Historical Events on Monday, 22nd September

22/09/2024

Anura Kumara Dissanayake is elected as the 9th President Of Sri Lanka.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake, commonly referred to by his initials AKD, is a Sri Lankan politician who has served as the tenth president of Sri Lanka since 2024. Dissanayake is the first Sri Lankan president to be elected in a second round of vote counting, and the first not to be a member of the traditional political parties of Sri Lanka. He is also the ninth executive president of Sri Lanka, a constitutional distinction that separates the executive presidency established in 1978 from the earlier non-executive presidency.

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22/09/2013

At least 75 people are killed in a suicide bombing at a Christian church in Peshawar, Pakistan.

On 22 September 2013, a twin suicide bombing took place at All Saints Church in Peshawar, Pakistan, in which 127 people were killed and more than 250 injured. It was the deadliest attack on the Christian minority in the history of Pakistan.

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22/09/2006

Twenty-three people were killed in a maglev train collision in Lathen, Germany.

Maglev is a system of rail transport whose rolling stock is levitated by electromagnets rather than rolled on wheels, eliminating rolling resistance.

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22/09/1995

An E-3B AWACS crashes outside Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska after multiple bird strikes to two of the four engines soon after takeoff; all 24 on board are killed.

The Alaska Boeing E-3 Sentry accident was the September 22, 1995 crash of a United States Air Force Boeing E-3 Sentry airborne early warning aircraft with the loss of all 24 crewmembers on board. The aircraft, serial number 77-0354 with callsign Yukla 27, hit birds on departure from Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska, United States. With the loss of thrust from both of the left engines, the aircraft crashed into a wooded area less than a mile from the end of the runway.

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The Nagerkovil school bombing is carried out by the Sri Lanka Air Force in which at least 34 die, most of them ethnic Tamil schoolchildren.

The Nagarkovil school bombing was an airstrike on 22 September 1995 in which the Sri Lankan Air Force bombed the Nagarkovil Maha Vidyalayam school in Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka, resulting in the death of, by varying accounts, 34-71 Sri Lankan Tamil civilians, primarily schoolchildren, and injuries to many more. Sri Lankan Defense spokesman admitted the incident but claimed that it was a LTTE facility and several of the dead were LTTE cadres. The airstrike took place 12 hours after the Sri Lankan government had imposed a press censorship on war-related events.

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22/09/1993

A barge strikes a railroad bridge near Mobile, Alabama, causing the deadliest train wreck in Amtrak history. Forty-seven passengers are killed.

The Big Bayou Canot rail accident was the derailment of the Amtrak Sunset Limited passenger train on the CSX Transportation Big Bayou Canot Bridge in Mobile County, Alabama near Mobile, Alabama, on September 22, 1993. It was caused by displacement of a span and deformation of the rails when a tow of heavy barges collided with the rail bridge eight minutes earlier. Forty-seven people were killed and 103 more were injured. To date, it is the deadliest train wreck in both Amtrak's history and Alabama's railway history. It is also the worst rail disaster in the United States since the 1958 Newark Bay rail accident, in which 48 people died.

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A Transair Georgian Airlines Tu-154 is shot down by a missile in Sukhumi, Georgia.

From 20 to 23 September 1993, during the Sukhumi massacre, separatists in Sukhumi, Abkhazia blocked Georgian troops' overland supply routes as part of the war in Abkhazia. In response, the Georgian government used Sukhumi Babushara Airport to ferry supplies to troops stationed in Sukhumi. Abkhaz forces attacked the airport in an attempt to further block the supply routes.

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22/09/1991

The Dead Sea Scrolls are made available to the public for the first time.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, in the narrow sense identical with the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period. They were discovered over a period of ten years, between 1946 and 1956, at the Qumran Caves near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the northern shore of the Dead Sea. Dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE, the Dead Sea Scrolls include the oldest surviving manuscripts of entire books later included in the biblical canons, including deuterocanonical manuscripts from late Second Temple Judaism and extrabiblical books. At the same time, they cast new light on the emergence of Christianity and of Rabbinic Judaism. In the wider sense, the Dead Sea Scrolls also include similar findings from elsewhere in the Judaean Desert, of which some are from later centuries. Almost all of the 15,000 scrolls and scroll fragments are held in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum located in Jerusalem.

