September 15

1590 Pope Urban VII, whose birth name was Giovanni Battista Castagna, was elected as the pope on September 15, 1590, following the death of Pope Sixtus V. However, his papal reign was tragically short, lasting only 13 days. He died on September 27, 1590, due to malaria, making his pontificate the shortest in the history of the papacy.

1590 Urban VII's short time as pope gave rise to the world's first known public smoking ban when he threatened to excommunicate anyone who "took tobacco in the porchway of or inside a church, whether it be by chewing it, smoking it with a pipe, or sniffing it in powdered form through the nose."

Pope Urban VII, the shortest-reigning pope

1616 The first non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe was opened in Frascati, Italy on September 15, 1616. The establishment was opened thanks to St. Joseph Calasanz, a Spanish Catholic priest who dedicated his life to the education of poor children. Calasanz founded the The Order of Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools, the first Catholic order primarily dedicated to education. The Pious Schools expanded and were financially supported by Popes Clement VIII and Paul V.

1649 Titus Oates was born at Oakham England on September 15, 1649. An Anglican priest, he announced that he had discovered a 'popish plot' to murder Charles II and re-establish Catholicism. The story was entirely false but many innocent Catholics were executed.  Oates' crime was uncovered and he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1681 incorporating an annual pillory and flogging in the public stocks. He was pardoned upon the accession of the Protestant William of Orange and Mary in 1689. 

1787 The delegates that attended the American Constitutional Convention were not afraid to enjoy themselves after a day discussing the future of their country. One bill for a party for 55 people on September 15, 1787, two days before signing the Constitution itemized 60 bottles of claret, 54 bottles of Madeira, 8 bottles of whiskey, 22 bottles of cider, 12 bottles of beer, and 7 bowls of alcoholic punch.

1794 Future US president James Madison was 43 when he married 26-year-old Dolley Todd (née Payne) on September 15, 1794. Once Madison had tied the knot with Dolley, she was disowned by the Society of Friends as her husband was not a Quaker. Dolley Madison was one of the most well-loved first ladies and known as a terrific hostess. After Thomas Jefferson's wife died while he was serving as president, she helped him at official state functions.

Dolley Madison, 1804, by Gilbert Stuart.

1798 Europe was in political turmoil and financial meltdown when Joseph Haydn wrote his Missa in Angustiis (Mass for Troubled Times) in 1798, In fact, the times were so troubled that there wasn't enough money to pay for a wind section, yet Haydn produced one of his greatest works. Mass for Troubled Times) was premiered on September 15, 1798.

1821 On September 15, 1821, after the final Spanish defeat in the Mexican War of Independence (1810–21), Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua jointly declared independence from Spain. September 15th is celebrated as the Independence Day of El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Guatemala (a Patriotic Day).

1830 The Liverpool to Manchester Railway, often referred to as the L&MR, was the world's first intercity passenger railway line. It officially opened on September 15, 1830. This historic railway played a significant role in the development of modern transportation and marked the beginning of the railway age, revolutionizing the way people and goods were transported.

1830 The Liverpool and Manchester Railway line, which opened on September 15, 1830, included the Rainhill Skew Bridge, the first bridge to cross any railway at an angle. George Stephenson built a full-sized wooden model in an adjacent field before completing the bridge in 1830. 

Stephenson's Bridge

1830 On September 15, 1830, the president of the UK board of trade William Huskisson attended the grand opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Visitors boarded the Northumbrian, which had stopped to take on water. Against instructions, the passengers disembarked to hobnob. Seeing the Duke of Wellington, Huskisson walked across the adjacent track to speak to him just as another locomotive came barreling down the line. Huskisson stumbled and fell beneath the wheels of the oncoming train. He became the world's first railroad passenger fatality.

1831 John Bull, the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world, ran for the first time in New Jersey on the Camden and Amboy Railroad on September 15, 1831. It was built in England by George Stephenson and his son Robert Stephenson and shipped to the United States. 

1835 The HMS Beagle reached the Galápagos Islands on September 15, 1835 with Charles Darwin on board. Darwin noted the species of animals and plants (including the giant tortoises) on Galapagos Islands were different to everywhere else and even differed from island to island. The year he spent studying there suggested to him that animals and plants were not replicas created by a heavenly snap of fingers. Darwin's observations during the voyage led to his theory of modification of species.

1857 William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States, was born September 15, 1857 in Cincinnati, Ohio. William was a physically active child, playing sports and taking dancing lessons despite his tendency to obesity. Taft's large size and famous chuckle made him a memorable figure as President. He weighed a mighty 332lb — nearly 24 st — at his inauguration in 1909.

