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“The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.”
~ Wilhelm Stekel
Wikiquote (Wilhelm Stekel (March 18, 1868 – June 25, 1940) an Austrian physician and psychologist, who became one of Sigmund Freud's earliest followers, and was once described as "Freud's most distinguished pupil.".)
September 17th, 456
Roman Empire:
Severus II is captured and imprisoned a Tres Tabernae. He is later executed (or forced to commit suicide) after Emperor Galerius unsuccessfully invades Italy.
Wikipedia Image: Relief from a 3rd-century sarcophagus depicting a battle between Romans and Germanic warriors; the central figure is perhaps the emperor Hostilian / Depiction of the Menorah on the Arch of Titus in Rome.
● Martyrs Receiving Crowns. Mosaic. Basilica of San Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna. 6th century representation of martyrs dressed as Roman senators.
September 17th, 1462
Thirteen Years' War: Battle of Świecino; is fought.
Wikipedia Painting: Jan Długosz, sent by King Casimir IV Jagiellon of Poland on diplomatic missions to the Papal and Imperial courts, and was involved in the King's negotiations with the Teutonic Knights during the Thirteen Years' War (1454–66) and at the peace negotiations.
September 17th, 1630
Boston, Massachusetts is founded.
Wikipedia Painting / Photo: Massachusetts Founded In 1630 by Puritan settlers / Boston, Massachusetts
September 17th, 1631
Thirty Years' War:
1631 - Battle of Breitenfeld; Sweden wins a major victory against the Holy Roman Empire.
Wikipedia Painting: Battle of Breitenfeld (1631), The victory of Gustavus Adolphus; Bautzen circa 1620, by Matthäus Merian; Battle of Lützen by Carl Wahlbom shows the death of King Gustavus Adolphus on 16 November 1632; Bautzen 1620, by Matthäus Merian; Peace of Westphalia, Ratification of the Peace of Münster.
September 17th, 1775
American Revolutionary War:
1775 - Invasion of Canada; Siege of Fort St. Jean is fought.
Wikipedia Paintings: Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Leutz; Battle of the Chesapeake, French (left) and British (right) lines; Battle of Bunker Hill, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill by John Trumbull; The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 13, 1782, by John Singleton Copley; Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown, 1781; "The surrender at Saratoga" shows General Daniel Morgan in front of a French de Vallière 4-pounder; Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown by (John Trumbull, 1797).
● Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec, by John Trumbull, 1786
September 17th, 1776
Presidio of San Francisco is founded in New Spain.
Wikipedia Photo: San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge / Alamo Square Victorian houses
September 17th, 1778
Treaty of Fort Pitt: first formal treaty between the United States and a Native American tribe (the Lenape or Delaware Indians).
Wikipedia Painting: William Penn's 1682 treaty with the Lenni Lenape, by Benjamin West 1771
September 17th, 1787
United States Constitution is signed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Wikipedia Painting: Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States, by Howard Chandler Christy
September 17th, 1814
Francis Scott Key finishes his poem "Defence of Fort McHenry", later to be the lyrics of "The Star-Spangled Banner".
Wikipedia Painting: Francis Scott Key The Star Spangled Banner
September 17th, 1862
American Civil War:
1862 - Battle of Antietam; Union General George B. McClellan halts the northward drive of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, the bloodiest day in American history.
1862 - Allegheny Arsenal explosion results in the single largest civilian disaster during the war.
Wikipedia Image: ● Lincoln Memorial; an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln - located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. across from the Washington Monument.
● The northern army led by George McClellan and the southern army led by Robert E. Lee met at Antietam Creek, Maryland in September, 1862. It was a bloody battle where 13,000 Confederates and 12,000 Union troops died in just one day. McClellan had hesitated to attack before the battle thus letting the southern troops regroup. Also, he had saved reserves and refused to use them at the end of the battle thinking that Lee was holding reserves for a counterattack, even though those reserves didn't exist. The Union victory stopped Lee's northward advance and was a turning point in the war.
● Battle of Antietam / Stone Bridge at Antietam Battlefield - Sharpsburg, Maryland
● First Battle Between Ironclads: CSS Virginia/Merrimac (left) vs. USS Monitor, in 1862 at the Battle of Hampton Roads.