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22/09/1981

During a military exercise, a Turkish Air Force Northrop F-5 crashes in Babaeski as a result of pilot error, killing one crew member and also 65 soldiers on the ground.

A military exercise, training exercise, maneuver , manoeuvre , or war game is the employment of military resources in training for military operations. Military exercises are conducted to explore the effects of warfare or test tactics and strategies without actual combat. They also ensure the combat readiness of garrisoned or deployable forces prior to deployment from a home base.

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22/09/1980

Iraq invades Iran, sparking the nearly eight year Iran–Iraq War.

The Iraqi invasion of Iran began on 22 September 1980, sparking the Iran–Iraq War, and lasted until 5 December 1980. Ba'athist Iraq believed that Iran would not respond effectively due to internal socio-political turmoil caused by the country's Islamic Revolution one year earlier. However, Iraqi troops faced fierce Iranian resistance, which stalled their advance into western Iran. In two months, the invasion came to a halt after Iraq occupied more than 25,900 square kilometres (10,000 sq mi) of Iranian territory.

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22/09/1979

A bright flash, resembling the detonation of a nuclear weapon, is observed near the Prince Edward Islands. Its cause is never determined.

The Vela incident was an atmospheric nuclear explosion that occurred on 22 September 1979, near the South African territory of Prince Edward Islands in the Indian Ocean, roughly midway between Africa and Antarctica. This explosion is widely believed to have been an undeclared test of an Israeli nuclear weapon on the ocean surface, carried out with assistance from South Africa. Initially detected as a double flash of light by an American Vela Hotel satellite, further meteorological satellite, hydroacoustic, and radionuclide data support the event's identification as an atmospheric nuclear explosion.

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22/09/1976

Red Dye No. 4 is banned by the US Food and Drug Administration after it is discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders of dogs.

Scarlet GN, or C.I. Food Red 2, FD&C Red No. 4, or C.I. 14815 is a red azo dye once used as a food dye. As a food additive, it has the E number E125. It is usually used as a disodium salt.

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22/09/1975

Sara Jane Moore tries to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford, but is foiled by the Secret Service.

Sara Jane Moore was an American accountant and FBI informant who attempted to assassinate U.S. president Gerald Ford in 1975.

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22/09/1966

Twenty-four people are killed when Ansett-ANA Flight 149 crashes in Winton, Queensland, Australia.

Ansett-ANA Flight 149 crashed near Winton in Queensland, Australia on 22 September 1966, killing all on board. The Vickers Viscount aircraft departed from Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia for a 73-minute flight to Longreach. Forty-four minutes after takeoff a fire started in one of the engines. The crew were unable to extinguish the fire or feather the propeller so made an emergency descent with the intention of landing at Winton, a small town along the route. The fire spread to the fuel tank and weakened the wing structure so that a large part of the left wing broke away and the aircraft crashed. All twenty-four occupants were killed. The accident remains the fifth-worst in Australia's civil aviation history.

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22/09/1965

The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 between India and Pakistan over Kashmir ends after the United Nations calls for a ceasefire.

The India–Pakistan war of 1965, also known as the second India–Pakistan war, was an armed conflict between Pakistan and India that took place from August 1965 to September 1965.

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22/09/1960

The Sudanese Republic is renamed Mali after the withdrawal of Senegal from the Mali Federation.

Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the eighth-largest country in Africa and the 23rd largest country in the world, with an area of over 1,240,192 square kilometres (478,841 sq mi).

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22/09/1957

In Haiti, François Duvalier is elected president.

Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country in the Caribbean on the island of Hispaniola in both Caribbean Sea and North Atlantic Ocean, east of Cuba and Jamaica and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western side of the island, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Haiti is the third largest country in the Caribbean by area, and with an estimated population of 11.4 million, it is the most populous Caribbean country. The capital and largest city is Port-au-Prince.

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22/09/1953

The Four Level Interchange, first stack interchange in the world opened in Los Angeles.

The Four Level Interchange is the first stack interchange in the world. Completed in 1949 and fully opened in 1953 at the northern edge of Downtown Los Angeles, California, United States, it connects U.S. Route 101 to State Route 110. In 2006, the interchange was officially renamed in the memory of Los Angeles traffic and weather reporter Bill Keene.

