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.