Opinion - The Korea Times

THURSDAY, Sept. 17, 2026

642-Arab forces under Amr ibn al-'As conquer Alexandria 1683-Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek is the first to report the existence of bacteria 1787-U.S. Constitution is signed by delegates at the Philadelphia Convention 1862-Battle of Antietam [Battle of Sharpsburg]: Bloodiest day in the American Civil War with 22,000 dead, wounded, or missing in the first major battle on Union soil 1916-World War I flying ace, the Red Baron of the German Luftstreitkräfte, wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France 1940-Adolf Hitler indefinitely postpones Operation Sealion, the planned German invasion of Great Britain 1978-Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin, and Jimmy Carter sign the Camp David Accords, frameworks for peace in the Middle East and between Egypt and Israel

Sep 16, 2026

WEDNESDAY, Sept.16, 2026

1620-The Mayflower departs Plymouth, England, with 102 Pilgrims and about 30 crew for the New World 1795-British capture Cape Town, South Africa, from the Dutch 1810-Priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla rings the church bells in Dolores, Mexico, issuing a call to arms known as the "Grito de Dolores" (Cry of Dolores), calling for the end of Spanish rule. Celebrated today as Mexican Independence Day. 1848-Slavery is abolished in all French territories 1920-The "Wall Street bombing" occurs at 12:01 when a horse-drawn wagon explodes on Wall Street, New York, killing 38 and injuring 143 1963-Federation of Malaysia formed by Malaya, Singapore, British North Borneo (Sabah) and Sarawak 1982-Massacre of over 1,000 Palestinian refugees at Sabra and Shatila begins 1992-900 die in floods in Pakistan 1997-Apple Computer Inc. names co-founder Steve Jobs as interim CEO

Sep 15, 2026

TUESDAY, Sept. 15, 2026

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 and Nicaragua declare their independence from the Spanish Empire 1835-HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin on board, reaches the Galápagos Islands 1916-First use of tanks in warfare, Britain's Mark I "Little Willies" at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, part of the Battle of the Somme 1940-Battle of Britain Day: Royal Air Force repulses a major Luftwaffe attack, losing 29 aircraft to the Germans' 57-61 as the tide begins to turn 1992-George Soros' Quantum Fund begins selling large amounts of pound sterling, helping force the pound out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism the next day and earning him the label "the man who broke the Bank of England" 2012-Japan announces that it will phase out nuclear energy by the 2030s

Sep 14, 2026

MONDAY, Sept. 14, 2026

1936-First prefrontal lobotomy in America performed by Walter Freeman and James W. Watts at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C. 1939-World's first practical helicopter, the VS-300, designed by Igor Sikorsky, takes a short tethered flight in Stratford, Connecticut 1949-India's Constituent Assembly adopts Hindi as an official language, celebrated today as Hindi Day 1956-IBM introduces the RAMAC 305, the first commercial computer with a hard drive featuring magnetic disk storage, which weighs over a ton 1960-Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela form the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) 2020-Astronomers report a possible sign of life on Venus after detecting phosphine in the planet's atmosphere through a telescope 2021-One in 500 Americans has died of COVID-19 as the nation's known death toll reaches 663,913 (Johns Hopkins)

Sep 13, 2026

FRIDAY, Sept. 11, 2026

1297-Battle of Stirling Bridge: Scottish rebel William Wallace defeats the English 1609-An expulsion order is issued against the Moriscos of Valencia, beginning the expulsion of all of Spain's Moriscos (former Muslims and their descendants) 1697-Battle of Zenta: Holy League forces led by Prince Eugene of Savoy defeat an Ottoman army under Mustafa II near Zenta in the Kingdom of Hungary, ending Ottoman control over large parts of Central Europe 1708-Great Northern War: Charles XII of Sweden stops his march to conquer Moscow outside Smolensk, the turning point in the war 1916-First true self-service supermarket, Clarence Saunders' "Piggly Wiggly," opens in Memphis, Tennessee 2001-Passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93 attempt to retake control of their hijacked plane from terrorists, causing the plane to crash in a Pennsylvania field, killing all 44 people on board 2001-Terrorists hijack a passenger plane and crash it into the Pentagon, killing 125 people 2001-Two passenger planes hijacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists crash into New York's World Trade Center towers, causing the collapse o

