On September 21, 480 BC, Greeks defeated Persian forces in the massive naval battle of Salamis.
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At Salamis
Category: Today
On September 20, 2011, the United States military ended its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly for the first time. Instituted during the presidency of Bill Clinton, the policy had been issued under Department of Defense Directive 1304.26 on December 21, 1993, going into effect on February 28, 1994.
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First U.S. budget
On September 19, 1778, the Continental Congress passed the first budget of the United States.
Congress last passed a budget in 1997.
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Capitol Cornerstone
On September 18, 1793, George Washington laid the cornerstone of the Capitol building.
On September 18, 1838, Richard Cobden established the Anti-Corn Law League, which eventually brought free trade to Britain.
On September 17, 1683, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek wrote a letter to the Royal Society describing “animalcules,” later known as protozoa.
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Hong Kong Liberation
On September 16, 1945, the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong came to an end.
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The State Department
September 15, 1789, the United States “Department of Foreign Affairs,” established by law in July, was renamed the Department of State and assigned a variety of domestic duties. Thomas Jefferson was the the department’s first secretary.
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Death of a President
On September 14, 1901, U.S. President William McKinley died after suffering eight days from a gunshot wound. Anarchist Leon Czolgosz, the shooter, was executed on October 29 of that year. McKinley’s successor was his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt, sworn in on the day of McKinley’s death, September Fourteenth.
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Calvin Returned
John Calvin returned to Geneva on September 13, 1541, after three years of exile. His subsequent work in church reform and theology became known as Calvinism, and profoundly influenced the course of European and (eventually) American culture, including several concepts of servitude and liberty.
On the same date in 1989, Desmond Tutu led South Africa’s largest march aganst Apartheid.
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Switzerland
On September 12, 1848, Switzerland — known by endonyms Schweizerische Eidgenoßenschaft (German), Confédération suisse (French), Confederazione Svizzera (Italian), Confederaziun svizra (Romansh), Confoederatio helvetica (Latin) — became a unified federal state with a constitution limiting central government powers and providing decentralized state (canton) power patterned on the U.S. Constitution.