History: Saratoga, Vergil, Paoli Massacre, Meuse-Argonne, Salem, N.Hale, Octavian, Market Garden, Prestonpans, I.Berlin &More
I have been re-reading the first Jason Bourne novel, and the main character’s amnesia and its near-deadly consequences highlight again the fact that, for either an individual or a society, ignorance of the past inevitably leads to disaster in the present. Below are some of the important births, deaths, and events that happened this month in history.
September 19
1356 - 100Years’ War: The Battle of Poitiers is a major defeat for the French and a victory for the English.
1777 - The Battle of Saratoga begins. It “was a turning point in the Revolutionary War. The American defeat of the superior British army lifted patriot morale, furthered the hope for independence, and helped to secure the foreign support needed to win the war.”
1870 - Siege of Paris begins during the Franco-Prussian War.
1881 - U.S. President James A Garfield dies of complications connected to his being shot by Charles J. Guiteau, making his death an assassination.
1948 - Multi-award-winning British actor Jeremy Irons is born.
September 20
1187 - Muslim leader Saladin begins the siege of Jerusalem.
1777 - Massacre at Paoli:
Over 1800 British Light Infantry (Special Forces) attacked 2000 hardened American Continental soldiers under Gen. “Mad Anthony” Wayne at midnight with bayonets and swords, dispersing them in one of the bloodiest battles of the War of Independence. But, in accomplishing the mission, the Redcoats committed numerous atrocities from murdering soldiers who surrendered, forcing some to stay inside small brush “teepees” at bayonet point while they burned alive, playing gruesome games with repeated bayonet stabbings on wounded men. This so outraged American civilians and soldiers alike that it crystallized American hatred of the British. Remember Paoli was [a war cry] heard repeatedly in later battles.
Two years later, Anthony Wayne led America’s first official Light Infantry unit in a midnight, bayonets only, attack against Stony Point, high on the Hudson Palisade. Wayne was successful. But more importantly, Wayne spared 600 captured British soldiers when all thought him justified to put them to the sword. Wayne took the high ground and no atrocities were committed.
Remember Paoli took on an additional luster for now it meant more than revenge. As Benjamin Rush (Founding Father, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Surgeon General of the Continental Army) said to Anthony Wayne: “You have established the national character of our country. You have taught our enemies that bravery, humanity, and magnanimity are the virtues of the Americans.”
1854 - Crimean War: British, Turkish and French beat the Russians at the Battle of the Alma.
1863 - Jacob Grimm, of the Grimm Brothers (fairy tale collectors), dies.
1870 - Italian troops capture Rome, undercut the pope’s political power, and thus politically unify Italy.
1990 - East and West Germany vote to re-unify.
2001 - President George W. Bush declares a “war on terror.”
September 21
19 BC - Roman poet Publius Vergilius Maro, or Vergil, greatest epic poet of antiquity and author of the Georgics, the Eclogues, and the Aeneid, dies.
1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Catholic Jacobites win a “stunning victory” over the Hanoverian-British at the Battle of Prestonpans in Scotland.
1954 - Shinzo Abe, future Japanese prime minister, is born.
September 22
1554 - Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado dies.
1604 - Dutch Revolt: Siege of Ostend finally ends, as the Spanish conquer the Anglo-Dutch garrison.
1692 - Last executions of the infamous Salem Witch Trials occur.
1776 - American Patriot Nathan Hale is hanged as a spy by the British. Before his brave death, the young Patriot famously said, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”
1862 - Civil War: President Abraham Lincoln issues the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.
1989 - Irving Berlin, American songwriter whose “White Christmas” is the number one selling single in history, dies.
1999 - Talented American actor George C. Scott dies.
September 23
63 BC - Octavian, later the first Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus, is born.
1122 - “Pope Calixtus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V agreed to the Concordat of Worms or the Pactum Calixtinum which temporarily resolved the struggle between the papacy and the Holy Roman Emperors regarding the appointment and power of monks and bishops.”
1215 - Kublai Khan, Mongol leader who united China under his rule, is born.
1779 - Revolutionary War: Scottish-born American seaman John Paul Jones refuses to surrender to a British ship, saying, “I have not yet begun to fight,” and ultimately wins the battle. Read my full piece.
1920 - Iconic US actor Mickey Rooney is born.
September 24
1834 - Portugal’s King Pedro I, first emperor of Brazil, dies.
1877 - Reported date of the Battle of Shiroyama in Japan, ending the Satsuma Rebellion.
1949 - Operation Magic Carpet, in which the Brits and Americans transported some 45,000 Yemeni Jews to Israel, ends.
September 25
1066 - The Anglo-Saxons crush the Vikings at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.
1237 - The Treaty of York is signed, establishing the English-Scottish border that still exists.
1513 - Estimated date on which Spanish explorer Vasco Nuñez de Balboa discovers the Pacific Ocean.
1789 - The U.S. Congress proposes the constitutional amendments now known as the Bill of Rights to the states for ratification.
1944 - WWII: incompetent British Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery’s disastrous Operation Market Garden ends in failure.
1991 - Britain annexes the African Ashanti Empire.
2012 - American singer Andy Williams dies.
September 26
1687 - The Venetians besiege Athens’ Acropolis, permanently damaging the Parthenon.
1815 - Austria, Russia, and Prussia form the Holy Alliance.
1820 - Frontiersman and American legend Daniel Boone dies. “Daniel Boone was an early American frontiersman who gained fame for his hunting and trailblazing expeditions through the Cumberland Gap, a natural pass through the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. Boone achieved folk hero status during his lifetime.”
1898 - American composer and musician George Gershwin is born.
1918 - WWI’s final major offensive, the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, begins.
1940 - WWII: Japanese complete the invasion of Indochina.
1945 - Hungarian composer Béla Bartok dies.
Did I miss any important events? Let me know in the comments.