Historical Events on Wednesday, 10th September

10/09/2025

American right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk is assassinated while onstage at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

Conservatism in the United States is a right-leaning and right-wing tradition of a variety of ideologies that collectively has rivaled the liberal and progressive U.S. political traditions. Since the early 20th century, the American conservative tradition has generally been identified with the Republican Party, as opposed to the predominantly modern social-liberal orientation of its rival, the Democratic Party. Traditional American conservatism is characterized by a belief in individualism, traditionalism, capitalism, republicanism, and limited federal governmental power in relation to U.S. states. However, developments since 2010 have shifted it towards right-wing populist and national-conservative themes, owing in a large part to Trumpism.

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10/09/2024

Polaris Dawn, the first private crewed spaceflight to involve a spacewalk, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Polaris Dawn was a private crewed spaceflight operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 CEO Jared Isaacman, the first of three planned missions in the Polaris program. Launched September 10, 2024, as the 14th crewed orbital flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, Isaacman and his crew of three — Scott Poteet, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon — flew in an elliptic orbit that took them 1,400 kilometers away from Earth, the farthest anyone had been since NASA's Apollo program and the farthest anyone has been without leaving low Earth orbit. They passed through parts of the Van Allen radiation belt to study the health effects of space radiation and spaceflight on the human body. Later in the mission, the crew performed the first commercial spacewalk.

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10/09/2017

Hurricane Irma makes landfall on Cudjoe Key, Florida as a Category 4, after causing catastrophic damage throughout the Caribbean. Irma resulted in 134 deaths and $77.2 billion (2017 USD) in damage.

Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful and devastating tropical cyclone that caused extensive damage and multiple deaths across the Antilles and Eastern United States in September 2017. Irma was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record, though it was followed by Hurricane Maria, which struck the region at Category 5 intensity as well two weeks later. At the time, Irma was considered the most powerful hurricane on record in the open Atlantic region, outside of the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, until it was surpassed by Hurricane Dorian two years later. It was also the third-strongest Atlantic hurricane at landfall ever recorded, just behind the 1935 Labor Day hurricane, Hurricane Melissa, and Dorian.

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10/09/2008

The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, described as the biggest scientific experiment in history, is powered up in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008, in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists, and hundreds of universities and laboratories across more than 100 countries. It lies in a tunnel 27 kilometres (17 mi) in circumference and as deep as 175 metres (574 ft) beneath the France–Switzerland border near Geneva.

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10/09/2007

Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif returns to Pakistan after seven years in exile, following a military coup in October 1999.

Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif is a Pakistani politician and businessman who served as the prime minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms, first serving from 1990 to 1993, then from 1997 to 1999 and later from 2013 to 2017. He is the longest-serving prime minister in the country's history, having served a total of more than 9 years across three tenures, with each term ending in his ousting.

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10/09/2002

Switzerland, traditionally a neutral country, becomes a full member of the United Nations.

The foreign relations of Switzerland are the primary responsibility of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). Some international relations of Switzerland are handled by other departments of the federal administration of Switzerland.

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10/09/2001

Antônio da Costa Santos, mayor of Campinas, Brazil is assassinated.

Antônio da Costa Santos was a Brazilian architect and politician of the Workers' Party (PT).

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During his appearance on the British TV game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, contestant Charles Ingram reaches the £1 million top prize, but it was later revealed that he had cheated to the top prize by listening to coughs from his wife and another contestant.

Charles William Ingram is a British fraudster and a former major in the British Army who gained fame for his appearance on the ITV television game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Across two episodes recorded in September 2001, Ingram correctly answered 15 questions to win the show's maximum prize of £1 million, becoming the third recorded contestant ever to do so; however, he was denied the winnings due to suspicion of cheating.

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10/09/2000

Operation Barras successfully frees six British soldiers held captive for over two weeks and contributes to the end of the Sierra Leone Civil War.