Sep 10, 2026

THURSDAY, Sept.10, 2026

1776-George Washington asks for a spy, and Nathan Hale volunteers 1813-American naval commander Oliver Hazard Perry defeats the British in the Battle of Lake Erie 1846-Elias Howe takes out a U.S. patent for a lockstitch sewing machine 1924-Leopold and Loeb are found guilty of the murder of Bobby Franks in Chicago in "the crime of the century" 1965-Great Britain performs a nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site in the U.S. 1976-Five Croatian terrorists hijack TWA flight 355 from LaGuardia Airport, New York headed to Chicago, Illinois to advocate Croat independence from Yugoslavia; plane redirected to Paris, France where arrests are made 1977-Hamida Djandoubi, convicted of torture and murder, is the last person to be executed by guillotine in France 2008-The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, described as the biggest scientific experiment in the history of mankind, is powered up in Geneva, Switzerland 2020-California's August Complex wildfire becomes the largest recorded in state history at 471,000 acres (736 square miles)

Sep 9, 2026

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 9, 2026

1000-Battle of Svolder, Baltic Sea: King Olaf on board the Long Serpent is defeated in one of the greatest naval battles of the Viking Age and leaps to his death overboard 1543-Mary Stuart, at nine months old, is crowned Queen of Scots in the central Scottish town of Stirling 1776-Congress officially renames the country as the United States of America (from the United Colonies) 1817-Alexander Twilight, likely the first African American to graduate from a U.S. college, receives a BA degree from Middlebury College 1914-First fully mechanized unit in the British Army is created: the Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade (WWI) 1993-Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization exchange letters of mutual recognition 2015-Queen Elizabeth II becomes Great Britain's longest-reigning monarch at 63 years and seven months, beating the previous record set by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria

Sep 8, 2026

TUESDAY, Sept. 8, 2026

70-Roman army under General Titus completes the siege of Jerusalem by destroying what remained after four months of occupation and plundering 1380-Battle of Kulikovo: Moscow's great monarch Dmitry defeats the Mongols, beginning the decline of the Tatars 1504-Michelangelo's statue of David is unveiled in Florence 1565-First permanent European settlement in the US is founded in St. Augustine, Florida 1664-Dutch surrender colony of New Netherland, including New York, to 300 English soldiers 1941-Siege of Leningrad by German, Finnish, and eventually Spanish troops begins during World War II; battle lasts over 28 months as Soviets repel the invasion; well over a million lives are lost 1970-Black September hijackings begin as three airliners are hijacked and destroyed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine 2022-Queen Elizabeth II dies at Balmoral Castle after ruling for 70 years as the U.K.'s longest-serving monarch; her eldest son inherits the throne as King Charles III

Sep 7, 2026

MONDAY, Sept. 7, 2026

1714-Treaty of Baden is signed by the Holy Roman Empire and France, ending the War of the Spanish Succession; France retains Alsace and Landau, and Austria gains the east bank of the Rhine 1812-Battle of Borodino: Napoleon Bonaparte wins a Pyrrhic victory against Russian General Mikhail Kutuzov in the most ferocious battle of the Napoleonic era; 70,000 are killed 1822-Pedro I, son of King John VI, declares Brazil's independence from Portugal (Independence Day) 1888-Edith Eleanor McLean is the first baby placed in an incubator at State Emigrant Hospital on Ward's Island, New York 1909-Eugene Lefebvre becomes the first pilot to die in an aircraft while test piloting a new French-built Wright biplane at Juvisy 1940-Beginning of the Blitz as the German Luftwaffe bombs London for the first of 57 consecutive nights, losing 41 bombers as the Nazis prepare to invade Britain 2012-Barack Obama accepts the Democratic nomination for U.S. president

Sep 6, 2026

FRIDAY,Sept. 4, 2026

476-Romulus Augustulus, the last Western Roman Emperor, abdicates after forces led by Odoacer invade Rome, the traditional date for the end of the Western Roman Empire 1609-Navigator Henry Hudson is the first European to discover the island of Manhattan [or September 11] 1781-Los Angeles is founded by 44 Spanish-speaking mestizos in the Bahía de las Fumas (Bay of Smokes) 1862-General Lee begins the Maryland Campaign, invading the North with 50,000 Confederate troops (U.S. Civil War) 1957-Governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, calls out the National Guard to prevent nine Black students from entering Little Rock Central High School 1968-Nigerian troops conquer the city of Aba, Biafra, during the Nigerian Civil War 1998-Google is formally incorporated by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University

Sep 3, 2026

Today in History