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.

• 668 – Eastern Roman Emperor Constans II is murdered in his bath.
• 1440 – Gilles de Rais, one of the earliest-known serial killers, is taken into custody upon an accusation brought against him by the Bishop of Nantes.
• 1616 – The first non-aristocratic free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy.
• 1762 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Signal Hill.
• 1776 – American Revolutionary War: British forces land at Kip's Bay, during the New York Campaign.
• 1789 – The United States Department of State is founded, as the Department of Foreign Affairs.
• 1812 – The French army under Napoleon Bonaparte enters Moscow.
• 1812 – War of 1812: A second supply train sent to relieve Fort Harrison is ambushed in the Attack of the Narrows.
• 1820 – Constitutionalist Revolution in Lisbon
• 1821 – Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica jointly declare independence from Spain.
• 1830 – The Liverpool to Manchester railway line opens. On the same day, William Huskisson becomes the first railway fatality after being hit by a locomotive.
• 1835 – The HMS Beagle arrives in the Galapagos Islands with a young Charles Darwin on board.
• 1851 – Saint Joseph's University is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• 1862 – American Civil War: Confederate forces capture Harper's Ferry, then in Virginia, now in West Virginia.
• 1873 – Franco-Prussian War: The last German troops leave France.
• 1875 – Indianola, Texas, is destroyed by a Hurricane, killing between 150 and 300 people.
• 1894 – First Sino-Japanese War: Japan defeats China in the Battle of Pyongyang.

• 1916 – World War I: Tanks are used in battle for the first time, in the Somme, northern France.
• 1935 – With the Nuremberg Laws, the Nazis strip Jews of German citizenship.
• 1935 – The Nazis adopt the Swastika flag as the flag of Germany.
• 1940 – World War II: Climax of the Battle of Britain.
• 1942 – World War II: United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Wasp is torpedoed at Guadalcanal, present-day Solomon Islands.
• 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Peleliu (in Palau), between US and Japanese forces, begins.
• 1944 – World War II: Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt meet in Quebec as part of the Octagon conference to discuss strategy.
• 1945 – A hurricane in South Florida and the Bahamas destroys 366 planes and 25 blimps at NAS Richmond
• 1947 – Typhoon Kathleen kills 1,077 people in the Kanto region of Japan.
• 1948 – The F-86 Sabre sets the world aircraft speed record, at 671 miles per hour (1,080 kilometres per hour).
• 1949 – Konrad Adenauer becomes the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.
• 1950 – Korean War: US forces land at Inchon.
• 1952 – The UN gives Eritrea to Ethiopia.
• 1958 – A Central Railroad of New Jersey commuter train runs through an open drawbridge at the Newark Bay, killing 58 people.
• 1959 – Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet leader to visit the US.
• 1961 – Hurricane Carla hits Texas.
• 1962 – Soviet ship Poltava heads towards Cuba, one of the events that lead to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
• 1963 – "Birmingham Sunday" when a bomb killed 4 black girls in a church in Birmingham, Alabama.
• 1966 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to United States Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation.
• 1968 – The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter Earth's atmosphere.
• 1969 – US ice breaker tanker SS Manhattan passes through the Northwest Passage, after four weeks.
• 1972 – Scandinavian Airlines System domestic flight from Gothenburg to Stockholm, Sweden, is hijacked and flown to Malmo Bulltofta Airport.
• 1973 – Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden becomes King.
• 1975 – The French department of Corse, on the island of Corsica, is divided in two, into Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud.
• 1981 – Vanuatu joins the UN.
• 1981 – The Senate Judiciary Committee approves Sandra Day O'Connor to become a Justice on the United States Supreme Court, being the first female in such a role.
• 1983 – Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin resigns.
• 1990 – France announces it will send 4,000 troops to the Persian Gulf.
• 1991 – Bangladesh becomes a parliamentary democracy.
• 1993 – Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein disbands his country's parliament.
• 1994 – For the first time, a planet outside the Solar System is discovered.
• 1997 – New York City's Museum of Jewish Heritage opens.
• 2000 – The 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney begin.

