of Granada.

1609 – Henry Hudson begins his exploration up the Hudson River from Manhattan.

1683 – The combined European armies complete the defeat of the army of Ottoman Empire that had besieged Vienna

1814 – A detachment of the Maryland Militia under General John Stricker, engages the British under General Robert Ross, at North Point outside Baltimore. Having suffered significant casualties inflicted by the U.S. troops,  before they retreat in good order, the deputy commanding British officer, Colonel Arthur Brooke delays their advance to Baltimore allowing the city to reinforce the defenses to the point the British plan to take Baltimore fails.

1847 – The Battle of Chapultepec in the Mexican-American War begins

1857 – Carrying over 13 tons of gold from the California Gold Rush, the SS Central America sinks about 160 miles east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, contributing to the financial Panic of 1857. Located in 1988, the wreck has had large quantities of the cargo recovered.

1933 – While living in England, Leó Szilárd comes up with the idea of the nuclear chain reaction.

1938 – Adolf Hitler demands autonomy and self-determination for the Germans of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. European leaders cave.

1940 – An explosion at the Hercules Powder plant at Roxbury, New Jersey kills 51 people and injures over 200 more

1942 – On Guadalcanal, Imperial Japanese Army troops begin an attack along “Edson’s Ridge” against U.S. Marines defending the Henderson airfield.

1943 – German commando forces, led by Otto Skorzeny, rescue Benito Mussolini from house arrest in a hotel northeast of Rome

1958 – Jack Kilby demonstrates the first working integrated circuit while working at Texas Instruments.

1962 – President Kennedy delivers his “We choose to go to the Moon” speech at Rice University.

1966 – NASA launches Gemini 11, with astronauts “Pete” Conrad and Richard Gordon aboard, from Cape Kennedy for a 3 day mission to practice rendezvous and docking procedures.

1972 – William ‘Hopalong Cassidy’ Boyd dies from complications related to Parkinson’s disease at Laguna Beach, California

1974 – Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is deposed following a military coup by the Provisional Military Administrative Council, ending a reign of 58 years.

1983 – A Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States, is robbed of approximately $7 million by the Puerto Rican Los Macheteros gang.

1990 – The two German states and the ‘Four Powers’ (UK, France, USSR & U.S) sign the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, in Moscow, paving the way for German reunification.

1992 – NASA launches Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-47, the 50th shuttle mission. On board are Mae Carol Jemison, the first African American woman in space, Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese citizen to fly in a US spaceship, and Mark Lee and Jan Davis, the first married couple in space.

1994 – Frank Eugene Corder fatally crashes a single engine Cessna 150 aircraft into the White House’s south lawn, striking the West wing. There were no other casualties.

2001 – Out of thousands of people unable to escape from the World Trade Center towers before they collapsed, only 20 survivors are finally rescued and pulled out of the rubble.

2003 – Johnny Cash dies at at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee

2008 – The engineer of a Metrolink commuter train runs it through a red light onto a single track and collides head on with a Union Pacific freight train on the Metrolink Ventura County Line just east of Stoney Point, Los Angeles killing 25 people and injuring 135 more.

2013 – NASA confirms that the Voyager 1 probe has become the first manmade object to enter interstellar space.

September 11

9 – In the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, the Roman Empire suffers the greatest defeat of its history, losing 3 complete Legions, with the Rhine river being established de facto as the border between the Empire and the Germanic tribes for the next 400 years.

1297 – Scots jointly led by William Wallace and Andrew Moray defeat the English at Stirling Bridge

1565 – 8000 relief troops from Spain inflict such heavy casualties on the Ottoman moslem forces that had besieged Malta for over 3 months, that they retreat from from the island.

1609 – Henry Hudson discovers Manhattan Island

1683 – Coalition forces of the Holy League, including the famous winged Hussars led by Polish King John III Sobieski, lift the siege of Vienna, Austria by Ottoman forces.

1697 – Coalition forces of the Holy League inflict one of the most decisive defeats in history on the Ottomans at Zenta, Serbia

1777 – British forces under General Howe defeat U.S. forces under General Washington in battle near Brandywine Creek, Pennsylvania.

1789 – Alexander Hamilton is appointed the first Secretary of the Treasury.

1813 – During the War of 1812, British troops arrive in Mount Vernon, Virginia and prepare to invade Washington D.C.

1814 – British army and naval forces converge on Plattsburgh, New York at Lake Champlain and are defeated by U.S. Army, Militia and Naval forces waiting for them.

