This day in .....

11 August 1929 – Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio.

Babe Ruth

American baseball player (1895–1948)

This article is about the baseball player. For other uses, see Babe Ruth (disambiguation).

Baseball player

George Herman "Babe" Ruth (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", he began his MLB career as a star left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, but achieved his greatest fame as a slugging outfielder for the New York Yankees. Ruth is regarded as one of the greatest sports heroes in American culture and is considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time. In 1936, Ruth was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as one of its "first five" members.

At age seven, Ruth was sent to St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys. In 1914, Ruth was signed to play Minor League baseball for the Baltimore Orioles but was soon sold to the Red Sox. By 1916, he had built a reputation as an outstanding pitcher who sometimes hit long home runs, a feat unusual for any player in the dead-ball era. Although Ruth twice won 23 games in a season as a pitcher and was a member of three World Series championship teams with the Red Sox, he wanted to play every day and was allowed to convert to an outfielder. With regular playing time, he broke the MLB single-season home run record in 1919 with 29.

After that season, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Ruth to the Yankees amid controversy. The trade fueled Boston's subsequent 86-year championship drought and popularized the "Curse of the Bambino" superstition. In his 15 years with the Yankees, Ruth helped the team win seven American League (AL) pennants and four World Series championships. His big swing led to escalating home run totals that not only drew fans to the ballpark and boosted the sport's popularity but also helped usher in baseball's live-ball era, which evolved from a low-scoring game of strategy to a sport where the home run was a major factor. As part of the Yankees' vaunted "Murderers' Row" lineup of 1927, Ruth hit 60 home runs, which extended his own MLB single-season record by a single home run. Ruth's last season with the Yankees was 1934, and he retired after a short stint with the Boston Braves the following year. In his career, he led the AL in home runs 12 times.

During Ruth's career, he was the target of intense press and public attention for his baseball exploits and off-field penchants for drinking and womanizing. After his retirement as a player, he was denied the opportunity to manage a major league club, most likely because of poor behavior during parts of his playing career. In his final years, Ruth made many public appearances, especially in support of American efforts in World War II. In 1946, he became ill with nasopharyngeal cancer and died from the disease two years later. Ruth remains a major figure in American culture.

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12 August 1981 – The IBM Personal Computer is released.

IBM Personal Computer

1981 American microcomputer model

"IBM PC" redirects here. For personal computers compatible with the IBM PC, see IBM PC compatible.

Not to be confused with the separate IBM PC Series released from 1994 to 2000.

The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150), often referred to as the IBM PC, is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team of engineers and designers at International Business Machines (IBM), directed by William C. Lowe and Philip Don Estridge in Boca Raton, Florida.

Powered by an x86-architecture Intel 8088 processor, the machine was based on open architecture and third-party peripherals. Over time, expansion cards and software technology increased to support it. The PC had a substantial influence on the personal computer market; the specifications of the IBM PC became one of the most popular computer design standards in the world. The only significant competition it faced from a non-compatible platform throughout the 1980s was from Apple's Macintosh product line, as well as consumer-grade platforms created by companies like Commodore and Atari. Most present-day personal computers share architectural features in common with the original IBM PC, including the Intel-based Mac computers manufactured from 2006 to 2022.

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13 August 1553 – Michael Servetus is arrested by John Calvin in Geneva, Switzerland as a heretic.

Michael Servetus

16th-century Spanish theologian, physician, cartographer and Renaissance humanist

"Servetius" redirects here; not to be confused with Servatius.

Michael Servetus (/sərˈviːtəs/;^[1] Spanish: Miguel Servet; French: Michel Servet; also known as Michel Servetus, Miguel de Villanueva, Revés, or Michel de Villeneuve; 29 September 1509 or 1511 – 27 October 1553) was a Spanish theologian, physician, cartographer, and Renaissance humanist. He was the first European to correctly describe the function of pulmonary circulation, as discussed in Christianismi Restitutio (1553). He was a polymath versed in many sciences: mathematics, astronomy and meteorology, geography, human anatomy, medicine and pharmacology, as well as jurisprudence, translation, poetry, and the scholarly study of the Bible in its original languages.

He is renowned in the history of several of these fields, particularly medicine. His work on the circulation of blood and his observations on pulmonary circulation were particularly important. He participated in the Protestant Reformation, and later rejected the doctrine of the Trinity and mainstream Catholic Christology.

After being condemned by Catholic authorities in France after the publication of the Restitutio, he fled to Calvin's Geneva in 1553. He was denounced by John Calvin, a principal instigator of the Protestant Reformation, and burned at the stake for heresy by order of the city's governing council. The full culpability of Calvin in the execution has been the subject of historical debate.

1. ^ "Servetus". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.

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14 August 1941 – World War II: Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims

Atlantic Charter

1941 US–UK statement on post-WWII goals

"Atlantic declaration" redirects here. For the 2023 economic agreement between the US and the UK, see 2023 in United Kingdom politics and government § June.

The Atlantic Charter was a statement issued on 14 August 1941 that set out American and British goals for the world after the end of World War II, months before the US officially entered the war. The joint statement, later dubbed the Atlantic Charter, outlined the aims of the United States and the United Kingdom for the postwar world as follows: no territorial aggrandizement, no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people (self-determination), restoration of self-government to those deprived of it, reduction of trade restrictions, global co-operation to secure better economic and social conditions for all, freedom from fear and want, freedom of the seas, abandonment of the use of force, and disarmament of aggressor nations. The charter's adherents signed the Declaration by United Nations on 1 January 1942, which was the basis for the modern United Nations.

The charter inspired several other international agreements and events after the war. The dismantling of the British Empire, the formation of NATO, and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade all derived from the Atlantic Charter. In 2021, a document titled the New Atlantic Charter was signed by United States president Joe Biden and British prime minister Boris Johnson at their first meeting in Cornwall.^[1]

1. ^ "Biden, Johnson sign new Atlantic Charter on trade, defense amid Covid recovery". NBC News. 10 June 2021. Retrieved 10 June 2021.

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15 August 1969 – The Woodstock Music & Art Fair opens in Bethel, New York, featuring some of the top rock musicians of the era.

Woodstock

1969 music festival in Bethel, New York, US

This article is about the 1969 music and art festival. For other uses, see Woodstock (disambiguation).

Bethel 

Location in the United States

Max Yasgur's 
farm 

Location in New York

The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York,^[6][7] 60 miles (95 km) southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music", it attracted an audience of more than 460,000.^{[6][8][9][10]} Thirty-two acts performed outdoors despite overcast skies and sporadic rain.^[11] It was one of the largest music festivals in history and would become the peak musical event to reflect the counterculture of the 1960s.^{[12][13][14][15]}

The festival has become widely regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history, as well as a defining event for the silent and early baby boomer generations.^[16][17] The event's significance was reinforced by a 1970 documentary film,^[18] an accompanying soundtrack album, and a song written by Joni Mitchell that became a major hit for both Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Matthews Southern Comfort. Musical events bearing the Woodstock name were planned for anniversaries, including the 10th, 20th, 25th, 30th, 40th, and 50th. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine listed it as number 19 of the 50 moments that changed the history of rock and roll.^[19] In 2017, the festival site became listed on the National Register of Historic Places.^[20]

1. ^ "The Woodstock Poster". Archived from the original on May 16, 2021.
2. ^ Jochem, Greta (August 16, 2019). "Pitch Perfect: Woodstock Needed a Poster and Arnold Skolnick Delivered a Cultural Icon". Daily Hampshire Gazette. Northampton, Mass. Archived from the original on August 17, 2019. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
3. ^ "Encyclopedia Britannica - Woodstock entry". Archived from the original on January 3, 2025. Retrieved January 3, 2025.
4. ^ Hawker, Alex (July 22, 2019). "50 Facts about Woodstock". Musicianshalloffame. Archived from the original on July 29, 2022. Retrieved January 3, 2025.
5. ^ "Woodstock 1969: 10 things you didn't know about the legendary festival". Radio X. August 15, 2024. Archived from the original on January 3, 2025. Retrieved January 3, 2025.
6. ^ ^{a b} Jesse, Jarnow. Woodstock Music and Arts Fair. Oxford Music Online – Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2258729. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. Archived from the original on April 15, 2019. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
7. ^ "Max Yasgar Dies; Woodstock Festival Was on His Farm". The New York Times. February 10, 1973. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on September 8, 2019. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
8. ^ "Peace and sharing dominate festival". Spokane Daily Chronicle. Washington. Associated Press. August 18, 1969. p. 10. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
9. ^ "Music, art fair ends; 2 are dead". Chicago Tribune. UPI. August 18, 1969. p. 3, sec. 1. Archived from the original on September 8, 2017. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
10. ^ Rock, Naomi (August 18, 1969). "'Great' rock festival ends without violence". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. Associated Press. p. 4A. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
11. ^ "State Investigating Handling of Tickets At Woodstock Fair". The New York Times. August 27, 1969. p. 45. Archived from the original on July 7, 2022. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
12. ^ "Music festivals: What's the world's biggest?". BBC News. July 4, 2018. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
13. ^ "Woodstock | The Biggest Music Festival in History". www.english-online.at. Archived from the original on September 5, 2022. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
14. ^ London, Luxury (July 6, 2021). "The most legendary music festivals of all time". Luxury London. Archived from the original on October 6, 2022. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
15. ^ Ramos, Valeria (November 5, 2021). "How Woodstock Became a Symbol of U.S. Counterculture • Madame Blue". themadameblue.com. Archived from the original on October 6, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
16. ^ Kilgannon, Corey (March 17, 2009). "3 Days of Peace and Music, 40 Years Later". Arts. The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 15, 2017. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
17. ^ "Baby Boomer Generation Fast Facts". CNN. November 6, 2013. Archived from the original on November 9, 2013. Retrieved November 7, 2013.
18. ^ "Woodstock". IMDb. Archived from the original on March 24, 2021. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
19. ^ "Woodstock in 1969". Rolling Stone. June 24, 2004. Archived from the original on February 9, 2007. Retrieved April 17, 2008.
20. ^ "National Register of Historic Places listings for March 10, 2017" (PDF). U.S. National Park Service. March 10, 2017. Archived from the original on March 13, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2017.

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16 August 1859 – The Grand Duchy of Tuscany formally deposes the exiled House of Lorraine.

Grand Duchy of Tuscany

Italian state (1569–1801; 1814–1860)

For the medieval duchy of Tuscany, see March of Tuscany.