• 2007 – Former world Rally champion Colin McRae dies in a helicopter crash in Lanarkshire, Scotland, along with his son and two family friends.
• 2008 – Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
• 2011 – A parliamentary election is held in Denmark, resulting in Helle Thorning-Schmidt becoming Prime Minister on October 3.
• 2015 – Malcolm Turnbull replaces Tony Abbott as Prime Minister of Australia.
• 2015 – Aksel V. Johannesen becomes Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands.
• 2017 – 2017 Parsons Green bombing: An explosive device is detonated on a tube train near London's Parsons Green station, injuring 30 people.
• 2017 – The Cassini space probe's mission is ended, as it is plunged into Saturn's atmosphere.

• 1254 – Marco Polo, Italian explorer (d. 1324)
• 1533 – Catherine of Austria, Queen Consort of Poland and Lithuania (d. 1572)
• 1580 – Charles Annibal Fabrot, French lawyer (d. 1659)
• 1603 – Tokugawa Yorifusa, Japanese daimyo (d. 1661)
• 1613 – François de la Rochefoucauld, French author (d. 1680)
• 1649 – Titus Oates, English priest (d. 1705)
• 1666 – Sophia Dorothea of Celle, German princess (d. 1726)
• 1675 – Vakhtang VI of Kartli, Georgian King (d. 1737)
• 1676 – Stanislaw Poniatowski, Polish politician (d. 1762)
• 1690 – Ignazio Prota, Italian composer and music educator (d. 1748)
• 1715 – Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, French general and engineer (d. 1789)
• 1736 – Jean-Silvain Bailly, French politician and astronomer (d. 1793)
• 1756 – Carl Philipp Moritz, German writer (d. 1793)
• 1760 – Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien, Prussian general (d. 1824)
• 1761 – Cornelio Saavedra, Argentine politician (d. 1829)
• 1765 – Bocage, Portuguese poet (d. 1805)
• 1787 – Guillaume-Henri Dufour, Swiss humanist, general, politician, mapmaker and engineer (d. 1875)
• 1789 – James Fenimore Cooper, American writer (d. 1851)
• 1800 – Paul-Frederick, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (d. 1842)

• 1808 – John Hutton Balfour, Scottish botanist (d. 1884)
• 1811 – Charles de Mornay, French politician (d. 1865)
• 1814 – Ferdinand von Arnim, German architect (d. 1866)
• 1815 – Halfdan Kjerulf, Norwegian composer (d. 1868)
• 1825 – Iwakura Tomomi, Japanese statesman (d. 1883)
• 1828 – Alexander Butlerov, Russian chemist (d. 1886)
• 1830 – Porfirio Díaz, President of Mexico (d. 1915)
• 1834 – Heinrich von Treitschke, German historian and publicist (d. 1896)
• 1852 – Edward Bouchet, American physicist (d. 1918)
• 1857 – William Howard Taft, 27th President of the United States (d. 1930)
• 1858 – Charles de Foucauld, French monk (d. 1916)
• 1860 – Visvesvaraya, Indian engineer, scholar and politician (d. 1962)
• 1863 – Horatio Parker, American composer (d. 1919)
• 1875 – Henry D. Hatfield, American politician, 14th Governor of West Virginia (d. 1962)
• 1876 – Bruno Walter, German conductor (d. 1962)
• 1876 – Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bengali writer (d. 1938)
• 1877 – Jakob Ehrlich, Austrian politician and Zionist (d. 1938)
• 1877 – Yente Serdatzky, Lithuanian-American author and playwright (d. 1962)
• 1879 – Joseph Lyons, 10th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1939)
• 1881 – Ettore Bugatti, Italian automobile engineer and designer (d. 1947)
• 1883 – Esteban Teradas i Illa, Spanish mathematician and engineer (d. 1950)
• 1886 – Paul Lévy, French mathematician (d. 1971)
• 1887 – Carlos Dávila, President of Chile (d. 1955)
• 1888 – Antonio Ascari, Italian racing driver (d. 1925)
• 1889 – Robert Benchley, American writer (d. 1945)
• 1890 – Agatha Christie, English writer (d. 1976)
• 1894 – Jean Renoir, French movie director (d. 1979)
• 1895 – Magda Lupescu, consort of King Carol II of Romania (d. 1977)