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22/09/1948

Gail Halvorsen officially starts parachuting candy to children as part of the Berlin Airlift.

Colonel Gail Seymour Halvorsen was a senior officer and command pilot in the United States Air Force. He rose to fame for dropping candy to German children during the Berlin Airlift from 1948 to 1949, for which he was nicknamed "Berlin Candy Bomber" or "Uncle Wiggly Wings".

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Israeli-Palestine conflict: The All-Palestine Government is established by the Arab League.

Israel and the Palestinians are engaged in an ongoing military and political conflict about land and self-determination within the former territory of Mandatory Palestine. Key aspects of the conflict have included Palestinian refugees, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the status of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements, borders, security, water rights, the permit regime in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian freedom of movement, and the Palestinian right of return.

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22/09/1941

The Holocaust in Ukraine: On the Jewish New Year Day, the German SS murders 6,000 Jews in Vinnytsia, Ukraine. Those are the survivors of the previous killings that took place a few days earlier in which about 24,000 Jews were executed.

The Holocaust saw the systematic mass murder of Jews in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine, the General Government, the Crimean General Government and some areas which were located to the east of Reichskommissariat Ukraine, in the Transnistria Governorate and Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and the Hertsa region and Carpathian Ruthenia during World War II. The listed areas are currently parts of Ukraine.

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22/09/1939

World War II: A joint German–Soviet military parade in Brest-Litovsk is held to celebrate the successful invasion of Poland.

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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22/09/1934

The Gresford disaster in Wales kills 266 miners and rescuers.

The Gresford disaster occurred on 22 September 1934 at Gresford Colliery, near Wrexham, when an explosion and underground fire killed 261 men. Gresford is one of Britain's worst coal mining disasters: a controversial inquiry into the disaster did not conclusively identify a cause, though evidence suggested that failures in safety procedures and poor mine management were contributory factors. Further public controversy was caused by the decision to seal the colliery's damaged sections permanently, meaning that the bodies of only eight of the miners were ever recovered. Two of the three rescue men who died were brought out leaving the third body in situ until recovery operations began the following year.

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22/09/1919

The steel strike of 1919, led by the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, begins in Pennsylvania before spreading across the United States.

The Great Steel Strike of 1919 was an attempt by the American Federation of Labor to organize United States Steel, the leading company in the American steel industry. The AFL formed a coalition of 24 unions, all of which had grown rapidly during World War I. In the lead role would be the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers (AA) with a five-member steering committee. The strike began on September 22, 1919, and finally collapsed on January 8, 1920. The opposition led by Elbert H. Gary, president of U.S. Steel had triumphed.

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22/09/1914

A German submarine sinks three British cruisers over a seventy-minute period, killing almost 1,500 sailors.

The Action of 22 September 1914 was an attack by the German U-boat U-9 that took place during the First World War. Three obsolete Royal Navy cruisers of the 7th Cruiser Squadron manned mainly by Royal Naval Reserve part-timers and sometimes referred to as the Live Bait Squadron, were sunk by U-9 while patrolling the southern North Sea.

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22/09/1910

The Duke of York's Picture House opens in Brighton, now the oldest continually operating cinema in Britain.

The Duke of York's Picture House is an art house cinema in Brighton, England, which lays claim to being the oldest cinema in continuous use in Britain. According to cinema historian Allen Eyles, the cinema "deserves to be named Britain's oldest cinema".

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22/09/1896

Queen Victoria surpasses her grandfather King George III as the longest reigning monarch in British history (later surpassed by her great-great-granddaughter Elizabeth II on 9 September 2015).

Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days, which was longer than those of any of her predecessors, constituted the Victorian era, a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. In 1876, the British parliament voted to grant her the additional title of Empress of India.

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22/09/1892

A locomotive shunting falls into a hole in the ground, leading to the burial of the locomotive.

The Lindal railway incident happened on Thursday 22 September 1892 near Lindal-in-Furness, a village lying between the Cumbria towns of Ulverston and Dalton-in-Furness. A Furness Railway D1 locomotive, No.115, was shunting in sidings when it disappeared into the ground after a large, deep hole opened up beneath it. The D1 was never recovered and still lies buried beneath the railway, though the depth remains a source of speculation.