The Grand Duchy of Tuscany (Italian: Granducato di Toscana; Latin: Magnus Ducatus Etruriae) was an Italian monarchy located in Central Italy that existed, with interruptions, from 1569 to 1860, replacing the Republic of Florence.^[5] The grand duchy's capital was Florence. In the 19th century the population of the Grand Duchy was about 1,815,000 inhabitants.^[6]

Having brought nearly all Tuscany under his control after conquering the Republic of Siena, Cosimo I de' Medici, was elevated by a papal bull of Pope Pius V to Grand Duke of Tuscany on 27 August 1569.^[7][8] The Grand Duchy was ruled by the House of Medici until the extinction of its senior branch in 1737. While not as internationally renowned as the old republic, the grand duchy thrived under the Medici and it bore witness to unprecedented economic and military success under Cosimo I and his sons, until the reign of Ferdinando II, which saw the beginning of the state's long economic decline. That economic decline continued under Cosimo III.^[9]

Francis Stephen of Lorraine, a cognatic descendant of the Medici, succeeded the family and ascended the throne of his Medicean ancestors, which was bestowed upon him as compensation for the unwelcome loss of his ancestral Duchy of Lorraine. Francis was also a future Holy Roman Emperor with lands throughout Europe, so Tuscany was governed by his viceroy, Marc de Beauvau, Prince of Craon. His descendants ruled, and resided in, the grand duchy until its end in 1859, barring one interruption, when Napoleon Bonaparte gave Tuscany to the House of Bourbon-Parma (Kingdom of Etruria, 1801–1807), then annexed it directly to the First French Empire. Following the collapse of the Napoleonic system in 1814, the grand duchy was restored. In the lead up to the Italian unification Tuscany merged in 1859 with other former neighboring states and territories into the United Provinces of Central Italy, a client state of the Kingdom of Sardinia. It was within the United Provinces that Tuscany was formally annexed to the Kingdom of Italy the following year after a landslide plebiscite, in which 95% of voters approved.^[10]

1. ^ "Statuto del Granducato di Toscana". Archivio delle Costituzioni Storiche (in Italian). Università di Torino: Dipartimento di Scienze Giuridiche. Retrieved 13 March 2026. Art. 13 –. Al solo Granduca appartiene il potere esecutivo: ... Art. 17 – Il potere legislativo sarà collettivamente esercitato dal Granduca e da due Assemblee deliberanti (Article 13 - Executive power belongs to the Grand Duke alone: ... Article 17 – Legislative power will be exercised collectively by the Grand Duke and two deliberative Assemblies ...).
2. ^ Fisher, Richard S. (1852). The Book of the World. Vol. 2. p. 362.
3. ^ Bowring 1839, p. 6.
4. ^ Ministero di Agricultura, Industria e Commercio (1864). "Censimento degli antichi Stati Sardi e Censimenti Di Lombardia, di Parma e dl Modena" (PDF). Stamperia Reale. p. 177. Retrieved 12 February 2026.
5. ^ Strathern 2007, pp. 315–321.
6. ^ Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce (1862). Popolazione censimento degli antichi Stati sardi (1. gennaio 1858) e censimenti di Lombardia, di Parma e di Modena (1857–1858) pubblicati per cura del Ministero d'agricoltura, industria e commercio: Relazione generale con una introduzione storica sopra i censimenti delle popolazioni italiane dai tempi antichi sino all'anno 1860. 1.1 (in Italian). Stamperia Reale.
7. ^ "bolla papale di Pio V". archeologiavocidalpassato (in Italian). Retrieved 2021-02-10.
8. ^ "Cosimo I". Encyclopædia Britannica (Online ed.). Retrieved 2025-11-30.
9. ^ Fasano Guarini, Elena (1984). "COSIMO III de' Medici, granduca di Toscana". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (in Italian). Vol. 30. Treccani. Retrieved 2025-11-30.
10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Heraldica was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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17 August 1945 – The novella Animal Farm by George Orwell is first published.

Animal Farm

1945 political allegorical novella by George Orwell

This article is about the novel by George Orwell. For other uses, see Animal Farm (disambiguation).

Animal Farm (originally Animal Farm: A Fairy Story)^[1] is a satirical allegorical dystopian^[2] novella, in the form of a beast fable,^[3] by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945.^[4][5] It follows the mistreated anthropomorphic farm animals of Manor Farm as they rebel against their human master, and are hoping to create a society where all animals can be equal, free, and happy away from human vices and interventions.^[6] However, the rebellion is hijacked and betrayed, and under the dictatorship of the pigs, the farm ends up in a dystopian state nearly identical to what it was before.^[7]

According to Orwell, Animal Farm reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union, a period when Russia lived under the Marxist–Leninist ideology of Joseph Stalin.^[3][8] Orwell, a democratic socialist,^[9] was a critic of Stalin and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism, an attitude that was critically shaped by his experiences during the Barcelona May Day conflicts between the POUM and Stalinist forces, during the Spanish Civil War.^[10][a] In a letter to Yvonne Davet (a French writer), Orwell described Animal Farm as a satirical tale against Stalin ("un conte satirique contre Staline"),^[11] and in his essay "Why I Write" (1946) wrote: "Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole."^[12]

The original title of the novel was Animal Farm: A Fairy Story.^[1] American publishers dropped the subtitle when it was published in 1946. Other title variations include subtitles like "A Satire" and "A Contemporary Satire".^[11] Orwell suggested the title Union des républiques socialistes animales for the French translation, which abbreviates to URSA, the Latin word for "bear", a symbol of Russia. It also played on the French name of the Soviet Union, Union des républiques socialistes soviétiques.^[11]

Orwell wrote the book between November 1943 and February 1944, when the United Kingdom was in its wartime alliance with the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany and the British intelligentsia held Stalin in high esteem, which Orwell hated.^[13] The manuscript was initially rejected by several British and American publishers,^[14] including one of Orwell's own, Victor Gollancz, which delayed its publication.^[b] It became a great commercial success when it did appear, as international relations and public opinion were transformed as the wartime alliance gave way to the Cold War.^[16]

Time magazine chose the book as one of the 100 best English-language novels (1923 to 2005);^[17] it also featured at number 31 on the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels,^[18] and number 46 on the BBC's The Big Read poll.^[19] It won a Retrospective Hugo Award in 1996,^[20] and is included in the Great Books of the Western World selection.^[21]

1. ^ ^{a b} "Animal Farm by George Orwell". Suntup Editions. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
2. ^ "Animal Farm at a glance". Cliffs notes. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
3. ^ ^{a b} Meija 2002.
4. ^ Bynum 2012.
5. ^ 12 Things You 2015.
6. ^ Nguyen, Minh-Hoang (2024). "How can satirical fables offer us a vision for sustainability?". Visions for Sustainability. 23 (11267): 323–28. doi:10.13135/2384-8677/11267.
7. ^ "Animal Farm at a glance". Cliffs notes. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
8. ^ Gcse English Literature.
9. ^ Orwell 1946, p. 23.
10. ^ Bowker 2013, p. 235.
11. ^ ^{a b c} Davison 2000.
12. ^ Orwell 2014, p. 10.
13. ^ Bradbury, Malcolm (1989). "Introduction". Animal Farm. Penguin. p. vi.
14. ^ Animal Farm: Sixty.
15. ^ Alberge, Dalya (17 August 2024). "'It could disappear for ever': Anger over sale of George Orwell archive". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
16. ^ Dickstein 2007, p. 134.
17. ^ Grossman & Lacayo 2005.
18. ^ Modern Library 1998.
19. ^ "The Big Read". BBC News. April 2003. Archived from the original on 31 October 2012. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
20. ^ The Hugo Awards 1996.
21. ^ "Great Books of the Western World as Free eBooks". Prodigal no more. 5 March 2019. Archived from the original on 28 December 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2025 – via WordPress.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

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18 August 1612 – The trial of the Pendle witches, one of England's most famous witch trials, begins at Lancaster Assizes.

Pendle witches

English witch hunt and trial in 1612

Pendle Hill

Location of Pendle Hill on a map of England

The trials of the Pendle witches in 1612 are among the most famous witch trials in English history, and some of the best recorded of the 17th century. The twelve accused lived in the area surrounding Pendle Hill in Lancashire, and were charged with the murders of ten people by the use of witchcraft. All but two were tried at Lancaster Assizes on 18–19 August 1612, along with the Samlesbury witches and others, in a series of trials that have become known as the Lancashire witch trials. One was tried at York Assizes on 27 July 1612, and another died in prison. Of the eleven who went to trial – nine women and two men – ten were found guilty and executed by hanging; one was found not guilty.

The official publication of the proceedings by the clerk to the court, Thomas Potts, in his The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster, and the number of witches hanged together – nine at Lancaster and one at York – make the trials unusual for England at that time. It has been estimated that all the English witch trials between the early 15th and early 18th centuries resulted in fewer than 500 executions; this series of trials accounts for more than two per cent of that total.

Six of the Pendle witches came from one of two families, each at the time headed by a woman in her eighties: Elizabeth Southerns (a.k.a. Demdike^[a]), her daughter Elizabeth Device, and her grandchildren James and Alizon Device; Anne Whittle (a.k.a. Chattox), and her daughter Anne Redferne. The others accused were Jane Bulcock and her son John Bulcock, Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, Alice Grey, and Jennet Preston. The outbreaks of 'witchcraft' in and around Pendle may suggest that some people made a living as traditional healers, using a mixture of herbal medicine and talismans or charms, which might leave them open to charges of sorcery.^[2] Many of the allegations resulted from accusations that members of the Demdike and Chattox families made both against each other, perhaps because they were in competition, trying to make a living from healing, begging, and extortion.

1. ^ Clayton (2007), p. 204
2. ^ Bonzol, Judith (2010). "The Death of the Fifth Earl of Derby: Cunning Folk and Medicine in Early Modern England". Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme. 33 (4): 73–100. doi:10.33137/rr.v33i4.15972. ISSN 0034-429X. JSTOR 43446683.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

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19 August 1909 – The Indianapolis Motor Speedway opens for automobile racing.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Historic motorsport track in Speedway, Indiana, US

"Yard of Bricks" and "Old Brickyard" redirect here. For other topics, see The Brickyard (disambiguation).

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a motor racing circuit located in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana. It is the home of the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400,^[5] and formerly the home of the United States Grand Prix and the Indianapolis motorcycle Grand Prix. It is located six miles (9.7 km) west of Downtown Indianapolis.

Constructed in 1909, it is the second purpose-built, banked oval racing circuit after Brooklands and the first to be called a 'speedway'. It was the brainchild of entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, who envisioned a proving ground for the budding automobile industry. It is the third-oldest permanent automobile race track in the world, behind Brooklands and the Milwaukee Mile. With a permanent seating capacity of 257,325,^[1] it is the highest-capacity sports venue in the world.^[6]

The track is a 2.500 mi (4.023 km) rectangular oval with dimensions that have remained essentially unchanged since its construction. It has two 0.625 mi (1.006 km) straightaways, four geometrically identical 0.250 mi (0.402 km) turns, connected by two 0.125 mi (0.201 km) short straightaways, termed "short chutes", between turns 1 and 2, and between turns 3 and 4. The turns have 9°12' banking, considered relatively flat by American standards.

A modern, FIA Grade One infield road course was completed in 2000, incorporating part of the oval, including the main stretch and the southwest turn, measuring 2.605 mi (4.192 km). In 2008, and again in 2014, the road course layout was modified to accommodate motorcycle racing, as well as to improve competition. Altogether, the current grounds have expanded from an original 320 acres (1.3 km²) on which the speedway was first built to cover an area of over 559 acres (2.3 km²). Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987, it is the only such site to be affiliated with automotive racing history.

In addition to the Indianapolis 500, the speedway also hosts NASCAR's Brickyard 400 and Pennzoil 250. From 2000 to 2007, the speedway hosted the Formula One United States Grand Prix, and from 2008 to 2015 the Moto GP. The speedway served as the venue for the opening ceremonies for the 1987 Pan American Games.

On the grounds of the speedway is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, which opened in 1956, and houses the Hall of Fame. The museum moved into its current building located in the infield in 1976. Also on the grounds is the Brickyard Crossing Golf Resort, which originally opened as the Speedway Golf Course in 1929. The golf course has 14 holes outside the track, along the backstretch, and four holes in the infield. The site is among the most visited attractions in the Indianapolis metropolitan area, with 1 million guests annually.^[7] The track is nicknamed "The Brickyard", and the venue self-describes as the "Racing Capital of the World".^[8] The garage area is known as Gasoline Alley, though Indy 500 racecars have used methanol and currently ethanol.

The Speedway is owned by Penske Entertainment group which is 67% controlled by Roger Penske's company Penske Corporation, with Fox Corporation owing a 33% stake in the company since July 2025,^[9] following its 2019 purchase of Hulman & Company and its assets, which included the Speedway, the IndyCar Series, and associated enterprises.^[10] Carl G. Fisher, along with investors James A. Allison, Arthur C. Newby, and Frank H. Wheeler comprised the founding ownership group. World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker was the track's second owner (1927–1945), and incidentally he also drove in the Indianapolis 500 four times. Tony Hulman purchased the track from Eddie Rickenbacker following World War II, and the Hulman/George family owned the track for three generations (1945–2019).