• 1903 – Roy Acuff, American Country musician (d. 1992)
• 1903 – Yisrael Kristal, Polish-born Israeli supercentenarian and Holocaust survivor (d. 2017)
• 1904 – King Umberto II of Italy (d. 1983)
• 1905 – Pat O'Callaghan, Irish hammer thrower (d. 1991)
• 1907 – Alfred Delp, German Jesuit and Resistance activist (d. 1945)
• 1907 – Fay Wray, Canadian-American actress (d. 2004)
• 1908 – Misko Kranjec, Slovenian writer (d. 1983)
• 1909 – C. N. Annadurai, Indian politician, 7th Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu (d. 1969)
• 1911 – Karsten Solheim, Norwegian-American golf entrepreneur (d. 2000)
• 1911 – Luther Terry, 9th Surgeon General of the United States (d. 1985)
• 1913 – John N. Mitchell, United States Attorney General (d. 1988)
• 1913 – Johannes Steinhoff, German military officer (d. 1994)
• 1914 – Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentine writer (d. 1999)
• 1914 – Jens Otto Krag, Prime Minister of Denmark (d. 1978)
• 1915 – Helmut Schön, German footballer and manager (d. 1996)
• 1916 – Margaret Lockwood, English actress (d. 1990)
• 1918 – Margot Loyola, Chilean musician and singer (d. 2015)
• 1919 – Nelson Gidding, American screenwriter (d. 2004)
• 1919 – Fausto Coppi, Italian cyclist (d. 1960)
• 1922 – Jackie Cooper, American actor (d. 2011)
• 1922 – Bob Anderson, British fencer and sword fight choreographer (d. 2012)
• 1922 – Mary Soames, Baroness Soames, daughter of Winston Churchill (d. 2014)
• 1924 – György Lázár, 50th Prime Minister of Hungary (d. 2014)
• 1925 – Carlo Rambaldi, Italian special effects artist (d. 2012)
• 1925 – Helle Virkner, Danish actress (d. 2009)

• 1926 – Jean-Pierre Serre, French mathematician
• 1926 – Shohei Imamura, Japanese movie director (d. 2006)
• 1926 – Ed Derwinski, American politician (d. 2012)
• 1927 – Val Holten, Australian cricketer (d. 2015)
• 1927 – Norm Crosby, American comedian and actor
• 1928 – Cannonball Adderley, American jazz musician (d. 1975)
• 1929 – Murray Gell-Mann, American physicist (d. 2019)
• 1929 – Mümtaz Soysal, Turkish politician and lawyer (d. 2019)
• 1929 – Eva Burrows, 13th General of the Salvation Army (d. 2015)
• 1930 – Merab Mamardashvili, Georgian philosopher (d. 1990)
• 1933 – Henry Darrow, American actor
• 1933 – Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Spanish composer and conductor (d. 2014)
• 1935 – Patriarch Dinkha IV of the Assyrian Church of the East (d. 2015)
• 1936 – Ashley Cooper, Australian tennis player
• 1937 – Robert Lucas, Jr., American economist
• 1937 – Fernando de la Rúa, former President of Argentina (d. 2019)
• 1938 – Gaylord Perry, American baseball player
• 1940 – Merlin Olsen, American football player and actor (d. 2010)
• 1941 – Flórián Albert, Hungarian footballer (d. 2011)
• 1941 – Signe Toly Anderson, American singer (d. 2016)
• 1941 – Yuriy Norshteyn, Russian animator, director and screenwriter
• 1941 – Viktor Zubkov, former Prime Minister of Russia
• 1941 – Miroslaw Hermaszewski, Polish cosmonaut
• 1942 – Wen Jiabao, former Premier of the People's Republic of China
• 1942 – Emmerson Mnangagwa, 3rd President of Zimbabwe
• 1942 – Lee Dorman, American bass player (d. 2012)
• 1944 – Graham Taylor, English footballer and manager (d. 2017)
• 1944 – Mauro Piacenza, Italian cardinal
• 1945 – Hans-Gert Pöttering, German politician
• 1945 – Carmen Maura, Spanish actress
• 1945 – Jessye Norman, American singer (d. 2019)
• 1945 – Ron Shelton, American screenwriter, director and movie producer
• 1945 – Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi prince
• 1946 – Ola Brunkert, Swedish musician (d. 2008)
• 1946 – Tommy Lee Jones, American actor
• 1946 – Oliver Stone, American movie director
• 1946 – Mike Procter, South African cricketer, coach and referee
• 1947 – Viggo Jensen, Danish footballer and manager
• 1949 – Joe Barton, American politician
• 1950 – Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Islamic spiritual leader

