Events on September 15 53
Year 668
Eastern Roman Emperor Constans II is assassinated in his bath at Syracuse, Italy.
Year 1440
Gilles de Rais, one of the earliest known serial killers, is taken into custody upon an accusation brought against him by Jean de Malestroit, Bishop of Nantes.
Year 1616
The first non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy.
Year 1776
American Revolutionary War: British forces land at Kip's Bay during the New York Campaign.
Year 1789
The United States "Department of Foreign Affairs", established by law in July, is renamed the Department of State and given a variety of domestic duties.
Year 1794
French Revolutionary Wars: Arthur Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington) sees his first combat at the Battle of Boxtel during the Flanders Campaign.
Year 1795
Britain seizes the Dutch Cape Colony in southern Africa to prevent its use by the Batavian Republic.
Year 1812
War of 1812: A second supply train sent to relieve Fort Harrison is ambushed in the Attack at the Narrows.
Year 1821
Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica got independence from Spain after being destroyed by Napoleon.
Year 1830
The Liverpool to Manchester railway line opens; British MP William Huskisson becomes the first widely reported railway passenger fatality when he is struck and killed by the locomotive Rocket.
Year 1835
HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the Galápagos Islands. The ship lands at Chatham or San Cristobal, the easternmost of the archipelago.
Year 1862
American Civil War: Confederate forces capture Harpers Ferry, Virginia (present-day Harpers Ferry, West Virginia)
Year 1873
Franco-Prussian War: The last German troops leave France upon completion of payment of indemnity.
Year 1894
First Sino-Japanese War: Japan defeats Qing dynasty China in the Battle of Pyongyang.
Year 1915
The Empire Picture Theatre (now The New Empire Cinema), the oldest running cinema in mainland Australia, opens in Bowral, New South Wales.
Year 1916
World War I: Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme.
Year 1918
World War I: Allied troops break through the Bulgarian defenses on the Macedonian Front.
Year 1940
World War II: The climax of the Battle of Britain, when the Royal Air Force shoots down large numbers of Luftwaffe aircraft.
Year 1942
World War II: U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Wasp is sunk by Japanese torpedoes at Guadalcanal.
Year 1944
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet in Quebec as part of the Octagon Conference to discuss strategy.
Year 1944
Battle of Peleliu begins as the United States Marine Corps' 1st Marine Division and the United States Army's 81st Infantry Division hit White and Orange beaches under heavy fire from Japanese infantry and artillery.
Year 1945
A hurricane strikes southern Florida and the Bahamas, destroying 366 airplanes and 25 blimps at Naval Air Station Richmond.
Year 1948
The F-86 Sabre sets the world aircraft speed record at 671 miles per hour (1,080 km/h).
Year 1958
A Central Railroad of New Jersey commuter train runs through an open drawbridge at the Newark Bay, killing 48.
Year 1962
The Soviet ship Poltava heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Year 1963
16th Street Baptist Church bombing: Four children killed in the bombing of an African-American church in Birmingham, Alabama, United States.
Year 1967
U.S. 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.
Year 1968
The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.
Year 1971
The first Greenpeace ship sets sail to protest against nuclear testing on Amchitka Island.
Year 1972
A Scandinavian Airlines System domestic flight from Gothenburg to Stockholm is hijacked and flown to Malmö Bulltofta Airport.
Year 1974
Air Vietnam Flight 706 is hijacked, then crashes while attempting to land with 75 on board.
Year 1975
The French department of "Corse" (the entire island of Corsica) is divided into two: Haute-Corse (Upper Corsica) and Corse-du-Sud (Southern Corsica)
Year 1978
Muhammad Ali outpointed Leon Spinks in a rematch to become the first boxer to win the world heavyweight title three times at the Superdome in New Orleans.
Year 1981
The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Year 1981
The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution operates it under its own power outside Washington, D.C.
Year 2004
National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman announces lockout of the players' union and cessation of operations by the NHL head office.
Year 2008
Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.