Operation Barras was a British Army operation that took place in Sierra Leone on 10 September 2000, during the late stages of the Sierra Leone Civil War. The operation aimed to release six British soldiers of the Royal Irish Regiment and their Sierra Leone Army (SLA) liaison officer, who were being held by a militia group known as the "West Side Boys". The soldiers were part of a patrol that was returning from a visit to Jordanian peacekeepers attached to the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) at Masiaka on 25 August 2000 when they turned off the main road and down a track towards the village of Magbeni. There the patrol of twelve men was overwhelmed by a large number of heavily armed rebels, taken prisoner, and transported to Gberi Bana on the opposite side of Rokel Creek.

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10/09/1977

Hamida Djandoubi, convicted of torture and murder, is the last person to be executed by guillotine in France.

Hamida Djandoubi was a Tunisian criminal who was executed by guillotine in France after having been convicted of the kidnapping, torture and murder of Élisabeth Bousquet, a 21-year-old woman whom he had forced into prostitution. Djandoubi was the last person to be lawfully executed by beheading anywhere in the Western world.

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10/09/1976

A British Airways Hawker Siddeley Trident and an Inex-Adria DC-9 collide near Zagreb, Yugoslavia, killing 176.

The 1976 Zagreb mid-air collision was a mid-air collision that took place on September 10, 1976, when British Airways Flight 476 en route from London to Istanbul, collided mid-air with Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 550 en route from Split, SFR Yugoslavia, to Cologne, West Germany, near Zagreb in modern-day Croatia. The collision was the result of a procedural error on the part of air traffic controllers in Zagreb.

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10/09/1974

Guinea-Bissau gains independence from Portugal.

Guinea-Bissau, officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, is a country in West Africa that covers 36,125 square kilometres (13,948 sq mi) with an estimated population of 2,080,000. It borders Senegal to its north and Guinea to its southeast.

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10/09/1967

The people of Gibraltar vote to remain a British dependency rather than becoming part of Spain.

The Gibraltar sovereignty referendum of 1967 was held on 10 September 1967, in which Gibraltarian citizens were asked whether they wished to pass under Spanish sovereignty, with Gibraltarians keeping their British citizenship and a special status for Gibraltar within Spain; or remain under British sovereignty, with its own self-governing institutions.

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10/09/1961

In the Italian Grand Prix, a crash causes the death of German Formula One driver Wolfgang von Trips and 15 spectators who are hit by his Ferrari, the deadliest accident in F1 history.

The 1961 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 10 September 1961 at Monza. It was race 7 of 8 in both the 1961 World Championship of Drivers and the 1961 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers.

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10/09/1960

At the Summer Olympics in Rome, Abebe Bikila becomes the first sub-Saharan African to win a gold medal, winning the marathon in bare feet.

Shambel Abebe Bikila was an Ethiopian marathon runner who was a back-to-back Olympic marathon champion. He was the first Ethiopian Olympic gold medalist, winning his first gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome while running barefoot. At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, he won his second gold medal, making him the first athlete to successfully defend an Olympic marathon title. In both victories, he ran in world record time.

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10/09/1943

World War II: In the course of Operation Achse, German troops begin their occupation of Rome.

Operation Achse, originally called Operation Alaric, was the German operation to forcibly disarm the Italian armed forces after Italy's armistice with the Allies on 3 September 1943.

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10/09/1942

World War II: The British Army carries out an amphibious landing on Madagascar to re-launch Allied offensive operations in the Madagascar Campaign.

The Battle of Madagascar was an Allied campaign to capture the Vichy French−controlled island Madagascar during World War II. The seizure of the island by the British was to deny Madagascar's ports to the Imperial Japanese Navy and to prevent the loss or impairment of the Allied shipping routes to India, Australia and Southeast Asia. It began with Operation Ironclad, the seizure of the port of Diego-Suarez near the northern tip of the island, on 5 May 1942.