● Although photography was still in its infancy, war correspondents produced thousands of images, bringing the harsh realities of the frontlines to those on the home front in a new and visceral way. The Atlantic.
September 17th, 1894
First Sino-Japanese War: Battle of the Yalu River; largest naval engagement of the war.
Wikipedia Painting: Battle of the Yau was one of the first modern navy battle between ironclad ships armed with quick fire guns and torpedoes.
September 17th, 1900
Philippine-American War:
1900 - Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat Americans under Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham at Mabitac.
Wikipedia Image: Philippine-American War; 17th U.S. Infantry boarding a train for the front in the Philippines; Lt. Colonel Theodore Roosevelt on 1 July 1898. he is pictured along with his fellow 'Rough Riders'; Photographs of dead Filipino soldiers lying in trenches were often taken by U. S. soldiers and journalists and included in commemorative albums (F. Tennyson Neely, Fighting in the Philippines: A Photographic Record of the Philippine-American War (London, 1899); Sonnichsen, quoted in Russell Roth, Muddy Glory: America’s “Indian Wars” in the Philippines, 1899-1935 (West Hanover, MA, 1981); Soldiers of the Philippine Republic (From Leon Wolff, Little Brown Brother: How the United States Purchased and Pacified the Philippines (Garden City, NY, 1961)), photographs after p. 49); Satellite image of Philippines, NASA.
September 17th, 1916
World War I: 1916 - Manfred von Richthofen ("The Red Baron"), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France.
Wikipedia Painting: Manfred von Richthofen
September 17th, 1920
American Professional Football Association (later renamed National Football League) is organized in Canton, Ohio.
Wikipedia Photo: In an era where an incomplete pass resulted in a 15-yard penalty, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School showcased the potential of the pass. (Library of Congress) ● Jim Thorpe (far right) stands with teammates from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School football team in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he was named an All-American football player in 1911 and 1912. In 1920, he became the first president of the American Professional Football Association, now known as the National Football League. Credit Associated Press / Hansi Lo Wang, Amanda Steen. Carlisle Indian School Football, 1920, additional source: Smithsonian.
September 17th, 1928
1928 - Okeechobee Hurricane strikes southeastern Florida, killing upwards of 2,500 people.
It is the third deadliest natural disaster in United States history, behind the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
Wikipedia Image: Hurricane Andrew sequence, NASA ● Hurricane Mitch at peak intensity (formed October 22, 1998 - Dissipated November 5, 1998) ● Hurricane Katrina taken on August 28, 2005, at 11:45 AM EDT by NOAA when the storm was a Category Five hurricane ● Hurricane Jeanne September 23, 2004, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ● PDC Global Hazards Atlas displaying 3 hour precipitation accumulation, typhoon Evan (04P), with JTWC positions, segments, and winds...over the South Pacific Ocean ● Satellite imagery provided by NOAA and taken by the Japan Meteorological Agency's MTSAT weather satellite shows Typhoon Roke as it approaches Japan, September 20, 2011. Over 1.3 million ordered to evacuate in Japan ahead of Typhoon Roke.
September 17th, 1939
World War II:
1939 - Invasion of Poland; the Soviet Union joins Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland.
1939 - German U-boat U 29 sinks the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous.
1940 - Following the German defeat in the Battle of Britain, Hitler postpones Operation Sea Lion indefinitely.
1944 - Waves of paratroopers land in the Netherlands during Operation Market Garden in September 1944
Wikipedia Photo: Bombing of Dresden in World War II; August Schreitmüller's sculpture 'Goodness' surveys Dresden after a firestorm started by Allied bombers in 1945.
USS Bunker Hill was hit by kamikazes piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa and another airman on 11 May 1945. 389 personnel were killed or missing from a crew of 2,600; Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, who flew his aircraft into the USS Bunker Hill during a Kamikaze mission on 11 May 1945; Kamikaze Missions - Lt Yoshinori Yamaguchi's Yokosuka D4Y3 (Type 33 Suisei) "Judy" in a suicide dive against USS Essex. The dive brakes are extended and the non-self-sealing port wing tank is trailing fuel vapor and/or smoke 25 November 1944.