1. ^ ^{a b} "Take a seat: Study puts Indy's capacity at 257,325". usatoday30.usatoday.com. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
2. ^ "LIST OF FIA LICENSED CIRCUITS UPDATED ON : 2026-03-31" (PDF). Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. March 31, 2026. Retrieved May 1, 2026.
3. ^ "National Register Information System – (#75000044)". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
4. ^ "Indianapolis Motor Speedway". National Historic Landmarks Program. National Park Service. Archived from the original on June 5, 2011. Retrieved June 5, 2009.
5. ^ Charleton, James H. (October 1985). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form: Indianapolis Motor Speedway". National Park Service. and Accompanying two photos from 1985
6. ^ "100 000+ Stadiums". World Stadiums. Archived from the original on June 5, 2011. Retrieved November 23, 2010.
7. ^ "Most Popular Indianapolis-Area Attractions". Indianapolis Business Journal. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
8. ^ Richard S. James (July 29, 2022). "IMSA confirms IMS return for 2023". Racer. Archived from the original on September 18, 2023. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
9. ^ "Fox Corporation Acquires One-Third Interest in Penske Entertainment". IndyCar.com. Retrieved August 31, 2025.
10. ^ Ryckaert, Vic; Horner, Scott (November 4, 2019). "Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IndyCar are being sold to Penske Corp". USA Today. Retrieved November 4, 2019.

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20 August 1858 – Charles Darwin first publishes his theory of evolution through natural selection in The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, alongside Alfred Russel Wallace's same theory.

Charles Darwin

English naturalist and biologist (1809–1882)

For other people named Charles Darwin, see Charles Darwin (disambiguation).

Charles Robert Darwin (/ˈdɑːrwɪn/^[4] DAR-win; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist,^[5] widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended from a common ancestor is now generally accepted and considered a fundamental scientific concept.^[6] In a joint presentation with Alfred Russel Wallace, he introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding.^[7] Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history and was honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey.^[8][9]

Darwin's early interest in nature led him to neglect his medical education at the University of Edinburgh; instead, he helped Robert Edmond Grant to investigate marine invertebrates. His studies at the University of Cambridge's Christ's College from 1828 to 1831 encouraged his passion for natural science.^[10] However, it was his five-year voyage on HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836 that truly established Darwin as an eminent geologist. The observations and theories he developed during his voyage supported Charles Lyell's concept of gradual geological change. Publication of his journal of the voyage made Darwin famous as a popular author.^[11] His first scientific work was The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs (1842). Along with his work on barnacles, it won him the Royal Medal in 1853.

Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he collected on the voyage, Darwin began detailed investigations and, in 1838, devised his theory of natural selection.^[12] Although he discussed his ideas with several naturalists, he needed time for extensive research, and his geological work had priority.^[13] He was writing up his theory in 1858 when Wallace sent him an essay that described the same idea, prompting the immediate joint submission of both their theories to the Linnean Society of London.^[14] Darwin's work established evolutionary descent with modification as the dominant scientific explanation of natural diversification.^[15] Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in On the Origin of Species (1859).^[16][17] He explored coevolution in Fertilisation of Orchids (1862) and human evolution and sexual selection in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871). The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) was an early work of psychology, and one of the first books to feature photographs. His final book was The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Actions of Worms (1881).

By the 1870s, the scientific community and a majority of the educated public had accepted evolution as a fact. However, many initially favoured competing explanations that gave only a minor role to natural selection. It was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed in which natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution.^[15][18] Darwin's discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the unity and diversity of life.

1. ^ "Charles Darwin's personal finances revealed in new find". The Telegraph. 22 March 2009. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017.
2. ^ "Search Results: Record – Darwin; Charles Robert". The Royal Society Collections Catalogues. 20 June 2015. Archived from the original on 2 December 2021. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} Freeman 2007, p. 106.
4. ^ "Darwin" Archived 18 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine entry in Collins English Dictionary.
5. ^ Desmond, Moore & Browne 2004.
6. ^ Coyne, Jerry A. (2009). Why Evolution is True. Viking. pp. 8–11. ISBN 978-0-670-02053-9.
7. ^ Larson 2004, pp. 79–111.
8. ^ "Special feature: Darwin 200". New Scientist. Archived from the original on 11 February 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2011.
9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Westminster Abbey-2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
10. ^ Leff 2000, About Charles Darwin.
11. ^ Desmond & Moore 1991, pp. 210, 284–285.
12. ^ Desmond & Moore 1991, pp. 263–274.
13. ^ van Wyhe 2007, pp. 184, 187
14. ^ Beddall, B. G. (1968). "Wallace, Darwin, and the Theory of Natural Selection". Journal of the History of Biology. 1 (2): 261–323. doi:10.1007/BF00351923. ISSN 0022-5010. S2CID 81107747.
15. ^ ^{a b} van Wyhe 2008.
16. ^ Coyne, Jerry A. (2009). Why Evolution is True. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-19-923084-6. In The Origin, Darwin provided an alternative hypothesis for the development, diversification, and design of life. Much of that book presents evidence that not only supports evolution but at the same time refutes creationism. In Darwin's day, the evidence for his theories was compelling but not completely decisive.
17. ^ Glass, Bentley; Temkin, Owsei; Straus, William L. Jr., eds. (1968) [1959]. Forerunners of Darwin. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. iv. ISBN 978-0-8018-0222-5. Darwin's solution is a magnificent synthesis of evidence ... a synthesis ... compelling in honesty and comprehensiveness.
18. ^ Bowler 2003, pp. 178–179, 338, 347.

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21 August 1770 – James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales.

James Cook

British explorer and naval officer (1728–1779)

"Captain Cook" redirects here. For other uses, see Captain Cook (disambiguation) and James Cook (disambiguation).

Captain James Cook (7 November 1728^[a] – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer who led three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans between 1768 and 1779. He completed the first recorded circumnavigation of the main islands of New Zealand, and led the first recorded visit by Europeans to the east coast of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands.

Cook joined the British merchant navy as a teenager before enlisting in the Royal Navy in 1755. He first saw combat during the Seven Years' War, when he fought in the Siege of Louisbourg. Later in the war he surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the St. Lawrence River during the Siege of Quebec. In the 1760s he mapped the coastline of Newfoundland and made important astronomical observations which brought him to the attention of the Admiralty and the Royal Society. This acclaim came at a pivotal moment in British overseas exploration, and it led to his commission in 1768 as commander of HMS Endeavour for the first of his three voyages.

During these voyages, Cook sailed tens of thousands of miles across largely uncharted areas, mapping coastlines, islands, and features across the globe in greater detail than previously charted – including Easter Island, Alaska and South Georgia Island. He made contact with numerous indigenous peoples and claimed several territories for the Kingdom of Great Britain. Renowned for exceptional seamanship and courage in times of danger, he was patient, persistent, sober, and competent, but sometimes hot-tempered. His contributions to the prevention of scurvy, a disease common among sailors, led the Royal Society to award him the Copley Gold Medal.

In 1779, during his second visit to Hawaii, Cook was killed when a dispute with Native Hawaiians turned violent. His voyages left a legacy of scientific and geographical knowledge that influenced his successors well into the 20th century. Numerous memorials have been dedicated to him worldwide.
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22 August 1846 – The Second Federal Republic of Mexico is established.

Second Federal Republic of Mexico

Period of Mexican history from 1846 to 1863

For the current entity named United Mexican States, see Mexico.

The Second Federal Republic of Mexico (Spanish: Segunda República Federal de México) refers to the period of Mexican history involving a second attempt to establish a federal government in Mexico after the fall of the unitary Centralist Republic of Mexico in 1846 at the start of the Mexican–American War. It would last up until the Second French intervention in Mexico led to the proclamation of the Second Mexican Empire in 1863.

The period of the Second Federal Republic proved to be one of the most eventful periods in Mexican history, experiencing two foreign invasions, the loss of half of the national territory, constitutional change, and a civil war. It was also a period of Mexican political evolution experiencing the downfall of the Conservative Party that had predominated during the Centralist Republic, and marking the rise of a Liberal Party hegemony which would consolidate itself throughout the rest of the century.

The Second Federal Republic was born in the first months of the Mexican-American War in 1846, with the restoration of the Constitution of 1824. The war ended in 1848 with Mexico being forced to cede half of its territory to the United States. The period immediately following the war would nonetheless be followed by a period of stable, moderate governments.

A Conservative coup then overthrew the government in 1852, bringing Santa Anna back for what would be his final dictatorship.

The Liberal revolt which in turn overthrew him in 1853, would inaugurate what would come to be known as La Reforma, a series of substantial unprecedented reforms in Mexican constitutional history, most notably the separation of church and state and the nationalization of Catholic Church lands. A new constitution implementing such measures was promulgated in 1857, upon which the Conservative Party opposition took up arms, inaugurating three years of what would come to be known as the Reform War.

The Liberal government led by president Benito Juárez would emerge triumphant in 1860, but a financial crisis led the government to postpone its external debts, a measure that was used as a pretext by the Second French Empire to launch an invasion of Mexico with the aim of turning it into a client state led by Maximilian of Habsburg. The Second French Intervention in Mexico began in 1861, but was subsequently delayed by a year due to the French loss in the Battle of Puebla. French reinforcements arrived and President Benito Juárez was forced to evacuate the capital which the French occupied by June, 1863. French troops subsequently arranged a Mexican Assembly of Notables to declare the establishment of the Second Mexican Empire in July 1863, putting an end to the era of the Second Federal Republic of Mexico.

1. ^ ^{a b c} Evolución de la Población de México durante los años de 1521 al 2000

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23 August 1799 – Napoleon Bonaparte leaves Egypt for France en route to seizing power.

Napoleon

French general and emperor (1769–1821)

Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see Napoleon Bonaparte (disambiguation) and Napoleon (disambiguation).

Napoleon Bonaparte^[b] (born Napoleone di Buonaparte;^[1][c] 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was Emperor of the French from 18 May 1804 until his first abdication in 1814, with a brief restoration during the Hundred Days in 1815. He rose to prominence as a general during the French Revolution and led a series of military campaigns across Europe and the Middle East during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. As a statesman, he implemented numerous legal and administrative reforms in France and Europe.

Born on the island of Corsica to a family of Italian origin, Napoleon moved to mainland France in 1779 and was commissioned as an officer in the French Royal Army in 1785. He supported the French Revolution in 1789 and promoted its cause in Corsica. He rose rapidly through the ranks after winning the siege of Toulon in 1793 and defeating royalist insurgents in Paris on 13 Vendémiaire in 1795. In 1796 he commanded a military campaign against the Austrians and their Italian allies in the War of the First Coalition, scoring decisive victories and becoming a national hero. He led an invasion of Egypt and Syria in 1798, which served as a springboard for his rise to political power. In November 1799 Napoleon engineered the Coup of 18 Brumaire against the French Directory and became First Consul of the Republic. He won the Battle of Marengo in 1800, which secured France's victory in the War of the Second Coalition, and in 1803, he sold the territory of Louisiana to the United States. In December 1804 Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French, further consolidating his power.