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22/09/1891

The first hydropower plant of Finland is commissioned along the Tammerkoski rapids in Tampere, Pirkanmaa.

Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower. Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and also more than nuclear power. Hydropower can provide large amounts of low-carbon electricity on demand, making it a key element for creating secure and clean electricity supply systems. A hydroelectric power station that has a dam and reservoir is a flexible source, since the amount of electricity produced can be increased or decreased in seconds or minutes in response to varying electricity demand. Once a hydroelectric complex is constructed, it produces no direct waste, and almost always emits considerably less greenhouse gas than fossil fuel-powered energy plants. However, when constructed in lowland rainforest areas, where part of the forest is inundated, substantial amounts of greenhouse gases may be emitted.

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22/09/1885

Lord Randolph Churchill makes a speech in Ulster in opposition to the Irish Home Rule movement.

Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill was a British aristocrat and politician. He was a Tory radical who coined the term "Tory democracy" and participated in the creation of the "National Union of the Conservative Party".

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22/09/1866

The Battle of Curupayty is Paraguay's only significant victory in the Paraguayan War.

The Battle of Curupayty was a key battle in the Paraguayan War. On the morning on 22 September 1866, the joint force of Brazilian, Argentine, and Uruguayan armies attacked Paraguayan fortified trenches on Curupayty. The Paraguayans were led by general José Eduvigis Díaz. This position was held by 5,000 men and 49 cannons, some of them in hidden places out of the attackers view. The Imperial Brazilian Navy gave support to the 20,000 assailants, but the ships had to keep some distance from the guns at the fortress of Humaitá, which led to the lack of accuracy and impact of the ship's fire. The navy's failure was crucial at the later ground battle result.

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22/09/1862

A preliminary version of the Emancipation Proclamation is released by Abraham Lincoln.

The Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States president Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War. The Proclamation changed the legal status of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the secessionist Confederate states from enslaved to free. As soon as slaves escaped the control of their enslavers, either by fleeing to Union lines or through the advance of federal troops, they were permanently free. In addition, the Proclamation allowed for former slaves to "be received into the armed service of the United States". The Emancipation Proclamation played a significant part in the end of slavery in the United States.

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22/09/1857

The Russian warship Lefort capsizes and sinks during a storm in the Gulf of Finland, killing all 826 aboard.

Lefort was an Imperatritsa Aleksandra–class ship of the line of the Imperial Russian Navy, rated at 84 guns but actually armed with 94 guns. Her keel was laid in 1833 at Saint Petersburg and she was launched 9 August [O.S. 28 July] 1835 in the presence of Nicholas I. She was named after Admiral Franz Lefort, the head of the Russian Navy from 1695 to 1696.

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22/09/1823

Joseph Smith claims to have found the golden plates after being directed by God through the Angel Moroni to the place where they were buried.

Joseph Smith Jr. was an American religious and political leader and the founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. Publishing the Book of Mormon at the age of 24, Smith attracted tens of thousands of followers by the time of his death fourteen years later. The religious movement he founded is followed by millions of global adherents and several churches, the largest of which is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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22/09/1792

Primidi Vendémiaire of year one of the French Republican Calendar as the French First Republic comes into being.

Vendémiaire was the first month in the French Republican calendar. The month was named after the Occitan word vendemiaire 'grape harvester'.

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22/09/1789

The office of United States Postmaster General is established.

The United States postmaster general (PMG) is the chief executive officer of the United States Postal Service (USPS). The PMG is responsible for managing and directing the day-to-day operations of the agency.

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Battle of Rymnik: Alexander Suvorov's Russian and allied army defeats superior Ottoman Empire forces.

The Battle of Rymnik or Rimnik, also Battle of Mărtinești, on September 22 [O.S. September 11] 1789, took place in Wallachia, at the Râmnicul Sărat River, known as the Rymnik, near Râmnicu Sărat or Rymnik during the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792 and the Austro-Turkish War of 1788–1791. The Russian general Alexander Suvorov, acting together with the Habsburg general Prince Josias of Coburg, attacked the main Ottoman army under Grand Vizier Cenaze Hasan Pasha, which was much larger.

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22/09/1776

Nathan Hale is hanged for spying during the American Revolution.