1944 – The Allied invasion of Germany during World War II begins near the city of Aachen

1905 – A derailment of the 9th street train above West 53rd Street entering 50th Street station in Manhattan is the worst accident on the New York City elevated railways, with 13 killed and 48 seriously injured

1919 – Due to political unrest causing concern among the U.S. companies involved in the fruit import business, the U.S government has U.S. Marine Corps troops deploy to Honduras, during the “Banana Wars” of the early 20th century.

1941 – Construction begins on The Pentagon.

1950 – President Truman approves military operations in Korea north of the 38th parallel

1954 – Hurricane Edna hits New England as a Category 2 hurricane, killing 29 people and causing over $42 million in damage

1961 – Hurricane Carla hits the Texas coast as a Category 4 hurricane, the second strongest storm ever to hit the state, killing 43 people and causing over $326 million in damage

1973 – A coup in Chile headed by General Augusto Pinochet topples the socialist administration of President Salvador Allende.

1974 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 212, a Douglas DC-9 crashes in Charlotte, North Carolina, killing 70 of the 78 passengers and 2 of the 4 crew aboard

1990 – President Bush addresses a joint session of Congress stating conditions that Iraq must withdraw from Kuwait completely.

1991 – Continental Express Flight 2574, an Embraer EMB 120, crashes in Colorado County, Texas, near Eagle Lake, killing all 11 passengers and 3 crew aboard.

1992 – Hurricane Iniki, hits the Hawaiian Islands of Kauai and Oahu, as a Category 4 hurricane, killing 7 and causing over $3.1 billion in damage.

1997 – NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor reaches Mars.

2001 – In a series of coordinated attacks, moslem Al Qaeda terrorists hijack  4 passenger jet aircraft and use them to crash into towers 1 & 2 of the World Trade Center in New York City, and the Pentagon, killing 2,977 people. The passengers of the 4th jet, United Airlines Flight 93, attempt to retake it from the hijackers, and succeed in keeping the hijackers from completing their mission to crash it into the Capitol Building in Washington D.C.,  who instead crash it in Pennsylvania.

2011 – The National September 11 Memorial & Museum opens on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

2012 – The U.S. diplomatic compound and special mission annex in Benghazi, Libya are attacked, resulting in four deaths; Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, US Foreign Service officer Sean Smith; CIA contractors Tyrone S. Woods and Glen Doherty. 2 operational members of 1st SFOD-D, on a separate mission, volunteer to accompany the relief forces, resulting in them receiving their respective service’s Navy Cross and Distinguished Service Cross for their actions in combat.

2021 – Nationwide ceremonies commemorate the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks

September 10

1570 – Spanish Jesuit missionaries land in present day Virginia to establish a mission to the local indian tribes.

1607 – Edward Wingfield is ousted as first president of the governing council of the Colony of Virginia; he is replaced by John Ratcliffe.

1608 – John Smith is elected council president of Jamestown, Virginia.

1776 – One of the members of Knowlton’s Rangers, Captain Nathan Hale, volunteers to stay behind the lines to spy on the British in New York City, after the Continental Army is forced to retreat from lower Manhattan.

1813 – A U.S. Navy fleet defeats a British fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie. The U.S. commander, Captain Oliver Hazard Perry, sends the message of victory: “We have met the enemy and they are ours…..”

1833 – President Andrew Jackson shuts down the Second Bank of the U.S.

1846 – Elias Howe is granted a patent for the sewing machine.

1858 – George Mary Searle discovers the asteroid 55 Pandora while at the original Dudley Observatory near Albany, New York

1897 – A Luzerne County sheriff’s posse kills 19 UMW (United Mine Workers) Union immigrant miners while on a strike of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company in Lattimer, Pennsylvania.

1932 – New York City Subway’s third competing subway system, the municipally-owned IND, is opened.

1939 – The Royal Australian Navy submarine HMS Oxley is mistakenly sunk by the Royal Navy submarine HMS Triton near Norway and becomes the Royal Navy’s first loss of a submarine in World War II.
Canada declares of war on Germany.

1977 – Hamida Djandoubi, convicted of torture and murder, is the last person to be executed by guillotine in France.

1979 – President Carter pardons 4 Puerto Rican nationalists for assaulting and wounding several Representatives while Congress was in session in 1954.

1991 – The Senate Judiciary Committee opens hearings on the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court.

2002 – Switzerland, traditionally a neutral country, becomes a full member of the United Nations.

2008 – The Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, is powered up for the first time.

2017 – Hurricane Irma makes landfall on Cudjoe Key, Florida at Category 4 intensity after causing catastrophic damage throughout the Caribbean resulting in 134 deaths and $64.76 billion in damage.