German V1 flying-bomb and V2 Rockets - Preparations for a Salvo Launch of V-2 Rockets in the Heidelager near Blizna (Poland) (1944), credit German History in Documents and Images GHDI.
The Royal Castle in Warsaw on fire after being shelled by the Germans.
September 17th, 1941
World War II: Eastern Front (World War II);
1941 - Great Patriotic War; a decree of the Soviet State Committee of Defense, restoring Vsevobuch in the face of the Great Patriotic War, is issued.
1943 - Russian city of Bryansk is liberated from Nazis.
Wikipedia Photo: Germans race towards Stalingrad. August 1942; Soviet children during a German air raid in the first days of the war, June 1941, by RIA Novosti archive; Soviet sniper Roza Shanina in 1944. About 400,000 Soviet women served in front-line duty units Caucasus Mountains, winter 1942/43; Finnish ski patrol: the invisible enemy of the Soviet Army with an unlimited supply of skis; Men of the German Engineers Corps cross a river which is swollen after the first autumn rains, to strengthen bridges linking the German positions on the central front in Russia. by Keystone / Getty Images. October 1942; Russian snipers fighting on the Leningrad front during a blizzard. Photo by Hulton Archive / Getty Images, 1943; German soldiers surrendering to the Russians in Stalingrad, the soldier holding the white flag of surrender is dressed in white so that there could be no doubt of his intentions, a Russian soldier is on the right of the photograph. by Keystone / Getty Images, January 1943.
September 17th, 1961
Civic Arena opens in Pittsburgh, the world's first retractable-dome stadium.
Wikipedia Photo: Pittsburgh Civic Arena
September 17th, 1976
The first Space Shuttle Enterprise is unveiled by NASA.
Wikipedia Photo: President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan, dwarfed by the space shuttle Enterprise, wave to an enthusiastic crowd. by Roger Ressmeyer / CORBIS
September 17th, 1991
The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) is released to the Internet.
Wikipedia Photo: Linux - free and open source software
September 17th, 1993
Last Russian troops leave Poland.
Wikipedia Image: Lithuania (Republic of Lithuania) is a country in Northern Europe, the largest of the three Baltic states. ● Trakai Island Castle Photo: ● Hill of Crosses (more than 50,000 crosses, not a cemetery) ● Vilnius ● Battle of Grunwald and Vytautas the Great in the centre.
September 17th, 2001
New York Stock Exchange reopens for trading after the September 11 attacks, the longest closure since the Great Depression.
Wikipedia Photo: September 11 Attacks: From top to bottom: the World Trade Center burning; Trinity Cathedral; Statue of Liberty; a section of the Pentagon collapses; 9/11 memorial service.
September 17th, 2006
Fourpeaked Mountain in Alaska erupts, marking the first eruption for the long-dormant volcano in at least 10,000 years.
Wikipedia Photo: Fumaroles escape from Fourpeaked volcano through a fissure in Fourpeaked Glacier on 24 September 2006
September 17th, 2016
Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
2016 - New York and New Jersey bombings; Two bombs explode in Seaside Park, New Jersey, and Manhattan, New York 31 people are injured in the Manhattan bombing.
Wikipedia Photo: Middle East satellite image, NASA. ● Camels are seen early morning on a beach in the Marina area of Dubai October 16, 2008. (Steve Crisp, Reuters) ● A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad burns during clashes between rebels and Syrian troops in Selehattin, near Aleppo, on July 23, 2012. (Bulent Kilic, AFP / GettyImages) ● Egyptians gather in their thousands in Tahrir Square to mark the one year anniversary of the revolution on Jan. 25, 2012 in Cairo Egypt. Tens of thousands have gathered in the square on the first anniversary of the Arab uprising which toppled President Hosni Mubarak. (Jeff J Mitchell, Getty Images) ● Black smoke rises above the Tehran skyline as supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi burn tires and other material in the streets as they fight running battles with police to protest the declared results of the Iranian presidential election in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 13, 2009. (Ben Curtis, AP) ● The Iron Dome defense system fires to interecpt incoming missiles from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov, AP)