September 15
1775 - An early and unofficial American flag was raised by Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Mott after the seizing of Fort Johnson from the British. The flag was dark blue with the white word "Liberty" spelled on it.
1776 - British forces occupied New York City during the American Revolution.
1789 - The U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs was renamed the Department of State.
1821 - Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador proclaimed independence.
1853 - Reverend Antoinette Brown Blackwell was ordained becoming first female minister in the United States.
1857 - Timothy Alder earned a patent for the typesetting machine.
1858 - The first mail service begins to the Pacific Coast of the U.S. under government contract. Coaches from the Butterfield Overland Mail Company took 12 days to make the journey between Tipton, MO and San Francisco, CA.
1883 - The University of Texas at Austin opened.
1909 - A New York judge rule that Ford Motor Company had infringed on George Seldon's patent for the "Road Engine." The ruling was later overturned.
1909 - Charles F. Kettering applied for a patent on his ignition system. His company Delco (Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company) later became a subsidiary of General Motors.
1916 - During the Battle of the Somme, in France, tanks were first used in warfare when the British rolled them onto the battlefields.
1917 - Alexander Kerensky proclaimed Russia to be a republic.
1923 - Oklahoma was placed under martial law by Gov. John Calloway Walton due to terrorist activity by the Ku Klux Klan. After this declaration national newspapers began to expose the Klan and its criminal activities.
1928 - Alexander Fleming discovered the antibiotic penicillin in the mold Penicillium notatum.
1935 - The Nuremberg Laws were enacted by Nazi Germany. The act stripped all German Jews of their civil rights and the swastika was made the official symbol of Nazi Germany.
1940 - The German Luftwaffe suffered the loss of 185 planes in the Battle of Britain. The change in tide forced Hitler to abandon his plans for invading Britain.
1949 - "The Lone Ranger" premiered on ABC. Clayton Moore was the Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels was Tonto.
1950 - U.N. forces landed at Inchon, Korea in an attempt to relieve South Korean forces and recapture Seoul.
1953 - The National Boxing Association adopted the 10-point scoring system for all of its matches.
1955 - Betty Robbins became the first woman cantor.
1959 - Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev arrived in the U.S. to begin a 13-day visit.
1961 - The U.S. resumed underground testing of nuclear weapons.
1965 - "Lost in Space" premiered on CBS TV.
1965 - "Green Acres" premiered on CBS TV.
1971 - Greenpeace was founded.
1978 - Muhammad Ali defeated Leon Spinks to win his 3rd World Heavyweight Boxing title.
1982 - The first issue of "USA Today" was published.
1983 - The U.S. Senate joined the U.S. House of Representatives in their condemning of the Soviet Union for shooting down a Korean jet with 269 people onboard.
1990 - France announced that it would send an additional 4,000 soldiers to the Persian Gulf. They also expelled Iraqi military attaches in Paris.
1993 - The FBI announced a new national campaign concerning the crime of carjacking.
1994 - U.S. President Clinton told Haiti's military leaders "Your time is up. Leave now or we will force you from power."
1995 - The U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing.
1997 - The domain name "google.com" was registered.
1998 - Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the Iranian military to be on full alert and massed troops on its border with Afghanistan.
1998 - It was announced that 5.9 million people read The Starr Report on the Internet. 606,000 people read the White House defense of U.S. President Clinton.
1999 - The United Nations approved the deployment of a multinational peacekeeping force in East Timor.
2003 - In Independence, MO, the birthplace of Ginger Rogers was designated a local landmark. The move by the Independence City Council qualified the home for historic preservation.
2012 - Legoland Malaysia opened in Nusajaya, Johor, Malaysia.
