September 1915

September 16, 1915 (Thursday)

• The United States Senate ratified the Haitian–American Convention which allowed United States to provide security and handle finances in Haiti for the next 10 years.^[64]
• The Fourth State Duma in the Russian Empire was suspended and would not meet again until February 1916.^[65]
• A general election was held in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island with the incumbent Progressive Conservative Party of Prince Edward Island and Premier John Alexander Mathieson re-elected with 17 seats in the Legislative Assembly, although they lost a number of seats to the Prince Edward Island Liberal Party who gained 13.^[66]
• The first
  British Women's Institute meeting was held in Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, Wales.^[67]
• The
  Anchorage, Alaska.^[68]
• The first edition of the UK release of the P. G. Wodehouse novel Something Fresh was published in London by Methuen & Company.^[69]

September 17, 1915 (Friday)

• The German 1st Army was dissolved but would reform the following summer for the Battle of the Somme.^[70]
• French Air Force squadron Escadrille 67 was established.^[71]
• The New Zealand Tunnelling Company of the New Zealand Army was established, the first tunnel warfare unit in the Dominion created to serve in World War I.^[72]
• Born: M. F. Husain, Indian artist, founding member of The Progressive Artists Group of Bombay, in Pandharpur, India (d. 2011)
• Died: Konstantin Makovsky, Russian painter, member of the Peredvizhniki group (b. 1839); Orme, British racehorse, first two-time winner of the Eclipse Stakes (b. 1889)

September 18, 1915 (Saturday)

• The
  Imperial German Army created the army command Army Detachment D for the Eastern Front.^[73]
• The
  Victoria Football League Grand Final.^[74]
• The short story "Extricating Young Gussie" by P. G. Wodehouse was published in The Saturday Evening Post. The story introduced two of the author's two most popular characters, the ingenious valet Jeeves and his master Bertie Wooster.^[75]
• Died: Susan La Flesche Picotte, American physician, first Native American woman to earn a medical degree (b. 1865)

September 19, 1915 (Sunday)

• Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive that had started in May.^[76]
• Greek passenger ship Athinai was carrying 508 people when it caught fire, killing one person and sinking in the Atlantic Ocean. The survivors were rescued by British ships Roumanian Prince and Tuscania.^[77]
• The Austro-Hungarian Army created the army group Böhm-Ermolli to serve on the Eastern Front.
• Comedian W. C. Fields made his film debut in the slapstick comedy Pool Sharks followed up by His Lordship's Dilemma, both filmed in New York City.^[78]
• Born: Dorothy Bridges, American actress and poet, wife to Lloyd Bridges, mother to Beau Bridges and Jeff Bridges, in Worcester, Massachusetts (d. 2009); Blanche Thebom, American opera singer, best known for her collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera, in Monessen, Pennsylvania (d. 2010); Germán Valdés, Mexican comedian, promoted Spanglish as "Tin-Tan", in Mexico City (d. 1973)

September 20, 1915 (Monday)

• Gallipoli campaign – The Royal Newfoundland Regiment landed at Suvla Bay to provide needed support for Allied forces in Gallipoli.^[79]
• St. Joseph Junior College opened in St. Joseph, Missouri as the eighth junior college in the United States. The college became Western Missouri Junior College in 1965, and a state college by 1973. In 2005, the institution was officially established as the Missouri Western State University.^[80]
• The Cecil Plains railway line opened between Oakey and Evanslea, Queensland.^[81]
• Rail stations Hessay, Newby Wiske, and Smardale were closed in England as part of wartime measures.^[82][83][84]
• The futsal club Atlântico was established in Erechim, Brazil.^[85]
• The association football club Del Plata was formed in Buenos Aires, named after the marketplace where many of the founders worked at. The club was prominent in the Argentine Primera División during the 1920s but dissolved in 1947. The club was revived in the mid-1960s but closed for good by the 1990s.^[86]
• Born: Nguyễn Văn Hinh, Vietnamese army officer, chief of staff of the Vietnamese National Army, first Vietnamese officer to be promoted to commanding officer in the French Armed Forces, in Mỹ Tho, Vietnam (d. 2004)

September 21, 1915 (Tuesday)

