As we get the fall vibes going…it has been another amazing month discovering what happened in history!

Enjoy 😁

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01 September 1972

On September 1, 1972, in what’s billed as the “Match of the Century,” American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer defeats Russian Boris Spassky during the World Chess Championship in Reykjavik, Iceland. The first American to EVER win that competition. 

02 September 1969

On September 2, 1969, America’s first automatic teller machine made its public debut, dispensing cash to customers in Rockville Centre, New York. Revolutionizing the banking industry, 

AND paving the way for RAS syndrome or “redundant acronym syndrome“, which is the use of one or more of the words that make up an acronym in conjunction with the abbreviated form. 

03 September 1783

The American Revolution officially came to an end when representatives of the United States, Great Britain, Spain and France sign the Treaty of Paris . The signing signified America’s status as a free nation, as Britain formally recognized the independence of its 13 former American colonies.

04 September 1972

U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz won his seventh gold medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Spitz swam the fly leg of the 400-meter medley relay, and helping his team set a new world-record of 3 minutes, 48.16 seconds. At the time, no other athlete had won so many gold medals at a single Olympiad. A record that would stand until Michael Phelps took home eight gold medals at the Beijing Games in 2008.

05 September 1847 

 J.W. James was born in Clay County Missouri…but YOU know this famous outlaw as, Jesse James. 

06 September 1522

One of Ferdinand Magellan’s five ships—the Victoria—arrives at Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain,… completing the first circumnavigation of the world.

07 September 1813

On September 7, 1813, the United States got its nickname, Uncle Sam. The name is linked to Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from Troy, New York, who supplied barrels of beef to the United States Army during the War of 1812. He stamped them with “U.S.” for United States, but soldiers began referring to the food as “Uncle Sam’s.” A local newspaper picked up on the story and Uncle Sam eventually gained widespread acceptance as the nickname for the U.S. federal government.

Almost 150 years later…

In September 1961, the U.S. Congress officially recognized Samuel Wilson as “the originator of America’s national symbol of Uncle Sam.” Sam Wilson died at age 88 and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Troy, New York, the town that calls itself “The Home of Uncle Sam.”

08 September 1504

One of the world’s most beloved works art, “David,” the 17-foot-tall, 12,000-pound marble masterpiece by Michelangelo Buonarroti, is unveiled to the public in Florence, Italy’s Piazza della Signoria.

Carved from a single block of white Italian Carrara marble that had been rejected by other artists for being flawed, the massive statue depicts a nude David, the Biblical hero who used a slingshot to slay the giant Goliath.

09 September 1956

Elvis Presley makes first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show”

10 September 1991

Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is released as a single redefining mainstream music and (to many) signifying the end of the 80’s hairband era. 

11 September 1977

American rapper, producer, and actor, Ludacris was born.

12 September 1953

Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy, the future 35th president of the United States, marries Jacqueline Bouvier in Newport, Rhode Island on September 12, 1953. Seven years later, the couple would become the youngest president and first lady in American history.

13 September 2004

On September 13, 2004, TV talk-show host Oprah Winfrey gives a brand-new Pontiac G-6 sedan, worth $28,500, to everyone in her studio audience: a total of 276 cars in all.

14 September 1814

On September 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key pens a poem which is later set to music and in 1931 becomes America’s national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The poem, originally titled “The Defence of Fort M’Henry,” was written after Key witnessed the Maryland fort being bombarded by the British during the War of 1812. Key was inspired by the sight of a lone U.S. flag still flying over Fort McHenry at daybreak, as reflected in the now-famous words of the “Star-Spangled Banner”: “And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.”

15 September 1978

On September 15, 1978, boxer Muhammad Ali defeats Leon Spinks at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans to win the world heavyweight boxing title for the third time in his career, the first fighter ever to do so. Following his victory, Ali retired from boxing, only to make a brief comeback two years later. Ali, who once claimed he could “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” left the sport permanently in 1981.

16 September 1932

On September 16, 1932, in his cell at Yerwada Jail in Pune, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi begins a hunger strike in protest of the British government’s decision to separate India’s electoral system by caste.

17 September 1996

On September 17, 1996, daytime talk show host Oprah Winfrey launches a television book club and announces “The Deep End of the Ocean” by Jacquelyn Mitchard as her first selection. Oprah’s Book Club quickly became a hugely influential force in the publishing world.

18 September 1973

Future President Jimmy Carter files a report with the the International UFO Bureau on September 18, 1973, claiming he had seen an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) in October 1969.

19 September 1881

On September 19, 1881, President James A. Garfield, who had been in office just under four months, succumbs to wounds inflicted by an assassin 80 days earlier, on July 2. Garfield’s assassin was an attorney and political office-seeker named Charles Guiteau.

20 September 1973

On September 20, 1973, in a highly publicized “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match, top women’s player Billie Jean King, 29, beats Bobby Riggs, 55, a former No. 1 ranked men’s player. Riggs (1918-1995), a self-proclaimed male chauvinist, had boasted that women were inferior, that they couldn’t handle the pressure of the game and that even at his age he could beat any female player. The match was a huge media event, witnessed in person by over 30,000 spectators at the Houston Astrodome and by another 50 million TV viewers worldwide.

21 September 1780

On September 21, 1780, during the American Revolution, American General Benedict Arnold meets with British Major John Andre to discuss handing over West Point to the British, in return for the promise of a large sum of money and a high position in the British army. The plot was foiled and Arnold, a former American hero, became synonymous with the word “traitor.”

22 September 1862

September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issues a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which sets a date for the freedom of more than 3 million enslaved in the United States and recasts the Civil War as a fight against slavery.

23 September 1779

During the American Revolution, the U.S. ship Bonhomme Richard, commanded by John Paul Jones, wins a hard-fought engagement against the British ships of war Serapis and Countess of Scarborough, off the eastern coast of England. 

24 September 1789

The Judiciary Act of 1789 is passed by Congress and signed by President George Washington, establishing the Supreme Court of the United States as a tribunal made up of six justices who were to serve on the court until death or retirement. That day, President Washington nominated John Jay to preside as chief justice, and John Rutledge, William Cushing, John Blair, Robert Harrison and James Wilson to be associate justices. On September 26, all six appointments were confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

25 September 1970

Unwilling to rest as a one-hit wonder when its first big hit, The Monkees, went off the air in 1968, the television production company Screen Gems wasted no time in trying to repeat its success. On September 25, 1970, in the 8:30 p.m. time slot immediately following The Brady Bunch, ABC premiered a program that would give Screen Gems its second TV-to-pop-chart smash: The Partridge Family.

26 September 1957

On September 26, 1957, West Side Story, composed by Leonard Bernstein, opens at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway.

27 September 1982

American rapper and actor, Lil Wayne was born.

28 September 1928

Sir Alexander Fleming was a young bacteriologist when an accidental discovery of Penicillin, led to one of the great developments of modern medicine on September 28, 1928. 

29 September 1988

Stacy Allison of Portland, Oregon, becomes the first American woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, which at 29,035 feet above sea level is the highest point on earth. 

30 September 1868

The first volume of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved children’s book Little Women is published on September 30, 1868. The novel will become Alcott’s first bestseller and a beloved children’s classic.