Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1814

Francis Scott Key was inspired to write a poem, "The Star-Spangled Banner" when he witnesses an attack on Baltimore by a British fleet and the bombing of Fort McHenry. It later became the national anthem of the United States.

1847

U.S. forces under Gen. Winfield Scott took control of Mexico City.

1862

At the Battle of South Mountain and Battle Crampton's Gap, Maryland Union troops smashed into the Confederates as they closed in on what became the Antietam battleground.

1889

Pioneering female journalist Nellie Bly (aka Elizabeth Cochrane) begins a successful attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days. She completes the trip in seventy-two days.

1910

Aviator Eugene Burton Ely performs the first take off from a ship in Hampton Roads, Virginia. He took off from a makeshift deck on the USS Birmingham in a Curtiss pusher.

1911

Russian Premier Piotr Stolypin was mortally wounded in an assassination attempt at the Kiev opera house.

1922

The BBC begins radio service in the United Kingdom.

1936

The first prefrontal lobotomy was performed in attempt to relieve depression and anxiety, by Dr. Walter Freeman in Washington, D.C.

1940

Congress passed the Selective Service Act, providing for the first peacetime draft in U.S. history.

1948

A groundbreaking ceremony took place in New York at the site of the United Nations' world headquarters.

1957

A meeting held at the home of mobster Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara in Apalachin, outside of Binghamton, New York is raided by law enforcement, and many high level Mafia figures are arrested.

1959

The Soviet space probe Luna 2 became the first man-made object to reach the moon as it crashed onto the lunar surface.

1960

Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia formed OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries).

1970

Southern Airways Flight 932 crashes in the mountains near Huntington, West Virginia, killing 75, including members of the Marshall University football team.

1972

The family drama series ''The Waltons'' premiered on CBS.

1975

Pope Paul VI declared Mother Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton the first U.S.-born saint.

1975

Pope Paul the Sixth declared Mother Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton the first U.S.-born saint. She founded the United States' first religious order, the Sisters of Mercy of St. Joseph.

1979

Iran hostage crisis: US President Jimmy Carter issues Executive order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States in response to the hostage crisis.

1982

Lech Wałęsa, the leader of Poland's outlawed Solidarity movement, is released after eleven months of internment near the Soviet border.

1984

Zamboanga City mayor Cesar Climaco, a prominent critic of the government of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, is assassinated in his home city.

1991

In Royal Oak, Michigan, a fired United States Postal Service employee goes on a shooting rampage, killing four and wounding five before committing suicide.

1991

Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returns to Phnom Penh after thirteen years of exile.

1994

Acting commissioner Bud Selig announced the cancellation of the 1994 baseball season on the 34th day of a strike by players.

1995

A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums and to run most government offices with skeleton staffs.

2012

Israel launches a major military operation in the Gaza Strip, as hostilities with Hamas escalate.

1769

Baron Freidrich von Humbolt, German naturalist and explorer who made the first isothermic and isobaric maps

1840

Claude Monet, French painter

1849

Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist who studied conditioned reflexes.

1864

Lord Robert Cecil, a founder of the League of Nations, its president 1923-1945.

1867

Charles Dana Gibson, American artist, illustrator, and originator of the "Gibson Girl."

1879

Margaret Sanger, American nurse who founded Planned Parenthood and proponent of birth control.

1898

Hal B. Wallis, American film producer.

1954

Condoleezza Rice, American political scientist, academic, and politician, 66th United States Secretary of State

1321

Dante Alighieri, Italian author, poet, philosopher, and political thinker.

1638

John Harvard, English-American minister and philanthropist who left his library and half of his estate to Cambridge College. In his honor, the name was changed to Harvard College. (b. 1607)

1901

President McKinley died in Buffalo, N.Y., of gunshot wounds inflicted by an assassin. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt succeeded him.

1915

Booker T. Washington, American educator, author, and activist

1927

Modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan died in Nice, France, when her scarf became entangled in a wheel of her sports car.

1982

Princess Grace of Monaco, formerly actress Grace Kelly, died at age 52 of injuries from a car crash the day before.

1982

Lebanon's president-elect, Bashir Gemayel, was killed by a bomb.

1984

Janet Gaynor, American actress.

1997

Eddie Arcaro, American jockey and sportscaster