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.