This Day In History: September 16, 1498 During Tomas de Torquemada’s watch as Spain’s Grand Inquisitor, he was responsible for the deaths of at least 2,000 suspected nonbelievers. As such, it’s pretty safe to say there wasn’t a lot of weeping among certain segments of the Spanish community when Torquemada died on September 16, 1498. Born in 1420, Tomas de Torquemada […]

This Day In History: September 15, 1853 “Women are needed in the pulpit as imperatively and for the same reason that they are needed in the world—because they are women.” – Antoinette Blackwell Antoinette Brown Blackwell, reformer, author, and women’s rights activist was ordained as a Congregationalist minister on September 15, 1853. Blackwell is recognized as the first woman to […]

This Day In History: September 14, 1982 “I would like to be remembered as a decent human being, and a caring one”- Princess Grace Before Princess Diana came along, the world’s favorite princess was Princess Grace of Monaco, the beautiful movie actress who married the handsome Prince Rainier III of Monaco. She left Hollywood for his picturesque principality on the […]

This Day In History: September 11, 1599 “There is a fixed and pale composure upon the features; she seems sad and stricken down in spirit, yet the despair thus expressed is lightened by the patience of gentleness … The lips have that permanent meaning of imagination and sensibility which her suffering has not repressed … Her eyes, which we are […]

This Day In History: September 10, 1940 “I am glad we have been bombed. It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face” – Queen Elizabeth In September of 1940, Londoners were in the midst of a Nazi bombardment that became forever known as the Blitz. On September 10, an air raid completely destroyed the Royal […]

This Day In History: September 9, 1776 “Monday September 9, 1776. Resolved, that in all Continental Commissions, and other Instruments where heretofore the Words, ‘United Colonies,’ have been used, the Stile be altered for the future to the United States.” If you want to get all technical about it, today is the birthday of the “United States.” The country may […]

This Day In History: September 8, 1560 When Amy Robsart and Robert Dudley married in 1550, it was a love match, or “a carnal marriage, begun for pleasure” as Baron William Cecil described it. But there had always been another woman in his life, Queen Elizabeth I, who he’d known since childhood. They were both imprisoned in the Tower at […]

This Day In History: September 7, 1813 On September 7, 1813, the Troy Post in New York published an article on the War of 1812 that contained an early reference to “Uncle Sam” as the personification of the United States of America: “Loss upon loss, and no ill luck stir[r]ing but what lights upon Uncle Sam‘s* shoulders, exclaim the Government […]

This Day In History: September 4, 1957 On September 4, 1957, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus ordered the National Guard to block the entry of nine black students from Central High School in Little Rock. Faubus was acting in direct defiance of a Supreme Court order, in what author Taylor Branch calls “the most severe test of the Constitution since the […]

This Day In History: September 3, 1752 “It is pleasant for an old man to be able to go to bed on September 2, and not have to get up until September 14.” – Ben Franklin Over six million people living in Britain and the American colonies went to sleep on September 2, 1752, but awoke on September 14. This […]

This Day In History: September 2, 1973 Author, poet, philologist, scholar, and professor, J. R. R. Tolkien is often lauded as the father of the modern fantasy novel. Ranked sixth on a list of top post-WWII British writers, he was also the fifth top-earning dead celebrity in 2009 according to Forbes magazine. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on January […]

This Day In History: September 1, 1836 Americans Narcissa Whitman and her husband, Marcus (a physician) in 1836 headed west with another couple, missionaries Henry and Eliza Spalding, on their way to Oregon. The foursome made the grueling trip with a caravan of fur traders for most of the journey for protection. Along the way, Narcissa and Eliza became the […]

This Day In History: August 31, 1888 Just before 4 am on August 31, 1888, on London’s seedy Buck’s Row, a cart driver named Charles Cross saw the body of a woman lying on the ground. In the early morning gloom, it was initially impossible to tell if she was drunk or dead. Cross was soon joined by another carter, […]

This Day In History: August 28, 1968 “If you’re coming to Chicago, be sure to wear some armor in your hair.” – The Chicago Seed – alternative newspaper On August 28, 1968, growing opposition to the war in Vietnam came to a head inside and outside the International Amphitheatre in Chicago. The Democratic National Convention in 1968 was one of […]

This Day In History: August 27, 1990 Dallas, Texas, native Stevie Ray Vaughan grew up inspired to play guitar by his older brother Jimmie Vaughan (of the Fabulous Thunderbirds) and went the usual garage band route of most aspiring young musicians. He formed the band Double Trouble from the ashes of an earlier band in 1978, taking on both lead […]

This Day In History: August 25, 1212 In certain regions of the world, the Middles Ages was a time of religious fervor, portents, visions and the unbridled zeal to abolish the Infidel by any means possible. All of these factors came together to inspire the Crusades – pilgrimages made by good Christian men to the Holy Land to free it […]

This Day In History: August 24, 1981 On August 24, 1981, Mark David Chapman was sentenced to 20-years-to-life in prison for the murder of John Lennon. Chapman shot the legendary musician four times outside his New York City home, the Dakota, on December 8, 1980. After procuring an autograph from the ex-Beatle earlier in the day, pictured right, (“a very […]

This Day In History: August 21, 1831 Nat Turner was born a slave on October 2, 1800 in Southampton County Virginia. He was deeply devotedly to his Christian faith and believed God spoke to him through visions and signs. One sign compelled him to return to his master after an escape attempt, another inspired the insurrection that would leave hundreds […]