The breakdown of the Treaty of Amiens led to the War of the Third Coalition by 1805. Napoleon shattered the coalition with a decisive victory at the Battle of Austerlitz, which led to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. In the War of the Fourth Coalition, Napoleon defeated Prussia at the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt in 1806, marched his Grande Armée into Eastern Europe, and defeated the Russians in 1807 at the Battle of Friedland. Seeking to extend his trade embargo against Britain, Napoleon invaded the Iberian Peninsula and installed his brother Joseph as King of Spain in 1808, provoking the Peninsular War. In 1809 the Austrians again challenged France in the War of the Fifth Coalition, during which Napoleon consolidated his dominance over Europe after winning the Battle of Wagram. In the summer of 1812 he launched an invasion of Russia. After forcing the Russians to abandon Moscow following the Battle of Borodino, Napoleon briefly occupied the city before conducting a catastrophic retreat of his army that winter. In 1813 Prussia and Austria joined Russia in the War of the Sixth Coalition, in which Napoleon was decisively defeated at the Battle of Leipzig. The coalition invaded France and captured Paris, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April 1814. He was exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba and the House of Bourbons was restored to power. Ten months later Napoleon escaped from Elba with around a thousand men and marched on Paris, reclaiming control of the country. His opponents responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated him at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. Napoleon was exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died of stomach cancer in 1821, aged 51.

Napoleon is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history, and Napoleonic tactics are still studied at military schools worldwide. His legacy endures through the legal and administrative reforms he enacted in France and Western Europe, most notably the Napoleonic Code. He established a system of public education,^[2] abolished the vestiges of feudalism,^[3] emancipated Jews and other religious minorities,^[4] abolished the Spanish Inquisition,^[5] enacted the principle of equality before the law for an emerging middle class,^[6] and centralized state power at the expense of religious authorities.^[7] His conquests also acted as a catalyst for political change and the development of nation-states. However, he remains controversial because of his role in wars that devastated Europe, his looting of conquered territories, and his mixed record on civil rights. He abolished the free press, ended directly elected representative government, exiled and imprisoned critics of his regime, reinstated slavery in French colonies, banned the entry of black people and mulattos into France, reduced the civil rights of women and children, reintroduced a hereditary monarchy and nobility,^[8][9][10] and violently repressed popular uprisings against his rule.^[11]

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

1. ^ Dwyer (2008a), p. xv.
2. ^ Grab (2003), p. 56.
3. ^ Broers, M.; Hicks, P.; Guimera, A. (2012). The Napoleonic Empire and the New European Political Culture. Springer. p. 230. ISBN 978-1-137-27139-6. Archived from the original on 2 December 2023. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
4. ^ Conner (2004), pp. 38–40.
5. ^ Pérez, Joseph (2005). The Spanish Inquisition: A History. Yale University Press. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-300-11982-4. Archived from the original on 2 December 2023. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
6. ^ Fremont-Barnes & Fisher (2004), p. 336.
7. ^ Grab (2017), pp. 204–11.
8. ^ Dwyer (2015a), pp. 574–76, 582–84.
9. ^ Conner (2004), pp. 32–34, 50–51.
10. ^ Bell (2015), p. 52.
11. ^ Repa, Jan (2 December 2005). "Furore over Austerlitz ceremony". BBC. Archived from the original on 20 April 2010. Retrieved 5 April 2010.

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24 August 1743 – The War of the Hats: The Swedish army surrenders to the Russians in Helsinki, ending the war and starting Lesser Wrath.

Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743)

18th-century war in Finland

The Russo-Swedish War of 1741–1743 (also known as The War of the Hats or The Hats' war)^[4] was instigated by the Hats, a Swedish political party that aspired to regain the territories lost to Russia during the Great Northern War, and by French diplomacy, which sought to divert Russia's attention from supporting its long-standing ally the Habsburg monarchy in the War of the Austrian Succession. The war was a disaster for Sweden, which lost more territory to Russia.^[5]

1. ^ Егоршина 2023, p. 180.
2. ^ Statistics of Wars, Oppressions and Atrocities of the Eighteenth Century (the 1700s)
3. ^ Shpilevskaya 1859, p. 267.
4. ^ The Swedish-Russian War of 1741–1743 – World History at KMLA
5. ^ Jenni Merovuo, "‘Divided and validated’? The institutionalization of the Russo-Swedish border region in the 1743 peace treaty." Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 66.4 (2017): 283–293. online

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25 August 1609 – Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.

Galileo Galilei

Italian physicist and astronomer (1564–1642)

"Galileo" redirects here. For other uses, see Galileo (disambiguation) and Galileo Galilei (disambiguation).

Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei,^[a] was an Italian^[b] astronomer, physicist, engineer and polymath. He was born in Pisa, then part of the Duchy of Florence.^[8] Galileo has been called the father of observational astronomy,^[9] classical physics,^[10] the scientific method,^[11] and modern science.^[12]

He studied speed and velocity, gravity and free fall, the principle of relativity, inertia, projectile motion, and also worked in applied science and technology, describing the properties of the pendulum and "hydrostatic balances". He was one of the earliest developers of the thermoscope^[13] and the inventor of various military compasses. With an improved telescope he built, he observed the stars of the Milky Way, the phases of Venus, the four largest satellites of Jupiter, Saturn's rings, lunar craters, and sunspots. He also built an early microscope.

Galileo's championing of Copernican heliocentrism was met with opposition from within the Catholic Church and from some astronomers. The matter was investigated by the Roman Inquisition in 1615, which concluded that his opinions contradicted accepted Biblical interpretations.^[14][15][16]

Galileo defended his views in Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo (Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, 1632), which appeared to dispute and satirize Pope Urban VIII, thus alienating both the Pope and the Jesuits, who had both strongly supported Galileo until this point.^[14] He was tried by the Inquisition, found "vehemently suspect of heresy", and forced to recant. He spent the rest of his life under house arrest.^[17][18] During this time, he wrote Discorsi e Dimostrazioni Matematiche, intorno a due nuove scienze (Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences, 1638) primarily about kinematics and the strength of materials.^[19]

1. ^ Science: The Definitive Visual Guide. DK. 2009. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-7566-6490-9.
2. ^ Drake 1978, p. 1.
3. ^ Pliny the Younger, Letters 9.23.
4. ^ Dante, 5th Epistle.
5. ^ Boccaccio, Decameron II, 9
6. ^ Catherine of Siena, Letter 310
7. ^ Galileo Galilei, Lettera di Galileo Galilei agl'Illustrissimi e Potentiss. Signori Ordini Generali delle confederate Provincie Belgiche, 1636, in Opere di Galileo Galilei, Società tipografica de' classici italiani, 1811, p. 268
8. ^ Modinos, A. (2013). From Aristotle to Schrödinger: The Curiosity of Physics, Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics (Illustrated ed.). Springer. p. 43. ISBN 978-3-319-00750-2.
9. ^ Singer, C. (1941). A Short History of Science to the Nineteenth Century. Clarendon. p. 217.
10. ^ Whitehouse, D. (2009). Renaissance Genius: Galileo Galilei & His Legacy to Modern Science. Sterling. p. 219. ISBN 978-1-4027-6977-1.
11. ^ Thomas Hobbes: Critical Assessments, Volume 1. Preston King. 1993. p. 59
12. ^ Disraeli, I. (1835). Curiosities of Literature. W. Pearson & Co. p. 371.
13. ^ Valleriani, Matteo (2010). Galileo Engineer. Dordrecht Heidelberg; London; New York: Springer. p. 160. ISBN 978-90-481-8644-0.
14. ^ ^{a b} Hannam 2009, pp. 329–344.
15. ^ Sharratt 1994, pp. 127–131.
16. ^ Finocchiaro 2010, p. 74.
17. ^ Finocchiaro 1997, p. 47.
18. ^ Hilliam 2005, p. 96.
19. ^ Carney, J. E. (2000). Renaissance and Reformation, 1500–1620.^{[page needed]}

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26 August 2011 – The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Boeing's all-new composite airliner, receives certification from the EASA and the FAA.

Boeing 787 Dreamliner

Twin-aisle airliner family

Not to be confused with Boeing Dreamlifter.

"Dreamliner" redirects here. For the Boy King song, see Dreamliner (song).

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, often shortened to Boeing 787, is an American wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After dropping its unconventional Sonic Cruiser project, Boeing announced the conventional 7E7 on January 29, 2003, which focused largely on efficiency. The program was launched on April 26, 2004, with an order for 50 aircraft from All Nippon Airways (ANA), targeting a 2008 introduction. On July 8, 2007, a prototype 787 without major operating systems was rolled out; subsequently the aircraft experienced multiple delays, until its maiden flight on December 15, 2009. Type certification was received in August 2011, and the first 787-8 was delivered in September 2011 and entered commercial service in October 2011, with ANA.

At launch, Boeing targeted the 787 with 20% less fuel burn compared to aircraft like the Boeing 767. It could carry 200 to 300 passengers on point-to-point routes up to 8,500 nautical miles [nmi] (15,700 km; 9,800 mi), a shift from hub-and-spoke travel. The twinjet is powered by General Electric GEnx or Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 high-bypass turbofans. It is the first airliner with an airframe primarily made of composite materials and makes greater use of electrical systems. Externally, it is recognizable by its four-window cockpit, raked wingtips, and noise-reducing chevrons on its engine nacelles. Development and production rely on subcontractors around the world more than for previous Boeing aircraft. Since March 2021, final assembly has been at the Boeing South Carolina factory; it was formerly in the Boeing Everett Factory in Washington state.

The initial 186-foot-long (57 m) 787-8 typically seats 248 passengers over a range of 7,305 nmi (13,529 km; 8,406 mi), with a 502,500 lb (227.9 t) MTOW compared to 560,000 lb (250 t) for later variants. The stretched 787-9, 206 ft (63 m) long, can fly 7,565 nmi (14,010 km; 8,706 mi) with 296 passengers; it entered service on August 7, 2014, with All Nippon Airways. The further stretched 787-10, 224 ft (68 m) long, seating 336 over 6,330 nmi (11,720 km; 7,280 mi), entered service with Singapore Airlines on April 3, 2018.

Early 787 operations encountered several problems caused mainly by its lithium-ion batteries, including fires onboard some aircraft. In January 2013, the US FAA grounded all 787s until it approved the revised battery design in April 2013. Significant quality control issues from 2019 onward caused a production slowdown and, from January 2021 until August 2022, an almost total cessation of deliveries. The first fatal crash and hull loss of the aircraft occurred on June 12, 2025, with Air India Flight 171. A preliminary report issued on July 12 by the Indian Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau did not recommend any actions to Boeing, or 787 operators. Boeing has spent $32 billion on the program; estimates for the number of aircraft sales needed to break even vary between 1,300 and 2,000. As of May 2026^[update], the 787 program has received 2,434 orders and made 1,276 deliveries.

1. ^ Boeing: Orders and Deliveries (updated monthly) (Report). Chicago: Boeing. May 31, 2026. Retrieved June 9, 2026.

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27 August 1832 – Black Hawk, leader of the Sauk tribe of Native Americans, surrenders to U.S. authorities, ending the Black Hawk War.

Black Hawk (Sauk leader)

Sauk leader and warrior (1760s–1838)

Mahkatêwe-meshi-kêhkêhkwa,^[a] known in English as Black Hawk (c. 1767 – October 3, 1838), was a Sauk leader and warrior who lived in what is now the Midwestern United States. Although he had inherited an important historic sacred bundle from his father, he was not a hereditary civil chief. Black Hawk earned his status as a war chief or captain by his actions: leading raiding and war parties as a young man and then a band of Sauk warriors during the Black Hawk War of 1832.

During the War of 1812, Black Hawk fought on the side of the British against the US in the hope of pushing white American settlers away from Sauk territory. Later, he led a band of Sauk and Meskwaki warriors, known as the British Band, against white settlers in Illinois and present-day Wisconsin during the 1832 Black Hawk War. After the war, he was captured by US forces and taken to the Eastern US, where he and other war leaders were taken on a tour of several cities.

