- Holidays
- National Ice Cream Cone Day
- American Business Women’s Day
- Dear Diary Day
- Elephant Appreciation Day
- Hobbit Day
- Long Count Day
- National Centenarians Day
- Family Day
- National White Chocolate Day
- International Day of Radiant Peace
- Independence Day-Mali
- Liberation Day-Bulgaria
- World Car Free Day
- On This Day
- 1776 --- Nathan Hale, a Connecticut schoolteacher and captain in the Continental Army, is executed by the British for spying. Disguised as a Dutch schoolmaster, the Yale-educated Hale slipped behind British lines on Long Island and successfully gathered information about British troop movements for the next several weeks. While Hale was behind enemy lines, the British invaded the island of Manhattan; they took control of the city on September 15, 1776. When the city was set on fire on September 20, British soldiers were told to look out for sympathizers to the Patriot cause. The following evening, September 21, Hale was captured while sailing Long Island Sound, trying to cross back into American-controlled territory. Nathan Hale was hanged as a spy by the British during the Revolutionary War.
- 1789 --- The U.S. Congress authorized the office of Postmaster General.
- 1828 --- Shaka, founder of the Zulu Kingdom of southern Africa, is murdered by his two half-brothers, Dingane and Mhlangana, after Shaka's mental illness threatened to destroy the Zulu tribe.
- 1862 --- President Abraham Lincoln issues a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which sets a date for the freedom of more than 3 million black slaves in the United States and recasts the Civil War as a fight against slavery.
- 1903 --- Italo Marchiony applied for a patent for an ice cream cup mold. Initially, he would fold warm waffles into a cup shape. He then developed the 2-piece mold that would make 10 cups at a time. (The patent was granted on December 15).
- 1914 --- In the North Sea, the German U-9 submarine sinks three British cruisers, the Aboukir, the Hogue, and the Cressy, in just over one hour. The one-sided battle, during which 1,400 British sailors lost their lives, alerted the British to the deadly effectiveness of the submarine, which had been generally unrecognized up to that time.
- 1927 --- Jack Dempsey misses an opportunity to regain the heavyweight boxing title when he fails to return to a neutral corner after knocking down champ Gene Tunney in a title match in Chicago. Dempsey waited five precious seconds before heading to the neutral corner, at which point the referee began the 10-count as the rules dictated. As the referee reached nine seconds, Tunney got back up to his feet. He had actually been down for what amounted to 14 seconds. Tunney went on to win the bout in a decision after 10 rounds.
- 1953 --- The first four-level (or "stack") interchange in the world opens in Los Angeles, California, at the intersection of the Harbor, Hollywood, Pasadena, and Santa Ana freeways. It was, as The Saturday Evening Post wrote, "a mad motorist's dream": 32 lanes of traffic weaving in eight directions at once. Today, although the four-level is justly celebrated as a civil engineering landmark, the interchange is complicated, frequently congested, and sometimes downright terrifying. (As its detractors are fond of pointing out, it's probably no coincidence that this highway octopus straddles not only a fetid sulfur spring but also the former site of the town gallows.)
- 1961 --- In an important victory for his Cold War foreign policy, President John F. Kennedy signs legislation establishing the Peace Corps as a permanent government agency. As described by Kennedy, this new organization would be an "army" of civilian volunteers--teachers, engineers, agricultural scientists, etc.--who would be sent to underdeveloped nations in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and elsewhere to assist the people of those regions.
- 1962 --- It was a hootenanny of a good time in, of all places, New York’s famed Carnegie Hall. The cast included newcomer Bob Dylan making his first appearance at Carnegie Hall.
- 1964 --- Robert Vaughn starred as Napoleon Solo when The Man From U.N.C.L.E. debuted on NBC-TV this night. Solo’s trusty side-kick in this James Bond spoof was Illya Kuryakin, played by David McCallum.
- 1964 --- In the tradition of the Broadway stage, the lights lowered, the curtain rose and Zero Mostel stepped into the spotlight as the fiddler played. “Tra-a--a-dition,” he sang, as he began the first of 3,242 performances of Fiddler on the Roof. The story of Tevye (brilliantly played by Mostel), a poor Jewish milkman with five daughters, takes place in a small Russian village in the late 1890s. He sings and dances his way through the tragedies and comedies of a father fighting for tradition in a changing world.
- 1964 --- Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, Republican senator from Arizona, charges that President Lyndon Johnson lied to the American people and that he is committing the United States to war "recklessly." Having previously called the war "McNamara's War," he now described it as "Johnson's War."
- 1969 --- Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants hit his 600th career home run during a game in San Diego.