• British land owner and businessman Cecil Chubb acquired Stonehenge at auction for £6600. He would donate the ancient site and land back to public in 1918.^[87]
• The No. 24 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps was established at Hounslow Heath Aerodrome in London.^[88]
• The Texas Military College was established in Terrell, Texas, providing schooling for junior, senior and junior college students until its closing in 1949. Its building and land was sold to Southwestern Christian College in 1950.^[89]
• The New York City Subway added stations to the BMT Fourth Avenue Line in Brooklyn including 45th Street and 53rd Street.^[90]
• Born: Roy D. Chapin Jr., American business executive, chairman and CEO of the American Motors Corporation from 1967 to 1977, in Grosse Pointe, Michigan (d. 2001)
• Died: Austin Flint II, American physician, known for his research into the function of the liver, son of Austin Flint I (b. 1836)

September 22, 1915 (Wednesday)

• Ross Sea party – British polar ship Aurora, drifting in the ice of the Southern Ocean, caught sight of the Balleny Islands which allowed first officer Joseph Stenhouse to estimate the vessel had traveled over 700 nautical miles (1,300 km) from Cape Evans where most of the expedition was marooned.^[91]
• The Bishop England High School opened in Charleston, South Carolina, enrolling 67 students from grades 7 to 11. The school was named after the first Bishop of Charleston, John England.^[92]
• Born: Arthur Lowe, English actor, best known for the role of Captain Mainwaring in the British television comedy Dad's Army, in Hayfield, England (d. 1982)

September 23, 1915 (Thursday)

• An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 occurred outside of Asmara, Eritrea but damage to property was minor.^[93]
• British cargo ship Chancellor was shelled and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean 86 nautical miles (159 km) southeast of the Fastnet Rock by German submarine SM U-41, but the entire crew survived.^[94]
• The German 11th Army, dissolved only two weeks earlier, was reformed to participate in the Serbian campaign.^[95]
• The Collegiate School was established in Richmond, Virginia.^[96]
• Louisville Collegiate School was established in Louisville, Kentucky as a preparatory school for women entering college, and remained a girls-only school until 1972.^[97]
• Actor Douglas Fairbanks made his leading film debut in the comedy Western film innocently titled The Lamb, directed by Christy Cabanne. Based on the popular 1913 Broadway play The New Henrietta, the drawing room antics of the stage were expanded to include Western genre elements that showcased Fairbanks' physical prowess.^[98]
• Born: Clifford Shull, American physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics for the development of the neutron scattering technique, in Pittsburgh (d. 2001); John C. Sheehan, American chemist, developed the process of synthesizing penicillin, in Battle Creek, Michigan (d. 1992)
• Born:
  Ustashe regime of Yugoslavia during World War II, in Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina (d. 1947, executed); Hans Larive; Dutch naval officer, escapee from the German POW camp Oflag IV-C at Colditz Castle, recipient of the Military Order of William, Order of Orange-Nassau, Bronze Cross, and Distinguished Service Cross, in Singapore (d. 1984
  )

September 24, 1915 (Friday)

• Baralong incidents – German submarine SM U-41 was shelled and sunk in the Western Approaches by Royal Navy ship HMS Wyandra with the loss of 35 of her 37 crew.^[99]
• Born:
  British India (d. 1998
  )

September 25, 1915 (Saturday)