• 1951 – Johan Neeskens, Dutch footballer
• 1952 – Richard Brodeur, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1954 – Hrant Dink, Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor (d. 2007)
• 1954 – Nava Semel, Israeli author and playwright (d. 2017)
• 1955 – Bruce Reitherman, American movie maker
• 1955 – Abdul Qadir, Pakistani cricketer (d. 2019)
• 1955 – Renzo Rosso, Italian fashion designer
• 1955 – Brendan O'Carroll, Irish actor
• 1956 – Maggie Reilly, Scottish singer
• 1958 – Dr. Know, American guitarist
• 1959 – Mark Kirk, American politician
• 1960 – Katsuyoshi Shinto, Japanese footballer
• 1961 – Dan Marino, American football player
• 1961 – Colin McFarlane, English voice actor
• 1962 – Rebecca Miller, American actress, director and writer
• 1964 – Robert Fico, former Prime Minister of Slovakia
• 1966 – Sherman Douglas, American basketball player
• 1967 – Huw Bunford, Welsh guitarist and songwriter (Super Furry Animals)
• 1969 – Revaz Arveladze, Georgian footballer
• 1970 – Svetlana Zakharova, Russian long-distance runner
• 1971 – Josh Charles, American actor
• 1972 – Jimmy Carr, British comedian
• 1972 – Queen Letizia of Spain
• 1973 – Daniel Westling, Swedish royal
• 1973 – Julie Cox, British actress
• 1973 – Alyn Smith, Scottish politician
• 1974 – Murat Yakin, Swiss footballer

• 1976 – Paul Thomson, Scottish musician
• 1977 – Angela Aki, Japanese singer-songwriter
• 1977 – Sophie Dahl, British model
• 1977 – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigerian writer
• 1977 – Tom Hardy, English actor, screenwriter and producer
• 1977 – René Haselbacher, Austrian cyclist
• 1977 – Jason Terry, American basketball player
• 1978 – Eidur Gudjohnsen, Icelandic footballer
• 1978 – Kew Jaliens, Dutch footballer
• 1979 – Patrick Marleau, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1979 – Carlos Ruiz, Guatemalan footballer
• 1979 – Amy Davidson, American actress
• 1980 – Mike Dunleavy, Jr., American basketball player
• 1980 – Jolin Tsai, Taiwanese singer
• 1981 – Miyavi, Japanese composer, singer and guitarist
• 1983 – Ashleigh McIvor, Canadian freestyle skier
• 1983 – Tomas Sivok, Czech footballer
• 1983 – Santeri Palin, Finnish writer
• 1984 – Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, British royal
• 1986 – Heidi Montag, American television personality and singer
• 1986 – Anan Anwar, Thai singer and actor
• 1986 – Peter Wilson, English sport shooter and Olympic gold medalist
• 1986 – Poppy Delevingne, English model
• 1987 – Clare Maguire, English singer-songwriter
• 1988 – Chelsea Kane, American actress and singer
• 1988 – Kate Mansi, American actress
• 1990 – Gwyneth Keyworth, Welsh actress
• 1996 – Jake Cherry, American actor
• 1996 – Nao Furuhata, Japanese idol and singer
• 1999 – Nana Owada, Japanese idol singer and actress

• 668 – Constans II, Emperor (b. 630)
• 921 – Saint Ludmila of Bohemia, Bohemian martyr (b. 860)
• 1134 – Alfonso the Battler, King of Aragon and Navarra (b. 1073)
• 1231 – Louis I, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1173)
• 1326 – Dmitry of Tver (b. 1299)
• 1352 – Ewostatewos, Ethiopian monk and religious leader (b. 1273)
• 1750 – Charles Theodore Pachelbel, German composer (b. 1690)
• 1794 – Abraham Clark, Signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1725)
• 1803 – Gian Francesco Albani, Italian cardinal (b. 1719)
• 1805 – Christopher Gadsden, American soldier and statesman (b. 1724)
• 1830 – William Huskisson, English politician, first rail fatality (b. 1770)
• 1835 – Sarah Knox Taylor, wife of Jefferson Davis (b. 1814)
• 1841 – Alessandro Rolla, Italian violinist and composer (b. 1757)
• 1842 – Pierre Baillot, French violinist and composer (b. 1771)
• 1842 – Francisco Morazan, President of Central America (b. 1792)
• 1859 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel, British engineer (b. 1806)
• 1864 – John Hanning Speke, British explorer (b. 1827)
• 1875 – Duchenne de Boulogne, French psychologist (b. 1806)
• 1883 – Joseph Plateau, Belgian physicist (b. 1801)
• 1885 – Jumbo, African elephant (b. 1861)
• 1891 – John Steell, Scottish sculptor (b. 1804)
• 1893 – Thomas Hawksley, English engineer (b. 1807)