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10/09/1939

World War II: The submarine HMS Oxley is mistakenly sunk by the submarine HMS Triton near Norway and becomes the Royal Navy's first loss of a submarine in the war.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

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World War II: The Canadian declaration of war on Germany receives royal assent.

A declaration of war by Canada against Germany was made by order-in-council signed by George VI, King of Canada, on 10 September 1939, seven days after the United Kingdom and France had also entered a state of war with the Nazi regime. The royal proclamation of the Canadian declaration was published in the Canada Gazette.

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10/09/1937

Nine nations attend the Nyon Conference to address international piracy in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Nyon Conference was a diplomatic conference held in Nyon, Switzerland, in September 1937 to address attacks on international shipping in the Mediterranean Sea during the Spanish Civil War. The conference was convened in part because Italy had been carrying out unrestricted submarine warfare, although the final conference agreement did not accuse Italy directly; instead, the attacks were referred to as "piracy" by an unidentified body. Italy was not officially at war, nor did any submarine identify itself. The conference was designed to strengthen non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War. The United Kingdom and France led the conference, which was also attended by Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Romania, Turkey, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

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10/09/1936

The first world individual Speedway World Championship was held at London's Wembley Stadium.

The World Championship of Speedway is an international competition between the highest-ranked motorcycle speedway riders of the world, run under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). The first official championships were held in 1936.

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10/09/1932

The New York City Subway's third competing subway system, the municipally owned IND, is opened.

The Independent Subway System was a rapid transit rail system in New York City that is now part of the New York City Subway. It was first constructed as the Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan in 1932. It was originally also known as the Independent City-Owned Subway System (ICOSS) or the Independent City-Owned Rapid Transit Railroad (ICORTR).

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10/09/1919

The Republic of German-Austria signs the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, ceding significant territories to Italy, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia.

The Republic of German-Austria, commonly known as German-Austria, was an unrecognised state that was created following World War I as an initial rump state for areas with a predominantly German-speaking and ethnic German population within what had been the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with plans for eventual unification with Germany. The territories covered an area of 118,311 km2 (45,680 sq mi), with 10.4 million inhabitants.

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10/09/1918

Russian Civil War: The Red Army captures Kazan.

The Russian Civil War was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire, lasting from 1917 to 1922, sparked by the overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. It resulted in the formation of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and later the Soviet Union in most of its territory. Its finale marked the end of the Russian Revolution, which was one of the key events of the 20th century.

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10/09/1898

Empress Elisabeth of Austria is assassinated by Luigi Lucheni.

Elisabeth, nicknamed Sisi, was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary from her marriage to Franz Joseph I on 24 April 1854 until her assassination in 1898.

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10/09/1897

Lattimer massacre: A sheriff's posse kills 19 unarmed striking immigrant miners in Lattimer, Pennsylvania, United States.

The Lattimer massacre was the killing of at least 19 unarmed striking immigrant anthracite miners by a Luzerne County sheriff's posse at the Lattimer mine near Hazleton, Pennsylvania, United States, on September 10, 1897. The miners were mostly of Polish, Slovak, Lithuanian and German ethnicities. Scores more miners were wounded in the attack by the posse. The massacre was a turning point in the history of the United Mine Workers (UMW).

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10/09/1858

George Mary Searle discovers the asteroid 55 Pandora.

George Mary Searle was an American astronomer and Catholic priest.

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10/09/1846

Elias Howe is granted a patent for the sewing machine.

Elias Howe Jr. was an American inventor best known for his creation of the modern lockstitch sewing machine.

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10/09/1813

The United States defeats a British Fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812.

The Battle of Lake Erie, also known as the Battle of Put-in-Bay, was fought on 10 September 1813, on Lake Erie off the shores of Ohio during the War of 1812. Nine vessels of the United States Navy defeated and captured six vessels of the British Royal Navy. This ensured American control of the lake for the rest of the war, which in turn allowed the Americans to recover Detroit, Michigan and win the Battle of the Thames to break the Indian confederation of Tecumseh. It was one of the largest naval battles of the War of 1812.