- 1975 --- Sarah Jane Moore aims a gun at President Gerald Ford as he leaves the Saint Francis Hotel in San Francisco. The attempt on the president's life came only 17 days after another woman had tried to assassinate Ford while he was on his way to give a speech to the California legislature in Sacramento. Moore's attempt was thwarted by a bystander, Oliver Sipple, who instinctively grabbed Moore's arm when she raised the gun. She was able to fire off one shot, but it
failed to find its target. Secret Service agents quickly hustled Ford into a waiting vehicle and sped him to safety.
- 1980 --- Long-standing border disputes and political turmoil in Iran prompt Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to launch an invasion of Iran's oil-producing province of Khuzestan. After initial advances, the Iraqi offense was repulsed. In 1982, Iraq voluntarily withdrew and sought a peace agreement, but the Ayatollah Khomeini renewed fighting.
- 1985 --- It started with an offhand remark made by Bob Dylan during his performance at Live Aid, the massive fundraising concert held at Wembley Stadium, London, and JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, in the early summer of 1985. Dylan said from the stage, "I hope that some of the money...maybe they can just take a little bit of it, maybe...one or two million, maybe...and use it, say, to pay the mortgages on some of the farms and, the farmers here, owe to the banks." Less than one month later, Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John
Mellencamp announced plans for "Farm Aid," a benefit concert for America's farmers held in Champaign, Illinois. As one might have expected of a concert staged to "raise awareness about the loss of family farms and to raise funds to keep farm families on their land," Farm Aid featured a number of performers from the worlds of country, folk and rootsy rock music. There were the three main organizers and the instigator Bob Dylan, for instance, along with Hoyt Axton, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Waylon
Jennings, Loretta Lynn, Joni Mitchell and Charley Pride. But the first Farm Aid, more than any of the annual Farm Aid concerts since, was a bit of a stylistic free-for-all, featuring artists united only by their interest in supporting a good cause. "As soon as I read in the paper that there was gonna be such a thing," Sammy Hagar told MTV's cameras on the day of the show, "I called my manager and said, 'I wanna do it.' And he said, 'It's all country.' I said, 'I don't care. It's America. I wanna do it.' If there was anything more surprising than hearing Hagar perform his hard-rock anthem "I Can't Drive 55" on the same stage that had earlier featured the quiet folk of Arlo Guthrie, it was hearing Lou Reed perform "Walk on The Wild Side" on a stage that had featured John Denver.
- 1993 --- An Amtrak train headed to Miami derails near Mobile, Alabama, killing 47 people. The accident, the deadliest in Amtrak's history, was caused by a negligent towboat operator and foggy conditions.
- 1997 --- The Atlanta Braves won an unprecedented sixth straight division title. The record eclipsed the old mark of five straight set by the New York Yankees (1949-1953) and the Oakland A’s (1971-1975). The Braves failed to reach the World Series, however, for the first time since 1993.
- 1998 --- The U.S. and Russia signed two agreements. One was to privatize Russia's nuclear program and the other was to stop plutonium stockpiles and nuclear scientists from leaving the country.
- Birthdays
- John Houseman
- Dame Christabel Pankhurst
- Paul Muni
- Tommy Lasorda
- King Sunny Ade
- Shari Belafonte Harper
- Debby Boone
- Joan Jett
- Bonnie Hunt
- Debi Kennedy
- Bilbo & Frodo Baggins
- 265th Day of the Year / 100 Remaining
- Autumn Begins @ 7:29pm
- Sunrise:6:58
- Sunset:7:05
- 12 Hours 7 Minutes
- Moon Rise:5:32am
- Moon Set:6:17pm
- Moon Phase:6%
- Full Moon October 8 @ 3:50am
- Full Hunter’s Moon
- Full Blood Moon
- Full Sanguine Moon
This full Moon is often referred to as the Full Hunter’s Moon, Blood Moon, or Sanguine Moon. Many moons ago, Native Americans named this bright moon for obvious reasons. The leaves are falling from trees, the deer are fattened, and it’s time to begin storing up meat for the long winter ahead. Because the fields were traditionally reaped in late September or early October, hunters could easily see fox and other animals that come out to glean from the fallen grains. Probably because of the threat of winter looming close, the Hunter’s Moon is generally accorded with special honor, historically serving as an important feast day in both Western Europe and among many Native American tribes.
- Tides
- High Tide:10:47am/10:38pm
- Low Tide:4;21am/4:40pm
- Rainfall
- This Year:0.18
- Last Year:0.05
- YTD Avg:0.12
- Annual Avg:23.80