904 – The warlord Zhu Quanzhong kills Emperor Zhaozong, the penultimate emperor of the Tang dynasty, after seizing control of the imperial government.
1598 – English playwright Ben Jonson kills actor Gabriel Spenser in a duel and is indicted for manslaughter.
1692 – The last of those convicted of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials are hanged; the remainder of those convicted are all eventually released.
1776 – Nathan Hale is hanged for spying during American Revolution.
1823 – Joseph Smith states he found the golden plates on this date after being directed by God through the Angel Moroni to the place where they were buried.
“According to Latter Day Saint belief, the golden plates are the source from which Joseph Smith said he translated the Book of Mormon, a sacred text of the faith. Smith said he found the plates on September 22, 1823, at a hill near his home in Manchester, New York, after the angel Moroni directed him to a buried stone box. Smith said the angel at first prevented him from taking the plates, but instructed him to return to the same location in a year.
In September 1827, on his fourth annual attempt to retrieve the plates, Smith returned home with a heavy object wrapped in a frock, which he then put in a box. Though he allowed others to heft the box, he said that the angel had forbidden him to show the plates to anyone until they had been translated from their original “reformed Egyptian” language.
Smith dictated the text of the Book of Mormon over the next several years, claiming that it was a translation of the plates. He did this by using a seer stone, which he placed in the bottom of a hat and then placed the hat over his face to view the words written within the stone. Smith published the translation in 1830 as the Book of Mormon.” wikipedia
1888 – The first issue of National Geographic Magazine is published.
1914 – German submarine SM U-9 torpedoes and sinks the British cruisers HMS Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy off the Dutch coast with the loss of over 1,400 men.
1919 – The steel strike of 1919, led by the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, begins in Pennsylvania before spreading across the United States.
1934 – An explosion takes place at Gresford Colliery in Wales, leading to the deaths of 266 miners and rescuers.
1975 – Sara Jane Moore tries to assassinate President Gerald Ford, but is foiled by Secret Service agent Oliver Sipple.
1979 – A bright flash, resembling the detonation of a nuclear weapon, is observed near the Prince Edward Islands. Its cause is never determined.
1980 – Iraq invades Iran.
Births
1547 – Philipp Nicodemus Frischlin, German philologist, mathematician, astronomer, and poet (d. 1590)
1593 – Matthäus Merian, Swiss-German engraver and cartographer (d. 1650)
1715 – Jean-Étienne Guettard, French mineralogist and botanist (d. 1786)
1741 – Peter Simon Pallas, German zoologist and botanist (d. 1811)
1765 – Paolo Ruffini, Italian mathematician and philosopher (d. 1822)
1788 – Theodore Hook, English composer and educator (d. 1841)
1791 – Michael Faraday, English physicist and chemist (d. 1867)
1920 – Eric Baker, co-founded Amnesty International (d. 1976)
Deaths
1253 – Dōgen, Japanese monk and philosopher (b. 1200)
1520 – Selim I, Ottoman sultan (b. 1465)
1576 – Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex (b. 1541)
1776 – Nathan Hale, American soldier (b. 1755)
1989 – Irving Berlin, Russian-born American composer and songwriter (b. 1888)
1999 – George C. Scott, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1927)
2001 – Isaac Stern, Polish-Ukrainian violinist and conductor (b. 1920)
2007 – Marcel Marceau, French mime and actor (b. 1923)
2015 – Yogi Berra, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1925)
“It gets late early out there.”
“You can observe a lot by just watching.”
“I usually take a two-hour nap from one to four.”
“I don’t know (if they were men or women fans running naked across the field). They had bags over their heads.”