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10/09/1798

At the Battle of St. George's Caye, British Honduras defeats Spain.

The Battle of St. George's Caye was a military engagement that lasted from 3 to 10 September 1798, off the coast of British Honduras. However, the name is typically reserved for the final battle that occurred on 10 September in which the Spanish were defeated. The events of 10 September 1798 marked the final Spanish attempt to take over the area. In Belize, the Battle of St. George's Caye is a national public and bank holiday.

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10/09/1776

American Revolutionary War: Nathan Hale volunteers to spy for the Continental Army.

The American Revolutionary War, also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which American Patriot forces organized as the Continental Army and commanded by George Washington defeated the British Army. The conflict was fought in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. The war's outcome seemed uncertain for most of the war, but Washington and the Continental Army's decisive victory in the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 led King George III and the Kingdom of Great Britain to negotiate an end to the war. In 1783, in the Treaty of Paris, the British monarchy acknowledged the independence of the Thirteen Colonies, leading to the establishment of the United States as an independent and sovereign nation.

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10/09/1724

Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of Jesu, der du meine Seele, BWV 78, a chorale cantata based on a passion hymn by Johann Rist.

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the orchestral Brandenburg Concertos; solo instrumental works such as the Cello Suites and Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schübler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and choral works such as the St. Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. He is known for his mastery of counterpoint, as heard in The Musical Offering and The Art of Fugue. Felix Mendelssohn precipitated the Bach Revival with a performance of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829. Ever since, Bach has been acclaimed as one of the greatest composers of classical music.

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10/09/1640

Reapers' War: Junta de Braços (Assembly of Estates) of the Principality of Catalonia summoned. It assumes the sovereignty and enacts a series of revolutionary measures which will lead to the Catalan Republic.

The Reapers' War, also known as the Catalan Revolt or Catalan Revolution, was a conflict that affected the Principality of Catalonia between 1640 and 1659, in the context of the Franco-Spanish War of 1635–1659. Incited by an unrest among the Catalan peasantry and institutions, as well as French diplomatic movements, the war resulted in the establishment of the short-lived Catalan Republic and the subsequent clash of Spanish and French armies on Catalan soil for over a decade.

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10/09/1622

Fifty-five Christians are executed in Nagasaki during the Great Genna Martyrdom.

Nagasaki , officially Nagasaki City , is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.

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10/09/1608

John Smith is elected council president of Jamestown, Virginia.

John Smith was an English soldier, explorer, admiral of New England, and author. He was knighted for his services to Sigismund Báthory, Prince of Transylvania, and his friend Mózes Székely. Following his return to England from a life as a soldier of fortune and as a slave, he played an important role in the establishment of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in North America, in the early 17th century. He was a leader of the Virginia Colony between September 1608 and August 1609, and he led an exploration along the rivers of Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay, during which he became the first English explorer to map the Chesapeake Bay area. Later, he explored and mapped the coast of New England.

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10/09/1607

Edward Maria Wingfield is ousted as first president of the governing council of the Colony of Virginia; he is replaced by John Ratcliffe.

Edward Maria Wingfield (1550–1631) was a soldier, Member of Parliament (1593), and English colonist in America. He was the son of Thomas Maria Wingfield, and the grandson of Richard Wingfield.

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10/09/1573

German pirate Klein Henszlein and 33 of his crew are beheaded in Hamburg.

Klein Henszlein [Klaus Hanslein] was a German pirate active from 1560 to 1573 who raided shipping in the North Sea until his defeat and capture by a fleet from Hamburg. Taken back to Hamburg, Henszlein and his men were paraded through the city streets before being beheaded on September 10, 1573; their heads were then impaled on stakes. In a later account, the executioner described how he "flicked off" the heads of the thirty-three pirates in only 45 minutes, then proceeding to behead the bodies of those pirates killed during their capture. He later claimed to have been "standing in blood so deep that it well nigh in his shoes did creep".