• 1926 – Rudolf Christoph Eucken, German writer (b. 1846)
• 1930 – Milton Sills, American actor (b. 1882)
• 1938 – Thomas Wolfe, American writer (b. 1900)
• 1940 – William B. Bankhead, American politician (b. 1874)
• 1945 – André Tardieu, French statesman (b. 1876)
• 1945 – Anton Webern, Austrian composer and conductor (b. 1883)
• 1972 – Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1887)
• 1972 – Asgeir Asgeirsson, second President of Iceland (b. 1894)
• 1973 – King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden, King of Sweden (b. 1882)
• 1973 – Victor Jara, Chilean musician (b. 1932)
• 1975 – Pavel Sukhoi, Russian aircraft designer (b. 1895)
• 1978 – Willy Messerschmidt, German aircraft designer (b. 1898)
• 1979 – Tommy Leonetti, American singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1929)
• 1981 – Harold Bennett, English actor (b. 1899)
• 1985 – Cootie Williams, American trumpeter (b. 1910)
• 1989 – Robert Penn Warren, American writer (b. 1905)
• 1995 – Gunnar Nordahl, Swedish footballer (b. 1921)
• 1998 – Luke Rasminsky, Canadian economist (b. 1908)

• 2001 – June Salter, Australian actress (b. 1932)
• 2004 – Johnny Ramone, American guitarist (The Ramones) (b. 1948)
• 2005 – Sidney Luft, American director (b. 1915)
• 2006 – Oriana Fallaci, Italian journalist and writer (b. 1929)
• 2007 – Colin McRae, Scottish rally driver (b. 1968)
• 2008 – Richard Wright, English musician (Pink Floyd) (b. 1943)
• 2009 – Timothy Bateson, English actor (b. 1926)
• 2014 – Post Bahadur Bogati, Nepalese politician (b. 1953)
• 2014 – Yitzhak Hofi, Israeli general (b. 1927)
• 2014 – Eugene I. Gordon, American physicist (b. 1930)
• 2014 – John Anderson, Jr., American politician, Governor of Kansas (b. 1917)
• 2014 – Jackie Cain, American jazz singer (b. 1928)
• 2014 – Jeremy Ball, Australian actor and politician (b. 1969)
• 2015 – Meir Pa'il, Israeli politician and military historian (b. 1926)
• 2015 – Bernard Van De Kerckhove, Belgian racing driver (b. 1941)
• 2015 – Mihai Volontir, Moldovan actor (b. 1934)
• 2015 – Harry J. Lipkin, Israeli nuclear physicist (b. 1921)
• 2017 – María Cristina Arango Vega, First Lady of Colombia (b. 1928)
• 2017 – Violet Brown, Jamaican supercentenarian (b. 1900)
• 2017 – Dwijen Sharma, Bangladeshi naturalist and science writer (b. 1929)
• 2017 – Harry Dean Stanton, American actor (b. 1926)
• 2017 – Albert Speer Jr., German architect (b. 1934)
• 2018 – Kirin Kiki, Japanese actress (b. 1943)
• 2018 – Dudley Sutton, English actor (b. 1933)
• 2018 – José Manuel de la Sota, Argentine politician (b. 1949)
• 2018 – Victor Veselago, Soviet-Russian physicist (b. 1929)
• 2018 – Fritz Wintersteller, Austrian mountaineer (b. 1927)
• 2018 – Zhu Xu, Chinese actor (b. 1930)
• 2019 – Chadlia Caid Essebsi, First Lady of Tunisia (b. 1936)
• 2019 – Lol Mahamat Choua, 4th President of Chad (b. 1939)
• 2019 – Roberto Leal, Portuguese-Brazilian singer-songwriter (b. 1951)
• 2019 – Phyllis Newman, American actress and singer (b. 1933)
• 2019 – Ric Ocasek, American singer, songwriter and record producer (b. 1944)
• 2019 – Mike Stefanik, American racing driver (b. 1958)

• Battle of Britain Day (United Kingdom)
• Grito de Dolores (Mexico)
• Independence Day (Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua)
• International Day of Democracy
• Engineers' Day (India)