This Week in History

September 7

 

1907: The Cunard Line’s RMS Lusitania sailed on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England, to New York City.

  1916: The Federal Employers Liability Act became law, making U.S. federal employees eligible for workers’ compensation for the firs time.

  1921: The first Miss America Pageant was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

  1927: Philo Taylor Farnsworth constructed the first fully electronic television system.

  1936: The last surviving thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) died alone in its cage at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania.

1979: The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) made its debut. The Chrysler Corporation asked the U.S. government for $1.5 billion to avoid bankruptcy.
2018:  Eminem breaks 36-year UK chart record for consecutive No. 1 albums with “Kamikaze”.

 

September 8

 

1664: The Dutch surrendered New Amsterdam to the British, who renamed it New York. (The fictional story “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving was set during this time.)

1966: The TV series Star Trek premiered.

1974: President Ford granted an unconditional pardon to former president Nixon, who resigned in disgrace to avoid being impeached.

1988: Yellowstone National Park was closed for the first time in U.S. history due to ongoing fires.
 2018: Archaeologists uncover more than 300 gold coins from late imperial period from theatre in Como, Italy.

 2019: Typhoon Faxai makes landfall near Tokyo, Japan, with winds of up to 210km/h (130mph).

 

September 9

 

1776: The American Congress decided on the name “United States.”

1956: Elvis Presley appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time.

1972: In Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave National Park, a Cave Research Foundation exploration and mapping team discovered a link between the Mammoth and Flint Ridge cave systems, making it the longest known cave passageway in the world (400 surveyed miles).

2010: A natural gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, Calif., created a wall of fire more than 1,000 feet high.
    2019: Scientist reveal evidence of humans earliest milk consumption, 6,000 years ago from the dental plaque of teeth of prehistoric farmers from Britain.

September 10

 

1946: While riding a train to Darjeeling, Sister Teresa Bojaxhiu of the Loreto Sisters’ Convent claimed to have heard the call of God, directing her “to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them.” She would become known as Mother Teresa.
2015: New human-like species – Homo Naledi announced by Scientists and a team of female archaeologists, found deep in caves in South Africa.
2018: South Carolina issues mandatory evacuation order affecting one million people ahead of Hurricane Florence.

 

September 11

 

1786: Congressional delegates began debating the need for a convention “for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles” [of Confederation] to “render a constitution adequate to the Union’s needs.”

1978: Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident, was assassinated in London with a specially modified umbrella that fired a metal pellet with a small cavity full of ricin into his calf.

1978: Janet Parker, a British medical photographer, died of smallpox in 1978, ten months after the disease was eradicated in the wild, when a researcher at the laboratory where Parker worked accidentally released some virus into the air of the building. Parker is the last known smallpox fatality.
    2017: Hurricane Irma leaves 7 million US homes without power in Florida and Georgia.
    2019: Water detected for first time on planet outside out solar system, on exoplanet K2-18b 110 light-years away, in findings published in “Nature Astronomy”.

 

September 12

2018:  Oldest known human drawing discovered, 73,000 years old, in Blombos Cave, South Africa published in “Nature”.

 

September 13

 

1788: Congress made New York the capital of the United States.

1922: The world’s second hottest surface temperature, 136 degrees, was recorded in El Azizia, Libya.
2017:
International Olympic Committee announces Paris (2024) and Los Angeles (2028) will host the Olympic gam

ON THIS DAY… AUGUST 31 – SEPTEMBER 6

August 31- NATIONAL TRAIL MIX DAY
What are you waiting for? Grab a handful and let’s celebrate!

September 1- PINK CADILLAC DAY
This day honors the iconic pink car that became a cultural landmark of the 1950s.

 September 2- WORLD COCONUT DAY
You can’t make a pina colada or a decent Thai curry without it, its water makes a great recovery drink, and its fibrous husk, when burned, repels mosquitos.

September 3- NATIONAL HUMMINGBIRD DAY
Hummingbirds share the raising of the chicks and males live a lot shorter because they use so much energy in defending their nests. 

September 4- NATIONAL
WILDLIFE DAY
Today is an opportunity for everyone to step back, take a deep breath and think about all that surrounds us.

September 5- LABOR DAY
Summer’s final fling has arrived.

September 6 -NATIONAL READ A BOOK DAY
This day encourages us to silence the noise and turn the pages for a while.