1859 The English engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel died, ten days after suffering a stroke, on September 15, 1859. Brunel made outstanding contributions to marine engineering with his three ships, the Great Western, Great Britain (1843), and Great Eastern (originally called Leviathan; 1858), each the largest in the world at its date of launching.

1872 Businessman Maksymilian Faktorowiczr was born on September 15, 1872 in Lodz, Poland. Faktorowicz opened his own shop in a suburb of Moscow, selling hand-made rouges, creams, fragrances, and wigs. His big break came when he was appointed the official cosmetic expert for the royal family and the Imperial Russian Grand Opera. In 1904, he and his family emigrated to America. He started selling his rouges and creams there under the name given to him at Ellis Island, Max Factor.

1873 One of the earliest recorded viewings of water polo was conducted at the 4th Open Air Fete of the London Swimming Club, held at the Crystal Palace, London on September 15, 1873. It was held in the boating lake that still exists.

1890 Agatha Christie was born in Torquay, Devon, England on September 15, 1890. Christie worked at a hospital dispensary between 1915 and 1918 in Torquay. She acquired there an extensive knowledge of poisons, which she later used in her detective novels. Christie wrote 84 novels, 157 short stories and 19 plays in total. Over four billion copies of her books have been sold world-wide. Her book sales are surpassed only by The Bible and William Shakespeare.

Agatha Christie as a girl, date unknown

1913 Prince Albert (later George VI) was commissioned as a midshipman on September 15, 1913, and a year later began service in World War I. He was mentioned in dispatches for his action as a turret officer aboard HMS Collingwood during the 1916 Battle of Jutland, the largest naval action of the war.

1916 On September 15, 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, the British sent into action eleven vehicles of an entirely new kind, the Mark I tank. When the British army was developing the vehicles, known as 'landships', they didn't want to give the Germans any clue what they were up to – so the name 'tank,' which doesn't mean anything, was used to throw them off. It stuck.

1940 In early September, during The Battle Of Britain, King George VI called the British nation to prayer, and many flocked to the churches. A week later, on September 15, 1940, the battle reached its climax. Two massive waves of German attacks were decisively repulsed by the RAF by deploying every aircraft in 11 Group. Though the RAF was down to their last legs with no reserves left, Hitler postponed preparations for the invasion of Britain. The Luftwaffe started to retreat and flew home. 

1950 Georgia Tann was a child trafficker who arranged expensive adoptions with the wealthy, including Hollywood stars. She deceived birth parents by taking babies for medical care and later saying they died. The police did nothing because her victims were poor, In 1950 a state investigation into numerous instances of adoption fraud being perpetrated by Tann closed her institution. Tann died of cancer on September 15, 1950 before the investigation made its findings public.

1978 Muhammad Ali was the first boxer to win the heavyweight title three times. He achieved this on September 15, 1978 when he beat Leon Spinks by a decision in a rematch after losing to him earlier in the year.

1984 Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex was born in the lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, London, on September 15, 1984 at 4.20 pm  to Charles, Prince of Wales and the late Diana, Princess of Wales. He weighed 6 pounds 14 ounces. His proud father told crowds outside his son had hair of "a sort of indeterminate color."

1986 Barry Kirk, a 32-year-old computer technician from Port Talbot, Wales, achieved a unique feat on September 15, 1986. He completed the inaugural "Beanathon" by enduring 100 hours of sitting in a bathtub filled with cold baked beans.

1997 In early 1996, California students Larry Page and Sergey Brin began work on a search engine called Backrub,  because the system checked backlinks to estimate the importance of a site. It was later renamed Google after a mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros. The domain name for Google was registered on September 15, 1997.

1999 Hurricane Floyd was among the largest Atlantic hurricanes of its strength ever recorded, in terms of gale-force diameter. It was forecast to strike Florida, causing Walt Disney World in Florida to close for a full day for the first time in its history, on September 15, 1999. Hurricane Floyd eventually turned away from Florida and instead, it struck the Bahamas at peak strength. 

2000 The 2000 Summer Olympics opened on September 15 in Sydney. It was the second time that the Summer Olympics had been held in Australia, and also the Southern Hemisphere, the first being in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1956. 

2008 On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following the exodus of most of its clients, drastic losses in its stock, and devaluation of assets by credit rating agencies. It was the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history and is thought to have played a major role in the unfolding of the financial crisis of 2007–2008. 

2015 With 2,221 individual recording credits as of September 15, 2015, Ron Carter is the most recorded jazz bassist in history. Carter has won three Grammy Awards, including one for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance for his album Multiplicity (1999).