12 History Lessons + 7 Births & 7 Deaths for September 10, 2025
Today’s History:
- 1608 – John Smith is elected council president of Jamestown, Virginia.
- 1813 – U.S. Navy wins the Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812.
- 1846 – Elias Howe receives a U.S. patent for the sewing machine.
- 1897 – First recorded drunk-driving arrest: London cabbie George Smith is fined after a crash.
- 1897 – Lattimer Massacre: a sheriff’s posse kills 19 striking miners in Pennsylvania.
- 1919 – Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye is signed, dissolving the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s Austrian half.
- 1939 – Canada formally declares war on Germany.
- 1960 – Abebe Bikila wins the Olympic marathon in Rome—barefoot—becoming the first sub-Saharan African Olympic gold medalist.
- 1967 – Gibraltar referendum: voters choose to remain under British sovereignty.
- 2002 – Switzerland becomes a full member state of the United Nations.
- 2008 – CERN circulates the first beam in the Large Hadron Collider.
- 2017 – Hurricane Irma makes U.S. landfalls at Cudjoe Key and Marco Island, Florida.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1937 – Jared Diamond, Pulitzer-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel (88).
- 1945 – José Feliciano, Grammy-winning singer-guitarist (“Feliz Navidad”) (80).
- 1960 – Colin Firth, Oscar-winning actor (The King’s Speech) (65).
- 1958 – Chris Columbus, filmmaker (Home Alone; Harry Potter 1–2) (67).
- 1968 – Guy Ritchie, film director (Snatch; Sherlock Holmes) (57).
- 1963 – Randy Johnson, Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher (62).
- 1982 – Misty Copeland, trailblazing American Ballet Theatre principal (43).
Today’s Deaths:
- 1898 – Empress Elisabeth of Austria (“Sisi”), assassinated in Geneva (60).
- 1935 – Huey P. Long, Louisiana governor and U.S. senator (assassinated) (42).
- 2011 – Cliff Robertson, Oscar-winning actor (Charly) (88).
- 2014 – Richard Kiel, actor who played “Jaws” in James Bond films (74).
- 2014 – Emilio Botín, executive chairman of Banco Santander (79).
- 2015 – Adrian Frutiger, influential Swiss type designer (Univers, Frutiger) (87).
- 2020 – Dame Diana Rigg, actor (The Avengers; Game of Thrones) (82).
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