History of the Day for:
September 11
- 1297: The Scots under William Wallace defeated a large English force under the Earl of Surrey at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.
- 1649: Oliver Cromwell, the leader of the victorious parliamentarians in the English Civil War, besieged Drogheda in Ireland and massacred most of the inhabitants.
- 1777: The British defeated the Americans, led by Gen. George Washington, at the Battle of Brandywine Creek in the Revolutionary War.
- 1789: Alexander Hamilton was appointed the first Secretary of the Treasury.
- 1814: The American navy defeated the British in the Battle of Lake Champlain.
- 1847: Stephen Foster first performed his song, "Oh Susanna."
- 1853: The first electric telegraph went into operation.
- 1862: Short story writer O. Henry (real name: William Sydney Porter) was born in Greensboro, N.C. (d: 1901).
- 1883: James Cutler patented the postal mail chute.
- 1936: President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated Boulder Dam, (later renamed Hoover Dam).
- 1940: Buckingham Palace in London was destroyed by German bombs.
- 1941: After German U-boats attacked three U.S. ships, President Franklin Roosevelt warned German and Italian warships away from American waters and ordered the U.S. Navy to shoot on sight.
- 1950: The "Beetle Bailey" comic strip made its debut.
- 1954: The Miss America pageant was televised for the first time.
- 1959: Congress passed a bill authorizing food stamps for poor Americans.
- 1962: The Beatles finished recording their first single "Love Me Do" at Abbey Road studios. Drummer Ringo Starr, considered too inexperienced, was replaced by Andy White.
- 1965: The 1st Cavalry Division of the United States Army arrives in Vietnam.
- 1968: Air France Flight 1611 crashes off Nice, France, killing 89 passengers and 6 crew.
- 1970: 88 of the hostages from the Dawson's Field hijackings are released. The remaining hostages, mostly Jews and Israeli citizens, are held until September 25.
- 1970: The Ford Pinto is introduced.
- 1971: The Egyptian Constitution becomes official.
- 1972: Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) in San Francisco, California begins regular service.
- 1973: A CIA backed coup in Chile headed by General Augusto Pinochet topples the democratically elected President Salvador Allende. Pinochet remains in power for almost 17 years.
- 1974: Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 crashes in Charlotte, North Carolina, killing 69 passengers and two crew.
- 1978: U.S. President Jimmy Carter, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel meet at Camp David and agree on a framework for peace between Israel and Egypt and a comprehensive peace in the Middle East.
- 1980: Voters approve the present Constitution of Chile.
- 1981: A small plane crashes into the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino, California damaging it beyond repair.
- 1982: The international forces that were guaranteeing the safety of Palestinian refugees following Israel's 1982 Invasion of Lebanon leave Beirut. Five days later, several thousand refugees are massacred in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.
- 1985: Baseball: Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds gets his 4,192nd career base hit, breaking Ty Cobb's record which had stood for over 60 years.
- 1987: Dan Rather walks off the set of the CBS Evening News over disapproval of the handling of a major event being interrupted and postponed by a sports program, leaving six minutes of dead air.
- 1989: The iron curtain opens between the communist Hungary and Austria. From Hungary thousands of East Germans throng to Austria and West Germany.
- 1990: U.S. President George H. W. Bush delivers a nationally televised speech in which he threatens the use of force to remove Iraqi soldiers from Kuwait, which Iraq had recently invaded. He mentions the term "New World Order" in this speech for the first time, which is also named "Towards a New World Order".(full text of the speech).
- 1992: Hurricane Iniki, one of the most damaging hurricanes in United States history, devastates Hawaii, especially the islands of Kauai and Oahu.
- 1996: Union Pacific Railroad purchases Southern Pacific Railroad.
- 1997: NASA's Mars Global Surveyor reaches Mars.
- 1997: After a nationwide referendum, Scotland votes to establish a devolved parliament, within the United Kingdom.
- 1998: Independent counsel Kenneth Starr sends a report to the U.S. Congress accusing President Bill Clinton of 11 possible impeachable offenses.
- 1998: Opening ceremony for the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Malaysia is the first Asian country to host the games.
- 2001: The September 11 attacks take place in the United States. Airplane hijackings result in the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York City, destruction of the western portion of The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and a passenger airliner crash in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
- 2002: The Pentagon is rededicated after repairs are completed, exactly one year after the attack on the building.
- 2003: Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh dies after being assaulted and fatally wounded on September 10.
- 2003: The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety enters into effect.
- 2004: All passengers are killed when a helicopter crashes in the Aegean Sea. Passengers include Patriarch Peter VII of Alexandria and 16 others (including journalists and bishops of the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria).
- 2005: The State of Israel completes its unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip.
- 2007: Russia tests the largest conventional weapon ever, the Father of all bombs.