THIS DAY IN HISTORY ― SEPTEMBER 11

September 11 is the 254th day of the year (255th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 111 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Tuesday, Friday or Sunday (58 in 400 years each) than on Wednesday or Thursday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Monday or Saturday (56). It is usually the first day of the year in the Coptic calendar and Ethiopian calendar (in the period AD 1900 to AD 2099).

NATIONAL HOT CROSS BUN DAY  

1297 – Scotsman William Wallace defeated the English forces of Sir Hugh de Cressingham at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in the First War of Scottish Independence.

1609 – Explorer Henry Hudson sailed into New York harbor and discovered Manhattan Island and the Hudson River. Hudson had been chosen by merchants of the Dutch East India Company in the Netherlands to find an easterly passage to Asia. Failing to do so he set sail to Europe on September 23.

1776 – A Peace Conference was held between British General Howe and three representatives of the Continental Congress (Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Edward Rutledge). The conference failed and the American war for independence continued for seven years. 

1814 – The U.S. fleet defeated a squadron of British ships in the Battle of Lake Champlain, also know as the Battle of Plattsburgh (VT). The battle ended the final invasion of the northern states of the United States during the War of 1812. The battle took place shortly before the signing of the Treaty of Ghent which ended the war. The American victory denied the British negotiators at Ghent leverage to demand any territorial claims against the United States on the basis of Uti possidetis, i.e., retaining territory they held at the end of hostilities.

1875 – "Professor Tidwissel's Burglar Alarm" was featured in the New York Daily Graphic and became the first comic strip to appear in a newspaper. 

1897 – A ten-week strike of coal workers in Pennsylvania, WV, and Ohio came to an end. The workers won and eight-hour workday, semi-monthly pay, and company stores were abolished.

1936 – Boulder Dam in Nevada was dedicated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt by turning on the dam's first hydroelectric generator. In the following years, the name "Boulder Dam" failed to fully take hold, with many Americans using the two names interchangeably and mapmakers divided as to what name should be printed. Memories of the Great Depression faded, and Hoover to some extent rehabilitated himself through good works during and after World War II. In 1947, a bill passed both Houses of Congress unanimously restoring the name to "Hoover Dam". Roosevelt's Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes, who was by then a private citizen, opposed the change, stating, "I didn't know Hoover was that small a man to take credit for something he had nothing to do with," which wasn't entirely true.

1959 – The U.S. Congress passed a bill authorizing the creation of food stamps. 

1965 – The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) arrived in South Vietnam and was stationed at An Khe.

1971 – Former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, one of the most significant figures of the Cold War and certainly one of the most colorful, dies. During the height of his power in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Khrushchev was involved in some of the most important events of the Cold War.

1985 – Pete Rose (Cincinnati Reds) achieved hit number 4,192 to break the record held by Ty Cobb, a record that had stood since Cobb's retirement in 1928.

1998 – Independent counsel Kenneth Starr sent a report to the U.S. Congress accusing President Clinton of 11 possible impeachable offenses. 

2001 – In the U.S., four airliners were hijacked and were intentionally crashed. Two airliners hit the World Trade Center Towers, both of which collapsed shortly thereafter, in New York City, NY. One airliner hit the Pentagon in Arlington, VA. Another airliner crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. Roughly 3,000 people were killed.


2007 – Russia tests the largest conventional weapon ever, the Father of All Bombs (Aviation Thermobaric Bomb of Increased Power).


2008 – A major Channel Tunnel fire broke out on a freight train, resulting in the closure of part of the tunnel for 6 months.

2015 – A crane collapses onto the Masjid al-Haram mosque in Saudi Arabia, killing 111 people and injuring 394 others.

TODAY'S BIRTHS

1816 – Carl Zeiss, German lens maker, created the Optical instrument (d. 1888)

1862 – O. Henry (William Sydney Potter), American short story writer (d. 1910

1885 – D. H. Lawrence, English novelist, poet, playwright, and critic (d. 1930)

1935 – Gherman Titov, Russian general, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2000)

From Wikipedia and Google, except as noted.