Shortly before being released from custody, Black Hawk told his story to an interpreter. Aided also by a newspaper reporter, he published Autobiography of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, or Black Hawk, Embracing the Traditions of his Nation... in 1833. The first Native American autobiography to be published in the US, his book became an immediate bestseller and has gone through several editions. Black Hawk died in 1838, at age 70 or 71, in what became southeastern Iowa. He has been honored by an enduring legacy: his book, many eponyms, and other tributes.
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28 August 1913 – Queen Wilhelmina opens the Peace Palace in The Hague.

Peace Palace

International law administrative building in The Hague, Netherlands

For the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, see Peace Palace (Phnom Penh).

The Peace Palace (Dutch: Vredespaleis [ˈvreːdəspaːˌlɛis]; French: Palais de la Paix) is an international courthouse in The Hague, the Netherlands.^[1] It houses the International Court of Justice (which is the principal judicial body of the United Nations), and the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).

The palace officially opened on 28 August 1913; it was built to provide a courthouse for the Permanent Court of Arbitration, a court created to end war by the Hague Convention of 1899.^[1] In addition to its function as the headquarters of the Permanent Court of Arbitration since 1913 and of the International Court of Justice since 1946, the palace continues to serve as the Courts' main hearing facilities and hosts dozen of hearings each year.

• 
  Hearing in the PCA Administrative Council Chamber at the Peace Palace
• 
  ICJ Hearing
• 
  Meeting in the Small Hall of Justice of the PCA (PCA Case 2013-14)
• 
  Hearing at the Peace Palace (Timor-Leste v. Australia)
• 
  Hearing in PCA Case 2012-04 (Croatia v. Slovenia)
• 
  Hearing of the International Court of Justice at the Peace Palace

1. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference suter was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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29 August 1842 – Treaty of Nanking signing ends the First Opium War.

Treaty of Nanking

1842 treaty between Qing China and Britain

The Treaty of Nanjing was the peace treaty which ended the First Opium War (1839–1842) between Great Britain and the Qing dynasty of China on 29 August 1842. It was the second of what the Chinese later termed the unequal treaties, after the rejected 1841 Convention of Chuenpi, signed by British Superintendent of trade in China, Charles Elliot, and Qing Imperial Commissioner, Qishan, which the treaty was largely based on.

In the wake of China's military defeat, with British warships poised to attack Nanjing (then romanized as Nanking), British and Chinese officials negotiated on board HMS Cornwallis anchored in the Yangtze at the city. On 29 August, British representative Sir Henry Pottinger and Qing representatives Keying, Yilibu, and Niu Jian signed the treaty, which consisted of thirteen articles.

The treaty was ratified by the Daoguang Emperor on 27 October and Queen Victoria on 28 December. The exchange of ratification took place in Hong Kong on 26 June 1843. The treaty required the Chinese to pay an indemnity, to cede the Island of Hong Kong to the British as a colony, to essentially end the Canton system that had limited trade to that port and allow trade at five treaty ports. It was followed in 1843 by the Treaty of the Bogue, which granted extraterritoriality and most favoured nation status.

1. ^ Mayers, William Frederick (1902). Treaties Between the Empire of China and Foreign Powers (4th ed.). Shanghai: North-China Herald, London (1871)ld. p. 1.

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30 August 1963 – The Moscow–Washington hotline between the leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union goes into operation.

Moscow–Washington hotline

Communication system between Russia and the US

The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, U.S. (left) and the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia (right), the two facilities linked by the hotline.

The Moscow–Washington hotline (formally known in the United States as the Washington–Moscow Direct Communications Link;^[1] Russian: Горячая линия Вашингтон – Москва, romanized: Goryachaya liniya Vashington–Moskva) is a system that allows direct communication between the leaders of the United States and the Russian Federation (formerly the Soviet Union). This hotline was established in 1963 and links the Pentagon with the Kremlin (historically, with Soviet Communist Party leadership across the square from the Kremlin itself).^[1][2] Although in popular culture it is known as the "red telephone", the hotline was never a telephone line, and no red phones were used. The first implementation used Teletype equipment, and shifted to fax machines in 1986.^[3] Since 2008, the Moscow–Washington hotline has been a secure computer link over which messages are exchanged by a secure form of email.^[4]

1. ^ ^{a b} Stone, Webster (September 18, 1988). "Moscow's Still Holding". New York Times. Archived from the original on June 30, 2015. Retrieved October 28, 2014.
2. ^ Clavin, Tom (19 Jun 2013). "There Never Was Such a Thing as a Red Phone in the White House". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2013-07-01.
3. ^ Graham, Thomas; La Vera, Damien (2002). "The 'Hot Line' Agreements". Cornerstones of Security: Arms Control Treaties in the Nuclear Era. University of Washington Press. pp. 20–28. ISBN 978-0295801414.
4. ^ Craig, Bell; Richardson, Paul E. (September–October 2009). "The Hot Line {Is a Hollywood Myth}". Russian Life. Vol. 52, no. 5. Archived from the original on 2015-06-30.^{[dead link]}

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31 August 1950 – TWA Flight 903 crashes near Itay El Barud, Egypt, killing all 55 aboard

TWA Flight 903

1950 aviation accident

TWA Flight 903 was a regularly scheduled flight from Bombay International Airport, India to New York-Idlewild Airport, via Cairo-King Farouk Airport and Rome-Ciampino Airport. On 31 August 1950, the flight crashed in Egypt due to engine failure.

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1 September 1715 – At the age of five, Louis XV becomes king of France in succession to his great-grandfather, King Louis XIV.

Louis XV

King of France from 1715 to 1774

This article is about the king of France. For the architectural style, see Louis XV style.

Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (French: le Bien-Aimé),^[1] was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defined as his 13th birthday) in 1723, the kingdom was ruled by his grand-uncle Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, as Regent of France. Cardinal Fleury was chief minister from 1726 until his death in 1743, at which time the king took sole control of the kingdom.

His reign of almost 59 years (from 1715 to 1774) was the second longest in the history of France, exceeded only by his predecessor, Louis XIV, who had ruled for 72 years (from 1643 to 1715).^[2] In 1748, Louis returned the Austrian Netherlands, won at the Battle of Fontenoy of 1745. He ceded New France in North America to Great Britain and Spain at the conclusion of the disastrous Seven Years' War in 1763. He incorporated the territories of the Duchy of Lorraine and the Corsican Republic into the Kingdom of France. Historians generally criticize his reign and maintain that his incompetence and extravagance weakened France, depleted the treasury, discredited the absolute monarchy, and diminished the country's reputation internationally. However, a minority of scholars argue that he was popular during his lifetime, but that his reputation was later blackened by revolutionary propaganda. His grandson and successor Louis XVI inherited a kingdom on the brink of financial disaster and gravely in need of political reform, laying the groundwork for the French Revolution of 1789.

1. ^ Cornette, (2008), p. 121.
2. ^ Guéganic (2008), p. 13.

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1 September 1715 – At the age of five, Louis XV becomes king of France in succession to his great-grandfather, King Louis XIV.

Louis XV

King of France from 1715 to 1774

This article is about the king of France. For the architectural style, see Louis XV style.

Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (French: le Bien-Aimé),^[1] was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defined as his 13th birthday) in 1723, the kingdom was ruled by his grand-uncle Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, as Regent of France. Cardinal Fleury was chief minister from 1726 until his death in 1743, at which time the king took sole control of the kingdom.

His reign of almost 59 years (from 1715 to 1774) was the second longest in the history of France, exceeded only by his predecessor, Louis XIV, who had ruled for 72 years (from 1643 to 1715).^[2] In 1748, Louis returned the Austrian Netherlands, won at the Battle of Fontenoy of 1745. He ceded New France in North America to Great Britain and Spain at the conclusion of the disastrous Seven Years' War in 1763. He incorporated the territories of the Duchy of Lorraine and the Corsican Republic into the Kingdom of France. Historians generally criticize his reign and maintain that his incompetence and extravagance weakened France, depleted the treasury, discredited the absolute monarchy, and diminished the country's reputation internationally. However, a minority of scholars argue that he was popular during his lifetime, but that his reputation was later blackened by revolutionary propaganda. His grandson and successor Louis XVI inherited a kingdom on the brink of financial disaster and gravely in need of political reform, laying the groundwork for the French Revolution of 1789.

1. ^ Cornette, (2008), p. 121.
2. ^ Guéganic (2008), p. 13.

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2 September 1987 – In Moscow, the trial begins for 19-year-old pilot Mathias Rust, who flew his Cessna airplane into Red Square in May.

Mathias Rust

German activist, landed a plane near Red Square in Moscow in 1987

Mathias Rust (born 1 June 1968)^[2] is a German aviator. In 1987, as a teenage amateur pilot, he flew from Helsinki, Finland, to Moscow, without authorization. According to Russian claims,^[3][4] he was tracked several times by Soviet Air Defence Forces and civilian air traffic controllers, as well as Soviet Air Force interceptor aircraft. The Soviet fighters did not receive permission to shoot him down, and his aeroplane was mistaken for a friendly aircraft several times. Also, 28 May 1987 was Border Guards Day, leaving many guards distracted.^[5] He landed on Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge, next to Red Square near the Kremlin in the capital of the USSR.

Rust said he wanted to create an "imaginary bridge" to the East, and that his flight was intended to reduce tension and suspicion between the two sides of the Cold War.^[6][7] Rust was sentenced to four years in a general-regime labour camp for violation of border crossing and air traffic regulations, and for provoking an emergency situation upon his landing. After 14 months in prison, he was pardoned by Andrei Gromyko, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, and released.^[6][7]

Rust's flight through a supposedly impenetrable air defence system had a great effect on the Soviet military and resulted in the dismissal of many senior officers, including Minister of Defence Marshal of the USSR Sergei Sokolov and the Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Air Defence Forces, former World War II fighter pilot ace Chief Marshal Alexander Koldunov. The incident aided Mikhail Gorbachev in the implementation of his reforms, by allowing him to dismiss numerous military officials opposed to his policies.^[8]

1. ^ "Mathias Rust - Biography". IMDb.
2. ^ "Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv: Eine Cessna auf dem Roten Platz – Mathias Rust in Moskau". www.dra.de (in German). Retrieved 18 March 2022.
3. ^ "The Notorious Flight of Mathias Rust".
4. ^ "A Cessna-sized Hole in the Iron Curtain, Revisited".
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference guardianmay14 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. ^ ^{a b} LeCompte, Tom (July 2005). "The Notorious Flight of Mathias Rust". Air & Space/Smithsonian. Washington, D.C. Retrieved 4 April 2009.
7. ^ ^{a b} Hadjimatheou, Chloe (7 December 2012). "Mathias Rust: German teenager who flew to Red Square". BBC World Service. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
8. ^ Miller, Chris (2016). The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy. The University of North Carolina Press. p. 153.

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3 September 1935 – Sir Malcolm Campbell reaches a speed of 304.331 miles per hour on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, becoming the first person to drive an automobile over 300 mph.

Malcolm Campbell

British racing driver and speed record holder (1885–1948)

For other people named Malcolm Campbell, see Malcolm Campbell (disambiguation).

Major Sir Malcolm Campbell (11 March 1885 – 31 December 1948) was a British racing motorist and motoring journalist. He gained the world speed record on land and on water at various times, using vehicles called Blue Bird, including a 1921 Grand Prix Sunbeam. His son, Donald Campbell, carried on the family tradition by holding both land speed and water speed records.

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4 September 1948 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands abdicates for health reasons.

Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 to 1948

Not to be confused with Wilhelmine of Prussia, Queen of the Netherlands.

Wilhelmina (Dutch pronunciation: [ʋɪlɦɛlˈminaː] ^ⓘ; Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria; 31 August 1880 – 28 November 1962) was Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 until her abdication in 1948. She reigned for nearly 58 years, making her the longest-reigning monarch in Dutch history, as well as the longest-reigning female monarch outside of the United Kingdom. Her reign encompassed World War I, the Dutch economic crisis of 1933, and World War II.

