585 BC – Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, king of Rome, celebrates a triumph for his victories over the Sabines, and the surrender of Collatia.
1501 – Michelangelo begins work on his statue of David.
1504 – Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand issue a Royal Warrant for the construction of a Royal Chapel (Capilla Real) to be built.
1788 – The Philadelphia Convention sets the date for the first presidential election in the United States, and New York City becomes the country’s temporary capital.
1814 – In a turning point in the War of 1812, the British fail to capture Baltimore.
1848 – Vermont railroad worker Phineas Gage survives an iron rod an inch and a quarter thick being driven through his brain; the reported effects on his behavior and personality stimulate thinking about the nature of the brain and its functions.
1862 – American Civil War: Union soldiers find a copy of Robert E. Lee’s battle plans in a field outside Frederick, Maryland. It is the prelude to the Battle of Antietam.
1898 – Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film.
1899 – Henry Bliss is the first person in the United States to be killed in an automobile accident.
A plaque was dedicated at the site on September 13, 1999, to commemorate the centenary of this event. It reads:
“Here at West 74th Street and Central Park West, Henry H. Bliss dismounted from a streetcar and was struck and knocked unconscious by an automobile on the evening of September 13, 1899. When Mr. Bliss, a New York real estate man, died the next morning from his injuries, he became the first recorded motor vehicle fatality in the Western Hemisphere. This sign was erected to remember Mr. Bliss on the centennial of his untimely death and to promote safety on our streets and highways.”
1953 – Nikita Khrushchev is appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1956 – The IBM 305 RAMAC is introduced, the first commercial computer to use disk storage.
1988 – Hurricane Gilbert is the strongest recorded hurricane in the Western Hemisphere, later replaced by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 (based on barometric pressure). And now Irma.
2008 – Hurricane Ike makes landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast of the United States, causing heavy damage to Galveston Island, Houston, and surrounding areas.
Births
1502 – John Leland, English poet and historian (d. 1552)
1755 – Oliver Evans, inventor, engineer and businessman (d. 1819)
1819 – Clara Schumann, German pianist and composer (d. 1896)
1851 – Walter Reed, American physician and biologist (d. 1902)
1860 – John J. Pershing, American general and lawyer (d. 1948)
1874 – Arnold Schoenberg, Austrian composer and painter (d. 1951)
1916 – Roald Dahl, British novelist, poet, and screenwriter (d. 1990)
1928 – Robert Indiana, American painter and sculptor
1956 – Alain Ducasse, French-Moroccan chef
Deaths
AD 81 – Titus, Roman emperor (b. AD 39)
864 – Pietro Tradonico, doge of Venice
1967 – Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, Yemeni-Saudi Arabian businessman, founded Saudi Binladin Group (b. 1903)
1976 – Albert Tessier, Canadian priest, historian, and director (b. 1895)
1996 – Tupac Shakur, American rapper, producer, and actor (b. 1971)
1998 – George Wallace, 45th Governor of Alabama (b. 1919)