THIS DAY IN HISTORY ― SEPTEMBER 15

September 15 is the 258th day of the year (259th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 107 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday (58 in 400 years each) than on Sunday or Monday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Wednesday or Friday (56).

NATIONAL DOUBLE CHEESEBURGER DAY  

1588 –  The Spanish Armada, which attempted to invade England, is destroyed by a British fleet. The English would send out an Armada of their own, in 1589, to attack Spain, but it was likewise defeated.

1776 – The Landing at Kip's Bay was a British amphibious landing during the New York Campaign in the American Revolutionary War on September 15, 1776, occurring on the eastern shore of present-day Manhattan. The operation was a British success, and resulted in the withdrawal of the Continental Army to Harlem Heights, ceding control of New York City on the lower half of the island. However, the following day, the British and American troops fought the Battle of Harlem Heights, which resulted in an American victory. The campaign of 1776 had not been a decisive victory for the British as enemy's resistance had not been broken. All the efforts at subjugation of the rebellion had failed and their armies had not been destroyed.

1862 – Confederates capture Harpers Ferry, securing the rear of Robert E. Lee's forces in Maryland. The Battle of Harpers Ferry was fought September 12–15, 1862, as part of the Maryland Campaign of the American Civil War. As Gen. Robert E. Lee's Confederate army invaded Maryland, a portion of his army under Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson surrounded, bombarded, and captured the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), a major victory at relatively minor cost.

1891 – The Dalton gang holds up a train and takes $2,500 at Wagoner, Oklahoma. The Dalton Gang was a group of outlaws in the American Old West during 1890–1892. It was also known as The Dalton Brothers because three of its members were brothers, although not all of the gang members came from the Dalton family, and not all of the Dalton brothers were in the gang. The gang specialized in bank and train robberies. They were related to the Younger brothers, who rode with Jesse James, though they acted later and independently of the James-Younger Gang. The three Dalton brothers involved were Gratton "Grat" Dalton (born 1861), Bob Dalton (born 1869), and Emmett Dalton (born 1871). A fourth brother, William M. "Bill" Dalton (1866–1894), also had a career as an outlaw, but operated as a member of the Wild Bunch.

1928 –   Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovers, by accident, that the mold penicillin has an antibiotic effect.

1935 –   In Berlin, the Reich under Adolf Hitler adopts the swastika as the national flag. The swastika is a symbol among the ancient Celts, Indians, and Greeks, as well as in later Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, and Nazism, among other cultures and religions. The word swastika derives from the Sanskrit roots su ("Good"), asti ("to be"), and ka (making) The older term gammadion cross derives from its appearance, which is identical to four Greek gamma letters affixed to each other.

1950 – U.N. Forces, lead by the U.S. Marine Corps, invade occupied Korea at the port of Inchon. Considered the greatest amphibious attack in history, it is the zenith of General Douglas MacArthur's career.

1961 – Hurricane Carla comes ashore in Texas, the second-most powerful ever to make landfall in that state. No one outside of Texas had heard of Dan Rather before Carla.

1963 – On September 15, a bomb exploded before Sunday morning services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama–a church with a predominantly black congregation that served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders. Four young girls were killed and many other people injured; outrage over the incident and the violent clash between protesters and police that followed helped draw national attention to the hard-fought, often dangerous struggle for civil rights for African Americans.


1966 – U.S. President Lyndon Johnson urges Congress to adopt gun control legislation in the wake of Charles Whitman's sniper attack from the University of Texas's Texas Tower; in all, Whitman shot and killed 15 people before being shot dead himself by an Austin police officer.

1968 – The USSR launches Zond 5, which becomes the first spaceship to orbit the moon and reenter Earth's atmosphere.

1971 – The environmental group Greenpeace is founded. Greenpeace is known for its direct actions and has been described as the most visible environmental organization in the world. Greenpeace has raised environmental issues to public knowledge, and influenced both the private and the public sector. Greenpeace has also been a source of controversy; its motives and methods have received criticism and the organization's direct actions have sparked legal actions against Greenpeace activists, such as fines and suspended sentences for destroying a test plot of GMO wheat.

1981 – Sandra Day O'Connor is unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee to become the first female justice on the US Supreme Court. On July 7, 1981, Ronald Reagan – who had pledged during his 1980 presidential campaign to appoint the first woman to the Court – announced he would nominate O'Connor as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, to replace the retiring Potter Stewart.O'Connor received notification from President Reagan of her nomination on the day prior to the announcement and did not know that she was a finalist for the position.Reagan formally nominated O'Connor on August 19, 1981.

1983 – Menachem Begin resigns as premier of Israel.


TODAY'S BIRTHS

1846 – George Franklin Grant, African-American educator, dentist, and inventor (d. 1910)

1857 – William Howard Taft, American lawyer, jurist, and politician, 27th President of the United States (d. 1930)

1876 – Bruno Walter, German-American pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1962)

1890 – Agatha Christie, English crime novelist, short story writer, and playwright (d. 1976)

1928 – Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley, American saxophonist and bandleader (d. 1975)

1947 – Diane E. Levin, American educator and author

From Wikipedia and Google, except as noted.