The only surviving child of King William III of the Netherlands and Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont, Wilhelmina ascended the throne at the age of 10 after her father's death in 1890, under her mother's regency. After taking charge of government, Wilhelmina became generally popular for maintaining Dutch neutrality during the First World War and solving many of her country's industrial problems. By that time, her business ventures had made her the world's first female billionaire as measured by U.S. dollars.^[1]

Following the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940, Wilhelmina fled to Britain and took charge of the Dutch government-in-exile. She frequently spoke to the nation over radio and came to be regarded as a symbol of the Dutch resistance.^[1] By 1948, she had returned to the liberated Netherlands and was the only survivor of the 17 European monarchs who were reigning at the time of her inauguration.^[2] Increasingly beset by poor health, Wilhelmina abdicated in favour of her daughter Juliana in September 1948 and retired to Het Loo Palace, where she died in 1962.

Largely due to her status as a symbol of the Resistance, she remains reasonably popular in the Netherlands, even among the Dutch Republican movement.^[3]

1. ^ ^{a b} "Wilhelmina of Netherlands Dies" (UPI), The New York Times, 28 November 1962. pp. A1–A39.
2. ^ "Queen Wilhelmina". Life. Vol. 25, no. 7. 16 August 1948. p. 83. ISSN 0024-3019.
3. ^ Fitzwilliams, Richard (30 April 2013). "What Dutch 'Bicycling Royals' Can Teach World's Royals". Cable News Network (CNN).

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5 September 1836 – Sam Houston is elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas.

Sam Houston

American general and statesman (1793–1863)

For other people named Sam Houston, see Sam Houston (disambiguation).

Samuel Houston (/ˈhjuːstən/ ^ⓘ, HEW-stən; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American military general and statesman who played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two individuals to represent Texas in the United States Senate. He also served as the sixth governor of Tennessee and the seventh governor of Texas. Houston is the only individual to be elected governor of two different US states.

Born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, Houston and his family relocated to Maryville, Tennessee, while he was a teenager. Houston later ran away from home, spending about three years living with the Cherokee,^[2] becoming known as "Raven". He served under General Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812; afterwards, he was appointed as a sub-agent to oversee the removal of the Cherokee from Tennessee into Arkansas Territory in 1818. With the support of Jackson, among others, Houston won election to the United States House of Representatives in 1823. He strongly supported Jackson's presidential candidacies and, in 1827, Houston was elected as the governor of Tennessee. In 1829, after divorcing his first wife, Houston resigned from office, and moved to the Arkansas Territory to live with the Cherokee once more.

Houston settled in Texas in 1832. After the Battle of Gonzales, he helped organize Texas's provisional government and was selected as the top-ranking official in the Texian Army. He led the Texian Army to victory at the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle in Texas's war for independence against Mexico. After the war, Houston won the 1836 Texan presidential election. He left office due to term limits in 1838, but won another term in the 1841 Texas presidential election. Houston played a key role in the annexation of Texas by the United States in 1845 and, in 1846, was elected to represent Texas in the United States Senate. He joined the Democratic Party and supported President James K. Polk's prosecution of the Mexican–American War.

His Senate record was marked by his unionism and opposition to radicals from both the North and South. He voted for the Compromise of 1850, which settled many of the residual territorial issues from the Mexican–American War and the annexation of Texas. Houston owned slaves throughout his life. He voted against the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854, as he believed it would lead to increased sectional tensions over slavery, and his opposition to that act led him to later leave the Democratic Party. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the presidential nomination of the American Party in the 1856 presidential election, as well as for the Constitutional Union Party in the 1860 presidential election. In 1859, Houston won the election for governor of Texas. In this role, he opposed secession, and unsuccessfully sought to keep Texas out of the Confederate States of America. He was forced out of office in 1861, and died two years later in 1863. Houston's name has been honored in numerous ways, and he is the eponym of the city of Houston, the fourth-most-populous city in the United States.

1. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions".
2. ^ "Sam Houston | Biography & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved July 15, 2020.

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6 September 1620 – The Pilgrims sail from Plymouth, England on the Mayflower to settle in North America.

Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

Early settlers in Massachusetts

This article is about the English settlers of New England. For people as pilgrims, see Pilgrim. For other uses, see Pilgrim (disambiguation).

The Pilgrims, also known as the Pilgrim Fathers, were the English settlers who travelled to North America on the ship Mayflower and established the Plymouth Colony at what now is Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States. John Smith named this territory New Plymouth in 1614, sharing the name of the Pilgrims' final departure port of Plymouth, Devon, England. The Pilgrims' leadership came from religious congregations of Brownists or Separatists who had fled religious persecution in England for the tolerance of 17th-century Holland in the Netherlands.

These Separatists held many of the same Calvinist religious beliefs as Puritans, but unlike Puritans (who wanted a purified established church), Pilgrims believed that their congregations should separate from the Church of England, which led to them being labelled Separatists. After several years of living in exile in Holland, they determined to establish a new settlement in the New World and arranged with investors to fund them. In 1620, they established the Plymouth Colony, in which they erected Congregational churches.^[1] The Puritans' later establishment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony eventually became more powerful in the area; but the Pilgrims' story nevertheless became a central theme in the history and culture of the United States.^[2]

1. ^ Johnson, Daniel L. (1990). Theology and Identity – Traditions, Movements, and Polity in the United Church of Christ. Cleveland, Ohio: United Church Press. pp. 4. ISBN 0-8298-0807-8.
2. ^ Davis, Kenneth. C. "America's True History of Religious Tolerance". Smithsonian. Retrieved September 21, 2016.

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7 September 1921 – In Atlantic City, New Jersey, the first Miss America Pageant, a two-day event, is held.

Miss America

Annual competition in the United States

Not to be confused with Miss USA or Miss United States.

For other uses, see Miss America (disambiguation).

Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 18 and 28.^[1] Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue",^[2] the contest is judged on competition segments with scoring percentages: Private Interview (30%) – a 10-minute press conference-style interview with a panel of judges, On Stage Question (10%) – answering a judge's question onstage, Talent or HER Story (20%) – a performance talent or 90 second speech, Health and Fitness (20%) – demonstrated physical fitness onstage dressed in athletic wear, and Evening Gown (20%) – modeling evening-wear onstage.^[3][4][5]

The previous year's titleholder crowns the winner. Miss America 2026 is Cassie Donegan of New York, who was crowned on September 7, 2025, at the Dr Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando, Florida.

1. ^ "Become a Participant". missamerica.org. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference early was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ "Areas of Competition". Miss District of Columbia Scholarship Organization. Retrieved June 13, 2023.
4. ^ "Miss Delegates". Miss Vermont Scholarship Organization. July 29, 2016. Retrieved June 13, 2023.
5. ^ "Learn How to Become a Miss Contestant In the Miss Wisconsin Pageant". Miss Wisconsin. Retrieved June 13, 2023.

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8 September 1504 – Michelangelo's David is unveiled in Piazza della Signoria in Florence.

David (Michelangelo)

Renaissance statue in Florence, Italy

David is a masterpiece of Italian Renaissance sculpture in marble^[1][2] created from 1501 to 1504 by Michelangelo. With a height of 5.17 metres (17 ft 0 in), the David was not only the first colossal marble statue made in the High Renaissance, but also the first since classical antiquity, setting a precedent for the 16th century and beyond. David was originally commissioned as one of a series of statues of twelve prophets to be positioned along the roofline of the east end of Florence Cathedral, but was instead placed in the public square in front of the Piazza della Signoria, the seat of civic government in Florence, where it was unveiled on 8 September 1504. In 1873, the statue was moved to the Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence. In 1910 a replica was installed at the original site on the public square.

The biblical figure David was a favoured subject in the art of Florence.^[3] Because of the nature of the figure it represented, the statue soon came to symbolize the defence of civil liberties embodied in the 1494 constitution of the Republic of Florence,^[4] an independent city-state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the political aspirations of the Medici family.

1. ^ Paolucci, Antonio (2004). Bracci, Susanna; Falletti, Franca; Matteini, Mauro (eds.). Exploring David: Diagnostic Tests and State of Conservation. Giunti Editore. p. 12. ISBN 978-88-09-03325-2. The David in Florence's Accademia is young Michelangelo's masterpiece.
2. ^ Buonarroti, Michelangelo; Paolucci, Antonio (2006). Michelangelo's David. Harry N. Abrams. p. 7. ISBN 978-1-903973-99-8. ...a masterpiece of throbbing vitality.
3. ^ See, for example, Donatello's two sculptures of David; Verrocchio's bronze David; Domenico Ghirlandaio's painting of David; and Bartolomeo Bellano's bronze David.
4. ^ Pocock, John Greville Agard (2016) [1975]. The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition. Princeton University Press. p. 103. ISBN 978-1-4008-8351-6.

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9 September 1845 – Possible start of the Great Famine of Ireland

Great Famine (Ireland)

1845–1852 mass starvation in Ireland

"Irish famine" and "Great Hunger" redirect here. For other famines in Ireland, see Irish famine (disambiguation). For the book written by Cecil Woodham-Smith, see The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845–1849.

The Great Famine, also known as the Great Hunger (Irish: an Gorta Mór [ənˠ ˈɡɔɾˠt̪ˠə ˈmˠoːɾˠ]), the Famine and the Irish Potato Famine,^[1][2] was a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852. It constituted a major historical social crisis and had a significant impact on Irish society and history.^[3] The most severely affected areas were in western and southern Ireland—where the Irish language was dominant—hence, in Irish, the period was contemporaneously known as an Drochshaol,^[4] which translates to "the bad life" and loosely translates to "the hard times". Debate exists regarding nomenclature for the event, including whether to use the terms "Famine", "Potato Famine" or "Great Hunger".^[5]

The worst year of the famine was 1847, which became known as "Black '47".^[6][7] The population of Ireland on the eve of the famine was approximately 8.5 million; by 1901, it was 4.4 million.^[8] During the Great Hunger, roughly one million people died and over one million more emigrated,^[9] causing the country's population to fall by 20–25% between 1841 and 1871, with some towns' populations falling by as much as 67%.^[10][11][12] Between 1845 and 1855, at least 2.1 million people left Ireland, one of the greatest exoduses from a single island in history.^[13][14]

The proximate cause of the famine was the infection of potato crops by blight throughout Europe. The impact of blight on food supply caused 100,000 deaths outside Ireland, and influenced much of the unrest that culminated in European Revolutions of 1848.^[15] Longer-term reasons for the scale of the famine's impact included the system of absentee landlordism and single-crop dependence.^[16][17] Initial government actions to alleviate famine distress, which were constructive but limited, were ended by a new Whig administration in London that pursued a laissez-faire economic doctrine. Additionally, some members of the British government believed that the famine was divine judgement or that the Irish lacked moral character.^[18][19] Aid resumed only to some degree at a later stage. Large quantities of food were exported from Ireland during the famine, and the refusal of London to bar such exports, as had been done on previous occasions, was an immediate and continuing source of controversy. This controversy contributed to the exacerbation of the Irish issue in British politics, the intensification of anti-British sentiment, the intensification of Irish nationalism and the campaign for independence. Additionally, the famine indirectly resulted in the eviction of tens of thousands of households, a situation exacerbated by a provision that forbade access to workhouse aid for those possessing more than one-quarter acre of land.