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10/09/1570

Spanish Jesuit missionaries land in present-day Virginia to establish the short-lived Ajacán Mission.

The Ajacán Mission was a Spanish attempt in 1570 to establish a Jesuit mission in the vicinity of the Virginia Peninsula to show Christianity to the Virginia Native Americans. The effort to found St. Mary's Mission predated the founding of the English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, by about 36 years. In February 1571, the entire party was massacred by natives, except for Alonso de Olmos. The following year, a Spanish party from Florida went to the area, rescued Alonso, and killed several native Americans in retaliation.

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10/09/1561

Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima: Takeda Shingen defeats Uesugi Kenshin in the climax of their ongoing conflicts.

The Battles of Kawanakajima were a series of battles fought in the Sengoku period of Japan between Takeda Shingen of Kai Province and Uesugi Kenshin of Echigo Province from 1553 to 1564. Shingen and Kenshin contested each other for control of the plain of Kawanakajima between the Sai River and Chikuma River in northern Shinano Province, located in the present-day city of Nagano. The battles were triggered after Shingen conquered Shinano, expelling Ogasawara Nagatoki and Murakami Yoshikiyo, who subsequently turned to Kenshin for help.

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10/09/1547

The Battle of Pinkie, the last full-scale military confrontation between England and Scotland, resulting in a decisive victory for the forces of Edward VI.

The Battle of Pinkie, also known as the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, took place on 10 September 1547 on the banks of the River Esk near Musselburgh, Scotland. The last pitched battle between Scotland and England before the Union of the Crowns, it was part of the conflict known as the Rough Wooing. It was a catastrophic defeat for Scotland, where it became known as "Black Saturday". A highly detailed and illustrated English account of the battle and campaign authored by an eyewitness William Patten was published in London as propaganda four months after the battle.

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10/09/1515

Thomas Wolsey is invested as a Cardinal.

Thomas Wolsey was an English statesman and Catholic cardinal. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling figure in virtually all matters of state. He also held important ecclesiastical appointments. These included the Archbishop of York—the second most important role in the English church—and that of papal legate. His appointment as a cardinal by Pope Leo X in 1515 gave him precedence over all other English clergy.

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10/09/1509

An earthquake known as "The Lesser Judgment Day" hits Constantinople.

The 1509 Constantinople earthquake, or historically Kıyamet-i Suğra, occurred in the Sea of Marmara on 10 September 1509 at about 22:00. The earthquake had an estimated magnitude of 7.2 ± 0.3 on the surface-wave magnitude scale. A tsunami and 45 days of aftershocks followed the earthquake. The exact death toll of this earthquake is unknown; estimates range between 1,000 and 13,000.

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10/09/1419

John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy is assassinated by adherents of the Dauphin, the future Charles VII of France.

John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, was assassinated on the bridge at Montereau on 10 September 1419 during a parley with the French Dauphin, by Tanneguy du Chastel and Jean Louvet, the Dauphin's close counsellors.

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10/09/1089

The first synod of pope Urban II starts in Melfi, with seventy bishops and twelve abbots in attendance. The synod issues several decrees about church law and deals with the relation with the Greek part of the Church.

The synod of Melfi was an ecclesiastical synod held in Melfi from 10 to 15 September 1089, convened by pope Urban II. Seventy bishops and twelve abbots attended and the synod dealt with various ecclesiastic topics connected to the reform movement as well the relation with the Greek part of the church.

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10/09/0506

The bishops of Visigothic Gaul meet in the Council of Agde.

The Council of Agde was a regional synod of Western Rite Nicene bishops held in September 506 at Agatha or Agde, on the Mediterranean coast east of Narbonne, in the Septimania region of the Visigothic Kingdom, with the permission of the Visigothic King Alaric II, despite him being an Arian.

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