Nathan Hale was an American Patriot, soldier, and spy for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission in New York City but was captured by the British and executed. Hale is considered an American hero and in 1985 was officially designated the state hero of Connecticut.

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22/09/1761

George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz are crowned King and Queen, respectively, of the Kingdom of Great Britain.

George III was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Great Britain and Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with George as its king. He was concurrently duke and prince-elector of Hanover in the Holy Roman Empire before becoming King of Hanover on 12 October 1814. He was the first monarch of the House of Hanover who was born in Great Britain, spoke English as his first language, and never visited Hanover.

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22/09/1711

The first attacks of the Tuscarora War begin in present-day North Carolina.

The Tuscarora War was fought in North Carolina from September 10, 1711, until February 11, 1715, between the Tuscarora people and their allies on one side and European American settlers, the Yamasee, and other allies on the other. This was considered the bloodiest colonial war in North Carolina. The Tuscarora signed a treaty with colonial officials in 1718 and settled on a reserved tract of land in Bertie County, North Carolina. The war incited further conflict on the part of the Tuscarora and led to changes in the slave trade of North and South Carolina.

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22/09/1692

Martha Corey, Mary Eastey, Alice Parker, Mary Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmot Redd, Margaret Scott, and Samuel Wardwell are hanged, the last of those to be executed in the Salem witch trials.

Martha Corey was accused and convicted of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials, on September 9, 1692, and was hanged on September 22, 1692. Her second husband, Giles Corey, was also accused and killed.

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22/09/1586

Eighty Years' War: A Spanish force led by the Marquis del Vasto successfully fights its way past a joint English/Dutch ambush in the Battle of Zutphen.

The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish government. The causes of the war included the Reformation, centralisation, excessive taxation, and the rights and privileges of the Dutch nobility and cities.

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22/09/1499

The Treaty of Basel concludes the Swabian War.

The Treaty of Basel of 22 September 1499 was an armistice following the Battle of Dornach, concluding the Swabian War, fought between the Swabian League and the Old Swiss Confederacy.

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22/09/1359

An Aragonese cavalry force defeats a superior Castilian cavalry force in the Battle of Araviana during the War of the Two Peters.

The Battle of Araviana was a cavalry action fought during the War of the Two Peters on 22 September 1359. Eight hundred Aragonese horse, many of them Castilian exiles in service of the Crown of Aragon under Henry of Trastámara, had launched a cavalgada in Castilian territory when, near the Castilian town of Ágreda, confronted and routed a Castilian force under Juan Fernández de Henestrosa set to guard the frontier. Numerous Castilian noblemen and knights were killed, including Henestrosa, while many other were captured.

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22/09/1236

The Samogitians defeat the Livonian Brothers of the Sword in the Battle of Saule.

The Battle of Saule was fought on 22 September 1236, between the Livonian Brothers of the Sword and pagan troops of Samogitians and Semigallians. Between 48 and 60 knights were killed, including the Livonian Master, Volkwin. It was the earliest large-scale defeat suffered by the orders in Baltic lands. The Sword-Brothers, the first Catholic military order established in the Baltic lands, was soundly defeated, and its remnants accepted incorporation into the Teutonic Order in 1237. The battle inspired rebellions among the Curonians, Semigallians, Selonians, and Oeselians, tribes previously conquered by the Sword-Brothers. Some thirty years' worth of conquests on the left bank of Daugava were reversed. To commemorate the battle, in 2000, the Lithuanian and Latvian parliaments declared 22 September to be the Baltic Unity Day.

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22/09/0904

The warlord Zhu Quanzhong kills Emperor Zhaozong, the penultimate emperor of the Tang dynasty, after seizing control of the imperial government.

Emperor Taizu of Later Liang (後梁太祖), personal name Zhu Quanzhong (朱全忠), né Zhu Wen (朱溫), name later changed to Zhu Huang (朱晃), nickname Zhu San, was a Chinese military general, monarch, and politician. He was a Jiedushi and warlord who in 907 overthrew the Tang dynasty and established the Later Liang dynasty, ruling as its first emperor, ushering in the era of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. The last two Tang emperors, Emperor Zhaozong of Tang and Emperor Ai of Tang, who "ruled" as his puppets from 903 to 907, were both murdered by him.

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