The famine is considered a defining moment in the history of Ireland.^[3] Its effects permanently changed the island's demographic, political, and cultural landscape, producing an estimated 2 million refugees and spurring a century-long population decline.^[20][21] For both the native Irish and those in the resulting diaspora, the famine became part of folk memory.^[22] Strained relations between many Irish people and the then ruling British government worsened further because of the famine, heightening ethnic and sectarian tensions and boosting nationalism and republicanism both in Ireland and among Irish emigrants around the world.^[23][24] When the potato blight returned to Ireland in the 1879 famine, the Land League boycotted "notorious landlords", and its members physically blocked the evictions of farmers. The resulting reduction in homelessness and house demolitions led to a significant decrease in the number of deaths.^[25]

1. ^ Kinealy 1994, p. 5.
2. ^ O'Neill 2009, p. 1.
3. ^ ^{a b} Kinealy 1994, p. xv.
4. ^ [1]Archived 12 May 2020 at the Wayback Machine The great famine (An Drochshaol). Dúchas.ie
5. ^ Egan, Casey. The Irish Potato Famine, the Great Hunger, genocide – what should we call it? Potato blight played a role, but there was much more at play in Ireland's Great Hunger of 1845–1852. What should it be called? IrishCentral.com Archived 11 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine. 31 May 2015. Accessed 29 January 2021.
6. ^ Éamon Ó Cuív, [2]Archived 17 May 2020 at the Wayback Machine An Gorta Mór – the impact and legacy of the Great Irish Famine
7. ^ An Fháinleog Archived 18 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine Chapter 6. "drochshaol, while it can mean a hard life, or hard times, also, with a capital letter, has a specific, historic meaning: Bliain an Drochshaoil means The Famine Year, particularly 1847; Aimsir an Drochshaoil means the time of the Great Famine (1847–52)."
8. ^ "Black '47 Ireland's Great Famine and its after-effects - Department of Foreign Affairs". www.dfa.ie. Archived from the original on 1 July 2024. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
9. ^ Ross 2002, p. 226.
10. ^ Kinealy 1994, p. 357.
11. ^ "Census of Ireland 1871: Part I, Area, Population, and Number of Houses; Occupations, Religion and Education volume I, Province of Leinster". HMSO. 11 March 1872. Retrieved 11 March 2023 – via Internet Archive.
12. ^ Carolan, Michael. Éireann's Exiles: Reconciling generations of secrets and separations. Archived 30 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine 3 April 2020. Accessed 15 January 2021.
13. ^ Donnelly, James S. Jr., The Great Irish Potato Famine (Thrupp, Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2001) p. 181.
14. ^ Hollett, David. Passage to the New World: packet ships and Irish famine emigrants, 1845–1851. United Kingdom, P.M. Heaton, 1995, p. 103.
15. ^ Ó Gráda, Cormac; Vanhaute, Eric; Paping, Richard (August 2006). The European subsistence crisis of 1845–1850: a comparative perspective (PDF). XIV International Economic History Congress of the International Economic History Association: Session 123. Helsinki. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 April 2017.
16. ^ Póirtéir 1995, pp. 19–20.
17. ^ Fraser, Evan D. G. (30 October 2003). "Social vulnerability and ecological fragility: building bridges between social and natural sciences using the Irish Potato Famine as a case study". Conservation Ecology. 2 (7). Archived from the original on 14 February 2020. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
18. ^ "British History in depth: The Irish Famine". BBC History. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
19. ^ "Racism and Anti-Irish Prejudice in Victorian England". victorianweb.org. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
20. ^ Kelly, M.; Fotheringham, A. Stewart (2011). "The online atlas of Irish population change 1841–2002: A new resource for analysing national trends and local variations in Irish population dynamics". Irish Geography. 44 (2–3): 215–244. doi:10.1080/00750778.2011.664806. population declining dramatically from 8.2 million to 6.5 million between 1841 and 1851 and then declining gradually and almost continuously to 4.5 million in 1961
21. ^ "The Vanishing Irish: Ireland's population from the Great Famine to the Great War". 28 January 2013. Archived from the original on 12 May 2020. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
22. ^ Kinealy 1994, p. 342.
23. ^ Percival, John (1995). Great Famine: Ireland's Potato Famine 1845–51. Diane Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-7881-6962-5. Archived from the original on 15 April 2021. Retrieved 29 July 2020 – via Google Books.
24. ^ Miller, Kerby A. Ireland and Irish America: Culture, Class, and Transatlantic Migration. Ireland, Field Day, 2008, p. 49.
25. ^ Curtis, L. Perry (Lewis Perry) (11 June 2007). "The Battering Ram and Irish Evictions, 1887–90". Irish-American Cultural Institute. 42 (3): 207–228. doi:10.1353/eir.2007.0039. S2CID 161069346. Archived from the original on 30 March 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2018 – via Project MUSE.

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10 September 1846 – Elias Howe is granted a patent for the sewing machine.

Elias Howe

American inventor (1819–1867)

This article is about the inventor of the sewing machine. For the music publisher and his company, see Elias Howe Company.

Elias Howe Jr. (/haʊ/; July 9, 1819 – October 3, 1867) was an American inventor best known for his creation of the modern lockstitch sewing machine.

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11 September 1789 – Alexander Hamilton is appointed the first United States Secretary of the Treasury.

Alexander Hamilton

American Founding Father (1755–1804)

For other uses, see Alexander Hamilton (disambiguation).

Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757^[a] – July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 under the presidency of George Washington. He also founded America's first political party, the Federalist Party, in 1791.

Born out of wedlock in Charlestown on the Caribbean island of Nevis, Hamilton was orphaned as a child and taken in by a prosperous merchant. He was given a scholarship and pursued his education at King's College (now Columbia University) in New York City where, despite his young age, he was an anonymous but prolific and widely read pamphleteer and advocate for the American Revolution. He then served as an artillery officer in the American Revolutionary War, where he saw military action against the British Army in the New York and New Jersey campaign, served for four years as aide-de-camp to Continental Army commander-in-chief George Washington, and fought under Washington's command in the war's climactic battle, the Siege of Yorktown, which secured American victory in the war and with it the independence of the United States.

After the Revolutionary War, Hamilton served as a delegate from New York to the Congress of the Confederation in Philadelphia. He resigned to practice law and founded the Bank of New York. In 1786, Hamilton led the Annapolis Convention, which sought to strengthen the power of the loose confederation of independent states under the limited authorities granted the Congress by the Articles of Confederation. The following year he was a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention, which drafted the U.S. Constitution creating a more centralized federal national government. He then authored 51 of the 85 installments of The Federalist Papers, which proved persuasive in securing its ratification by the states and remains the preeminent interpretation of Constitutional intent.

As a trusted member of President Washington's first cabinet, Hamilton served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury. He envisioned a central government led by an energetic executive, a strong national defense, and a more diversified economy with significantly expanded industry. He successfully argued that the implied powers of the U.S. Constitution provided the federal government the legal basis to create the First Bank of the United States as a fiscal agent to assume the states' war debts, a bank that was funded by a tariff on imports and a whiskey tax.^[6] Hamilton opposed American entanglement with the succession of unstable French revolutionary governments. In 1790, he persuaded the U.S. Congress to establish the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service to protect American shipping. In 1793, he advocated in support of the Jay Treaty under which the U.S. resumed friendly trade relations with the British Empire. Hamilton's views became the basis for the Federalist Party, which was opposed by the Democratic-Republican Party, led by Thomas Jefferson. Hamilton and other Federalists supported the Haitian Revolution, and Hamilton helped draft Haiti's constitution in 1801.

After resigning as the nation's secretary of the treasury in 1795, Hamilton resumed his legal and business activities and helped lead the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. In the Quasi-War, fought at sea between 1798 and 1800, Hamilton called for mobilization against France, and President John Adams appointed him major general. The U.S. Army, however, did not see combat in the conflict. Outraged by Adams' response to the crisis, Hamilton opposed his 1800 presidential re-election. Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied for the presidency in the electoral college and, despite philosophical differences, Hamilton endorsed Jefferson over Burr, whom he found unprincipled. When Burr ran for Governor of New York in 1804, Hamilton again opposed his candidacy, arguing that he was unfit for the office. Taking offense, Burr challenged Hamilton to a pistol duel, which took place in Weehawken, New Jersey, on July 11, 1804. Hamilton was mortally wounded and immediately transported back across the Hudson River in a delirious state to the home of William Bayard Jr. in Greenwich Village, New York, for medical attention. The following day, on July 12, 1804, Hamilton succumbed to his wounds.

Scholars generally regard Hamilton as an astute and intellectually brilliant administrator, politician, and financier who was sometimes impetuous. His ideas are credited with influencing the founding principles of American finance and government. In 1997, the historian Paul Johnson wrote that Hamilton was a "genius—the only one of the Founding Fathers fully entitled to that accolade—and he had the elusive, indefinable characteristics of genius."^[7]

1. ^ "Alexander Hamilton". National Portrait Gallery. Archived from the original on January 31, 2023. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
2. ^ ^{a b} Chernow, p. 17.
3. ^ Logan, Erin B. (July 12, 2018). "Alexander Hamilton, immigrant and statesman, dies at 47 – or 49". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 9, 2018. Retrieved September 5, 2018.
4. ^ ^{a b} Brookhiser, Richard (2000). Alexander Hamilton, American. Simon and Schuster. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-4391-3545-7.
5. ^ Newton (2015), pp. 19–30.
6. ^ Hill, Andrew T. "The First Bank of the United States". Federal Reserve History. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Retrieved July 4, 2026.
7. ^ Johnson, Paul (1997). A History of the American People (PDF). New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 151. ISBN 978-0-06-093034-9.

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12 September 1940 – Cave paintings are discovered in Lascaux, France.

Cave painting

Paintings, often prehistoric, on cave walls and ceilings

For the British band, see Cave Painting.

Not to be confused with rock art, the broader term which includes human-made markings on all natural surfaces.

In archaeology, cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric origin. Several groups of scientists suggest that the oldest of such paintings were created not by Homo sapiens, but by Denisovans and Neanderthals.^[5]

Discussion around prehistoric art is important in understanding the history of Homo sapiens and how human beings have come to have unique abstract thoughts. Some point to these prehistoric paintings as possible examples of creativity, spirituality, and sentimental thinking in prehistoric humans.

1. ^ World Heritage Sites: a Complete Guide to 1007 UNESCO World Heritage Sites (6th ed.). UNESCO Publishing. 2014. p. 607. ISBN 978-1-77085-640-0. OCLC 910986576.
2. ^ UNESCO World Heritage Centre. "Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 2021-04-14. Retrieved 2021-04-07.
3. ^ Art & Place: Site-Specific Art of the Americas. Editorial Director: Amanda Renshaw; Text & Expertise provided by Daniel Arsenault et al. Phaidon Press. 2013. pp. 354–355. ISBN 978-0-7148-6551-5. OCLC 865298990.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :9 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hoffmann2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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13 September 1953 – Nikita Khrushchev is appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Nikita Khrushchev

Leader of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964

"Khrushchev" redirects here. For the surname and other people with the surname, see Khrushchev (surname).

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev^[c][d] (15 April [O.S. 3 April] 1894 – 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. As leader of the Soviet Union, he shocked the world by denouncing his predecessor Joseph Stalin, embarking on a campaign of de-Stalinization, and presiding over the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

Born in a village near Kursk, Khrushchev was employed as a metal worker during his youth and was a political commissar in the Russian Civil War. Under the sponsorship of Lazar Kaganovich, he rose through the ranks of the Soviet hierarchy. During Stalin's rule, he actively supported the Great Purge and approved thousands of arrests, and in 1938 was sent to govern the Ukrainian SSR, where he continued the purges. During World War II, Khrushchev was again a commissar, serving as an intermediary between Stalin and his generals. He was also present at the Battle of Stalingrad, a fact in which he took great pride. After the war, Khrushchev returned to Ukraine before eventually being recalled to Moscow as one of Stalin's close advisers.

