15 SEPTEMBER

1616 First non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy

1821 Act of Independence of Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras & Nicaragua declare their independence from the Spanish Empire


1830 George Stephenson's Manchester and Liverpool railway opened. During the ceremony, William Huskisson, MP, became the first person to be killed by a train when he crossed the track to shake hands with the Duke of Wellington. Stephenson was from humble beginnings and was illiterate until the age of 18. The entire family lived in just one room at a house at Wylam. The house was shared with three other families.

1835 HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin on board reaches the Galapagos Islands

1859 The death of the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He was involved in dock design, railway engineering and marine engineering. He built the SS Great Western in 1837, SS Great Britain in 1843 & SS Great Eastern in 1858, each the largest in the world at launch date.

1871 The first British-based international mail order business was begun by the Army and Navy Co-operative. They published their first catalogue in February 1872.

1890 Agatha Christie, English detective novelist was born.

1901 The birth of Sir Donald Bailey, English civil engineer who invented the Bailey bridge, a wood and steel bridge small and light enough to be carried in trucks and lifted into place by hand, yet strong enough to carry tanks. Field Marshal Montgomery is recorded as saying that without the Bailey bridge, we would not have won the war.

1916 Military tanks, designed by Ernest Swinton, were first used by the British Army, in the Somme offensive.

1928 Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin while studying influenza

1940 The tide turned in the Battle of Britain as the German air force sustained heavy losses inflicted by the Royal Air Force. The defeat was serious enough to convince Nazi leader Adolf Hitler to abandon his plans for an invasion of Britain. The day was chosen as "Battle of Britain Day".

1960 London introduced Traffic Wardens onto the streets of the capital.

1966 HMS Resolution, Britain’s first nuclear submarine, was launched at Barrow. It provides a controlled environment for ship and submarine assembly.

1981 The death of the actor Harold Bennett, best remembered as 'Young Mr. Grace' in the 1970s British sitcom Are You Being Served? and as the character Mr. Blewitt in Dad's Army from 1969 to 1977.

1984 Prince Harry, 3rd in succession to the throne, was born.

1985 Tony Jacklin's team of golfers beat the United States in the Ryder Cup for the first time in 28 years.

1998 Google.com is registered as a domain name

2000 The fuel protests which had paralysed Britain for seven days, ended.

2000 Home Secretary Jack Straw decided that parents would not be allowed access to the *** offenders' register.

2006 The death of Raymond Baxter, television presenter and writer who is best known for being the first presenter of Tomorrow's World, continuing for 12 years, from 1965 to 1977. He also gave radio commentary at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the funerals of King George VI, Winston Churchill and Lord Mountbatten of Burma, and the first flight of Concorde.

2014 Phones 4u, which had more than over 600 stores throughout the United Kingdom, went into administration after EE, Vodafone, Orange & O2, the company's final remaining suppliers, ended their contracts.

2016 The government gave the go ahead for a new £18bn nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset after imposing 'significant new safeguards' to protect national security.The new plant (Hinkley Point C) is to be financed by the French and the Chinese.

Famous Birthday's

William Howard Taft
(1857 - 1930)

Agatha Christie
(1890 - 1976)

Dan Marino
56th Birthday

Famous Deaths

Thomas Wolfe
(1900 - 1938)


Johnny Ramone
(1948 - 2004)

Famous Weddings

1794 4th US President James Madison (43) weds Dolley Madison (26) in Jefferson County, West Virginia

1949 Figure skater and actress Sonja Henie (36) weds Winthrop Gardner Jr

1951 Actor Peter Sellers (26) weds actress Anne Howe in London, England

1957 Country music legend Patsy Cline (25) weds linotype operator Charles Dick (23) in Winchester, England

1962 Actress Janet Leigh (35) weds stockbroker Robert Brandt