20 September

480 BC  Greeks defeat Persians in the Battle of Salamis

1187    Saladin begins the Siege of Jerusalem.

1519    Ferdinand Magellan sets sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda with about 270 men on his expedition to circumnavigate the globe.

1593    Gottfried Scheidt (born), German organist and composer (died 1661)

1596    Diego de Montemayor founds the city of Monterrey in New Spain.

1627    Jan Gruter (died), Dutch critic and scholar (born 1560)

1630   Claudio Saracini (died), Italian lute player and composer (born 1586)

1639    Johannes Meursius (died), Dutch scholar (born 1579)

1685    Giuseppe Matteo Alberti (born), Italian violinist and composer (died 1751)

1697    The Treaty of Rijswijk is signed by France, England, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch Republic ending the Nine Years’ War (1688–97).

1737    The finish of the Walking Purchase which forces the cession of 1.2 million acres (4,860 km²) of Lenape-Delaware tribal land to the Pennsylvania Colony.

1778    Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen (born), Russian admiral, cartographer, and explorer (died 1852)

1793    Fletcher Christian (died), English lieutenant (born 1764)

1815    Nicolas Desmarest (died), French geologist (born 1725)

1835    Ragamuffin rebels capture Porto Alegre, then capital of the Brazilian imperial province of Rio Grande do Sul, triggering the start of ten-year-long Ragamuffin War.

1842   James Dewar (born), Scottish chemist and physicist (died 1923)

1844   William H. Illingworth (born), American photographer (died 1893)

1848   The American Association for the Advancement of Science is created.

1852    Philander Chase (died), American bishop and educator, founded Kenyon College (born 1775)

1857    The Indian Rebellion of 1857 ends with the recapture of Delhi by troops loyal to the East India Company.

1860   The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII of the United Kingdom) visits the United States.

1861    Herbert Putnam (born), American lawyer and publisher, 8th Librarian of Congress (died 1955)

1863   American Civil War: The Battle of Chickamauga ends.

1881    Chester A. Arthur is inaugurated as the 21st President of the United States following the assassination of James Garfield.

1893   Charles Duryea and his brother road-test the first American-made gasoline-powered automobile.

1906   Cunard Line’s RMS Mauretania is launched at the Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson shipyard in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

1909   The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the South Africa Act 1909, creating the Union of South Africa from the British Colonies of the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Orange River Colony, and the Transvaal Colony.

1910    The ocean liner SS France, later known as the “Versailles of the Atlantic”, is launched.

1913    Sidney Dillon Ripley (born), American ornithologist (died 2001)

1917    Fernando Rey (born), Spanish actor (died 1994)

1917    Red Auerbach (born), American basketball player and coach (died 2006)

1921    Chico Hamilton (born), American drummer, composer, and bandleader (died 2013)

1925    Bobby Nunn (born), American singer (The Coasters and The Robins) (died 1986)

1926    Libero Liberati (born), Italian motorcycle racer (died 1962)

1929    Anne Meara (born), American actress, producer, and screenwriter

1932    Wovoka (died), American religious leader, founded the Ghost Dance Movement (born 1856)

1934    Sophia Loren (born), Italian-Swiss actress and singer

1942    Gérald Tremblay (born), Canadian businessman and politician, 41st Mayor of Montreal

1945    Eduard Wirths (died), German physician (born 1909)

1945    Jack Thayer (died), American survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic (born 1894)

1945    William Seabrook (died), American occultist, journalist, and explorer (born 1884)

1946    Pete Coors (born), American businessman and politician

1946    The first Cannes Film Festival is held, having been delayed seven years due to World War II.

1947    Fiorello La Guardia (died), American politician, 99th Mayor of New York City (born 1882)

1948   Chuck Panozzo (born), American bass player (Styx)

1948   George R. R. Martin (born), American author, screenwriter, and producer

1948   John Panozzo (born), American drummer (Styx) (died 1996)

1951    Javier Marías (born), Spanish journalist, author, and academic

1957    Jean Sibelius (died), Finnish composer (born 1865)

1962    James Meredith, an African-American, is temporarily barred from entering the University of Mississippi.

1967    RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 is launched at John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Scotland. It is operated by the Cunard Line.

1971    Having weakened after making landfall in Nicaragua the previous day, Hurricane Irene regains enough strength to be renamed Hurricane Olivia, making it the first known hurricane to cross from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific.

1972    Pierre-Henri Simon (died), French historian and author (born 1903)

1973    Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in The Battle of the Sexes tennis match at the Houston Astrodome in Houston, Texas.

1973    Jim Croce (died), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1943)

1975    Juan Pablo Montoya (born), Colombian race car driver

1977    The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is admitted to the United Nations.

1978    Héctor Camacho, Jr. (born), Puerto Rican-American boxer

1979    A coup d’état in the Central African Empire overthrows Emperor Bokasa I.

1982   The National Football League players begin a 57-day strike.

1984   A suicide bomber in a car attacks the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing twenty-two people.

1985    Capital gains tax is introduced in Australia, one of a number of tax reforms by the Hawke/Keating government.

1989   Richie Ginther (died), American race car driver (born 1930)

1996    Paul Erdős (died), Hungarian-Polish mathematician (born 1913)

1996    Paul Weston (died), American pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1912)

1999    Raisa Gorbachova (died) Russian wife of Mikhail Gorbachev (born 1932)

2000  The United Kingdom’s MI6 Secret Intelligence Service building is attacked by individuals using a Russian-built RPG-22 anti-tank missile. The perpetrators remain unidentified.

2001   In an address to a joint session of Congress and the American people, U.S. President George W. Bush declares a “war on terror”.

2005   Simon Wiesenthal (died), Ukrainian-Austrian holocaust survivor (born 1908)

2006   Armin Jordan (died), Swiss conductor (born 1932)

2007   Between 15,000 and 20,000 protesters marched on Jena, Louisiana, in support of six black youths who had been convicted of assaulting a white classmate.

2008  A dump truck full of explosives detonates in front of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing 54 people and injuring 266 others.

2010   Leonard Skinner (died), American educator (born 1933)

2011    The United States ends its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly for the first time.

2012   Richard H. Cracroft (died), American academic and author (born 1936)

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EO Smith

Interests include biological anthropology, evolution, social behavior, and human behavior. Conducted field research in the Tana River National Primate Reserve, Kenya and on Angaur, Palau, Micronesia, as well as research with captive nonhuman primates at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the Institute for Primate Research, National Museums of Kenya.
EO Smith
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