On 5 March 1953, the death of Stalin triggered a power struggle in which Khrushchev ultimately emerged victorious upon consolidating his authority as First Secretary of the party's Central Committee and eliminating his rival Lavrentiy Beria. On 25 February 1956, at the 20th Party Congress, he delivered the "Secret Speech", which denounced Stalin's purges and ushered in a less repressive era in the Soviet Union. His domestic policies, aimed at bettering the lives of ordinary citizens, were often ineffective, especially in agriculture. Hoping eventually to rely on missiles for national defense, Khrushchev ordered major cuts in conventional forces. Despite such cuts, Khrushchev's time in office saw the tensest years of the Cold War, culminating in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

As leader of the Soviet Union, Khrushchev enjoyed considerable popularity during the late 1950s due to the successful launching of Sputnik in 1957 as well as favorable outcomes in the 1956 Suez Crisis, 1957 Syrian Crisis, and the 1960 U-2 incident. However, by the early 1960s, Khrushchev's hold on power had been significantly weakened by his domestic policy failures and handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. As a result, his rivals consolidated enough support among the nomenklatura to oust him from the Soviet leadership on 14 October 1964. Following his forced retirement, Khrushchev spent much of his time composing a series of lengthy memoirs which were smuggled to the West and published in part in 1970. He died the next year in his dacha.

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1. ^ Brown 2009, pp. 232–233.

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14 September 2000 – Microsoft releases Windows Me.

Windows Me

2000 Microsoft operating system version

Not to be confused with Windows 2000.

Operating system

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Windows Me^[a] (Millennium Edition) is an operating system developed by Microsoft as the last of its Windows 9x line of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was the successor to Windows 98, and was released to manufacturing on June 19, 2000, and then to retail on September 14, 2000. It was Microsoft's main operating system for home users until the introduction of its successor, the NT-based Windows XP on October 25, 2001.^[6]

Windows Me was targeted specifically at home PC users, and included Internet Explorer 5.5 (which could later be upgraded to Internet Explorer 6), Windows Media Player 7 (which could later be upgraded to Windows Media Player 9 Series), DirectX 7 (which could later be upgraded to DirectX 9) and the new Windows Movie Maker software, which provided basic video editing and was designed to be easy to use for consumers; it is the last MS-DOS-based Windows version as all consumer versions starting with Windows XP moved to the NT kernel.^[7] Microsoft also incorporated features first introduced in Windows 2000, which had been released as a business-oriented operating system seven months earlier, into the graphical user interface, shell and Windows Explorer. Although Windows Me was still ultimately based around MS-DOS like its predecessors, access to real-mode DOS was restricted to decrease system boot time.^[8]

Windows Me was positively received upon release, but soon became infamous for stability problems, and is today viewed as one of the worst Windows versions, as well as one of the worst operating systems of all time.^[9][10][11] In October 2001, Windows XP was released to the public, having already been under development at the time of Windows Me's release,^[11] and incorporated most, but not all, of the features of Windows Me, while being far more stable.

Mainstream support for Windows Me ended on December 31, 2003, and extended support for it and its predecessors was discontinued later on July 11, 2006.^[12]

1. ^ "Microsoft Announces Immediate Availability Of Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me)". News Center. Microsoft. September 14, 2000. Archived from the original on December 27, 2019. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
2. ^ "Windows Me: Microsoft Releases New Operating System Built From the Ground Up for Home PC Users". News Center. Microsoft. September 14, 2000. Archived from the original on December 15, 2019. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
3. ^ Hoffman, Chris (August 21, 2021). "Windows Me, 20 Years Later: Was It Really That Bad?". How-to-Geek. Archived from the original on February 7, 2022. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
4. ^ "Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition". Microsoft Support Lifecycle. Microsoft. Archived from the original on March 27, 2019. Retrieved May 24, 2016.
5. ^ Lawrence, Josh. "Chat on This: Define Windows Me". TechTV. Archived from the original on October 31, 2001. Retrieved June 29, 2026.
6. ^ Coursey, David (October 25, 2001). "The 10 top things you MUST know about Win XP". ZDNet. CNET Networks. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved July 22, 2008.
7. ^ Cite error: The named reference presspass was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
8. ^ "Overview of Real Mode Removal from Windows Millennium Edition". Microsoft Help and Support. Microsoft. January 14, 2006. Archived from the original on December 10, 2006. Retrieved May 4, 2019.
9. ^ Cite error: The named reference cwworstwindows was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
10. ^ Tynan, Dan (May 26, 2006). "The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time". PCWorld. IDG. Archived from the original on March 29, 2018. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
11. ^ ^{a b} Collins, Barry. "20 Years Ago Microsoft Released The Worst Windows Ever: Windows Me". Forbes. Archived from the original on March 29, 2021. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
12. ^ Montalbano, Elizabeth (April 13, 2006). "Microsoft support for Windows 98, ME to end in July". Computerworld. Archived from the original on March 29, 2021. Retrieved February 16, 2021.

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15 September 1947 – Typhoon Kathleen hits the Kantō region, in Japan killing around 1,000-2,000 people

Typhoon Kathleen

Pacific typhoon in 1947

This article is about the Pacific typhoon of 1947. For other storms of the same name, see List of storms named Kathleen.

Typhoon Kathleen was a typhoon that approached Japan in September 1947.^[1] Kathleen brought record heavy rain at the time, causing major destruction in the Kanto region.

1. ^ 第三版,朝日新聞掲載「キーワード」,デジタル大辞泉,デジタル大辞泉プラス,日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ), 大辞林. "カスリーン台風(カスリーンたいふう)とは". コトバンク (in Japanese). Retrieved 2020-08-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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16 September 1620 – Pilgrims set sail for Virginia from Plymouth, England in the Mayflower.

Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

Early settlers in Massachusetts

This article is about the English settlers of New England. For people as pilgrims, see Pilgrim. For other uses, see Pilgrim (disambiguation).

The Pilgrims, also known as the Pilgrim Fathers, were the English settlers who travelled to North America on the ship Mayflower and established the Plymouth Colony at what now is Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States. John Smith named this territory New Plymouth in 1614, sharing the name of the Pilgrims' final departure port of Plymouth, Devon, England. The Pilgrims' leadership came from religious congregations of Brownists or Separatists who had fled religious persecution in England for the tolerance of 17th-century Holland in the Netherlands.

These Separatists held many of the same Calvinist religious beliefs as Puritans, but unlike Puritans (who wanted a purified established church), Pilgrims believed that their congregations should separate from the Church of England, which led to them being labelled Separatists. After several years of living in exile in Holland, they determined to establish a new settlement in the New World and arranged with investors to fund them. In 1620, they established the Plymouth Colony, in which they erected Congregational churches.^[1] The Puritans' later establishment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony eventually became more powerful in the area; but the Pilgrims' story nevertheless became a central theme in the history and culture of the United States.^[2]

1. ^ Johnson, Daniel L. (1990). Theology and Identity – Traditions, Movements, and Polity in the United Church of Christ. Cleveland, Ohio: United Church Press. pp. 4. ISBN 0-8298-0807-8.
2. ^ Davis, Kenneth. C. "America's True History of Religious Tolerance". Smithsonian. Retrieved September 21, 2016.

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17 September 1965 – The Battle of Chawinda is fought between Pakistan and India.

Battle of Chawinda

Battle in the Indo–Pakistani War of 1965

The Battle of Chawinda was a major engagement between Pakistan and India during the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965 as part of the Sialkot campaign. It is well known as being one of the largest tank battles in history since the Battle of Kursk, which was fought between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany in World War II.^[14]

The initial clashes in Chawinda coincided with the Battle of Phillora, and the fighting here intensified once the Pakistani forces at Phillora retreated. The battle came to an end shortly before the United Nations Security Council mandated an immediate ceasefire, which would formally end the hostilities of the 1965 war.^[15][16]

1. ^ Jogindar Singh (1993). Behind the Scene: An Analysis of India's Military Operations, 1947–1971. Lancer Publishers. pp. 217–219. ISBN 1-897829-20-5. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
2. ^ Chakravorty 1992a.
3. ^ Abrar Hussain (2005). Men of Steel: 6 Armored Division in the 1965 War. Army Education Publishing House. pp. 36–52. ISBN 969-8125-19-1.
4. ^ Nawaz 2008, pp. 227–230.
5. ^ Krishna Rao 1991.
6. ^ Sources assessing stalemate:
   • Manus I. Midlarsky (2011). Origins of Political Extremism: Mass Violence in the Twentieth Century and Beyond. Cambridge University Press. p. 256. ISBN 978-1139500777.: "Several major tank battles would be fought, one at Khem Karan in Punjab yielding a major Pakistani defeat, and another at Chawinda involving over 600 tanks, the outcome of which was inconclusive."
   • Clodfelter, Micheal (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015 (4th ed.). McFarland. p. 600. ISBN 978-1476625850.: "Up to 600 tanks were engaged in the battle, primarily fought around Phillora and Chawinda, September 11–12, but the results were indecisive, largely because neither side properly supported their armor with infantry units."
   • Hasan, Zubeida (Fourth Quarter 1965), "The India-Paktstan War – A summary account", Pakistan Horizon, 18 (4): 344–356, JSTOR 41393247: "After a few days of intense fighting, in which each side claimed to have inflicted heavy losses on the other, the war reached a stalemate on this front."
7. ^ Zaloga 1980, p. 19.
8. ^ Barua 2005, p. 191
9. ^ Philip, Snehesh Alex (12 August 2019). "How Pakistani Lt Col Nisar Ahmed won over Indian peers after stalling their advance in 1965". ThePrint. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
10. ^ Amin, Major A.H. "Battle of Chawinda Comedy of Higher Command Errors". Military historian. Defence journal(pakistan). Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2011.
11. ^ ^{a b} Clodfelter, Micheal (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015 (4th ed.). McFarland. p. 600. ISBN 978-1476625850.
12. ^ ^{a b} Chakravorty 1992a, p. 221.
13. ^ ^{a b} Zaloga 1980, p. 35.
14. ^ Michael E. Haskew (2015). Tank: 100 Years of the World's Most Important Armored Military Vehicle. Voyageur Press. pp. 201–. ISBN 978-0-7603-4963-2.
15. ^ Pradhan 2007.
16. ^ "Indo-Pakistan War of 1965". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 2 June 2012.

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18 September 1809 – The Royal Opera House in London opens.

Royal Opera House

Performing arts venue in London, England

This article is about the opera house in London. For the post-1945 opera company, see The Royal Opera. For other uses, see Royal Opera (disambiguation).

The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, which are known collectively as the Royal Ballet and Opera.

The first theatre on the site, the Theatre Royal (1732), served primarily as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. In 1734, the first ballet was presented. A year later, the first season of operas, by George Frideric Handel, began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premieres there.

The current building is the third theatre on the site, following disastrous fires in 1808 and 1856 to previous buildings.^[2] The façade, foyer, and auditorium date from 1858, but almost every other element of the present complex dates from an extensive reconstruction in the 1990s.

The main auditorium seats 2,256 people, making it the third largest in London, and consists of four tiers of boxes and balconies and the amphitheatre gallery. The proscenium is 14.80 metres (48 ft 7 in) wide, with the stage of the same depth and 12.20 metres (40 ft 0 in) high. The main auditorium is a Grade I listed building.^[3]

The Royal Opera House companies were rebranded as the Royal Ballet and Opera in 2024, but the building retains the title of The Royal Opera House.^[4][5]

1. ^ Historic England (9 January 1970). "The Royal Opera House (1066392)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
2. ^ "11 Secrets of London's Royal Opera House". Londonist. 16 February 2017.
3. ^ "Royal Opera House (London)" Archived 23 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine description on theatrestrust.org.uk Retrieved 10 May 2013
4. ^ "Royal Ballet and Opera announces ambitious new season – and name change". 30 April 2024. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
5. ^ "Royal Opera House Tours, 17 December 2024 – 31 March 2025", Royal Ballet and Opera. Retrieved 15 January 2025

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