HMS Beagle, from the frontispiece to Charles Darwin’s published journal, by R. T. Pritchett

Today in History

• The first non-aristocratic free public school in Europe opens (1616)
• HMS Beagle, carrying naturalist Charles Darwin, reaches the Galápagos Islands, where Darwin’s observations will be important in the development of his theory of evolution by means of natural selection (1835)
• At World War I’s Battle of the Somme, tanks are used in combat for the first time (1916)
• Nazi Germany deprives German Jews of citizenship, and adopts a new national flag bearing the swastika (1935)
• In the climax of the Battle of Britain, RAF forces decisively defeat two massive waves of German aircraft, resulting in Hitler indefinitely postponing his plans for the invasion of Britain (1940)
• In the Korean War, US forces land at Inchon (1950)
• Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet leader to visit the US (1959)
• Four African-American children are killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama (1963)
• Muhammad Ali becomes the first boxer to win the world heavyweight title three times (1978)

Birthdays

• Titus Oates, fabricated the Popish Plot (1649)
• James Fenimore Cooper, novelist (1789)
• William Howard Taft, 27th US President (1857)
• Ettore Bugatti, car manufacturer (1881)
• Robert Benchley, humorist (1889)
• Agatha Christie, crime novelist (1890)
• Jean Renoir, filmmaker (1894)
• Roy Acuff, country musician (1903)
• Fay Wray, actress (1907)
• Penny Singleton, actress (1908)
• John Mitchell, US attorney general and Watergate figure (1913)
• Creighton Abrams, US general (1914)
• Robert McCloskey, author and illustrator (1914)
• Nipsey Russell, comedian (1919)
• Jackie Cooper, actor (1922)
• Bobby Short, singer and pianist (1924)
• Norm Crosby, comedian (1927)
• Cannonball Adderley, saxophonist (1928)
• Murray Gell-Mann, physicist (1929)
• Merlin Olsen, football player and actor (1940)
• Tommy Lee Jones, actor (1945)
• Oliver Stone, filmmaker (1946)
• Prince Harry of Wales, royal (1984)

Deaths

• Isambard Kingdom Brunel, railroad pioneer (1859)
• Thomas Wolfe, novelist (1938)
• Willy Messerschmitt, aircraft designer (1978)
• Cootie Williams, trumpet player (1985)
• Robert Penn Warren, novelist (1989)
• Garner Ted Armstrong, televangelist (2003)
• Johnny Ramone, punk rocker (2004)
• Oriana Fallaci, journalist (2006)
• Brett Somers, actress (2007)
• Harry Dean Stanton, actor (2017)

Holidays and Observances

• Battle of Britain Day (UK)
• Cry of Dolores (Mexico)
• Engineer’s Day (India)
• Free Money Day (worldwide)
• Independence Day (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica)
• International Day of Democracy
• International Dot Day
• Knowledge Day (Azerbaijan)
• Restoration of Primorska to the Motherland Day (Slovenia)
• Silpa Bhirasri Day (Thailand)
• World Lymphoma Awareness Day

September 15 is the 258th day of the year (259th in leap years). There are 107 days remaining until the end of the year.