• Third Battle of Artois – The French Tenth Army launched an attack on the German line on the Western Front to complement British attacks at Loos and Champagne, France.^[100]
• Victoria Crosses were awarded posthumously for bravery in the field, with the recipients being Anketell Moutray Read,^[102] Arthur Forbes Gordon Kilby,^[103] and George Peachment.^[104]
• Actions of the Hohenzollern Redoubt – British forces assaulted the Hohenzollern Redoubt, a defensive strong point for the German Sixth Army on the Western Front.^[105]
• Second Battle of Champagne – The French Second and Fourth Armies attacked the German line near Champagne, France, breaking it in four places and capturing 14,000 soldiers and several guns despite heavy casualties.^[106]
• Gallipoli campaign – Field Marshal Herbert Kitchener demanded two British divisions and one French for service in Salonika, Greece, marking the beginning of the end of the campaign on the Turkish peninsula.^[107]
• The No. 25 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps was established at RAF Montrose in Scotland.^[108]
• The New York Subway opened the IND Fulton Street Line along with stations 80th Street, 88th Street, Rockaway Boulevard, 104th Street, 111th Street, and Lefferts Boulevard.^[109]
• The Queensland War Council was established in Queensland, Australia to assist Australian World War I veterans and their families.^[110]
• The Sturt Football Club won their first South Australian National Football League premiership, beating Port Adelaide 6.10 (46) to 4.10 (34) in the SAFL Grand Final.^[111]
• The Subiaco Football Club defeated Perth 3.3 (21) to 2.7 (19) to win their third West Australian Football League premiership.
• The sports club
  GET-ligaen, the premier Norwegian hockey league.^[112]
• Born: Devi Lal, Indian politician, 6th Deputy Prime Minister of India, in Teja Khera, British India (d. 2001); Ernesto Lazzatti, Argentine association football player, midfielder for the Argentina national football team from 1936 to 1937, and the Boca Juniors and Danubio from 1934 to 1948, in Bahía Blanca, Argentina (d. 1988)
• Died: Ernest Deane, Irish rugby player and army medical officer, member of the Ireland national rugby union team in 1909, recipient of the Military Cross (killed at the Battle of Loos) (b. 1887); Johnny Poe, American football player, quarterback for the Princeton Tigers football team 1891 to 1892, and its assistant coach from 1897 to 1909, cousin to Edgar Allan Poe (killed in action at the Battle of Loos) (b. 1874)

September 26, 1915 (Sunday)

• Third Battle of Artois – The French captured the village of Souchez, France, but failed to make headway south-east of Neuville-Saint-Vaast. ^[113]
• Battle of Loos – German forces were able to reinforce their defenses before the British launched a second attack, inflicting 8,000 casualties on 10,000 British soldiers in a four-hour time period.^[114]
• Second Battle of Champagne – The French advanced and closed a 7.5-mile (12.1 km) gap, capturing another 2,000 German soldiers.^[115]
• The opera Mona Lisa, composed by Max von Schillings, premiered at the Stuttgart Opera House in Germany. It is a fictitious story of the subject behind the painting by Leonardo da Vinci, which had been stolen and returned to Paris two years earlier.^[116]
• Born: Frank Brimsek, American hockey player, goaltender for the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks from 1938 to 1950, two-time Stanley Cup champion, in Eveleth, Minnesota (d. 1998)
• Died: Keir Hardie, Scottish politician, Leader of the Labour Party from 1906 to 1908 (b. 1856); Tsuruko Haraguchi, Japanese psychologist, first Japanese woman to receive a Doctor of Philosophy (b. 1886); Ed Cushman, American baseball player, pitcher for the Major League Baseball from 1883 to 1890 for teams including the Philadelphia Athletics (b. 1852)

September 27, 1915 (Monday)

• Italian battleship Benedetto Brin was sunk at Brindisi, Apulia, Italy due to sabotage by Austro-Hungarian forces with the loss of 387 of her 841 crew.^[117]
• The British Royal Family lost one of their own during World War I when Fergus Bowes-Lyon, older brother of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. was killed during fighting on the Hohenzollern Redoubt.^[118] The same day, author Rudyard Kipling's only son John was killed during the Battle of Loos, just weeks after his 18th birthday.^[119]
• British ship HMS Caribbean foundered in the Atlantic Ocean 35 nautical miles (65 km) off Cape Wrath, Sutherland, Scotland with the loss of 15 of her crew. Survivors were rescued by Royal Navy ship HMS Birkenhead along with local trawlers.^[120]
• The High Court of Australia ruled by majority that judicial appointments made by Parliament should be for life.^[121]
• The Australian period war drama The Loyal Rebel, directed by Alfred Rolfe, was released through Australasian Films. The film, set against the Eureka Rebellion of 1854, is now considered lost.^[122]
• At 2:20 p.m., a Santa Fe railroad car carrying 250 barrels of natural gasoline exploded at the passenger terminal in Ardmore, Oklahoma, destroying most of downtown Ardmore and killing 43 people, including Patrolman Charles Smith of the Ardmore Police Department.^[123][124]
• Died: Thompson Capper, British army officer, commander of the 7th Infantry Division during World War I, recipient of the Distinguished Service Order, Order of the Bath, and Order of St Michael and St George (died from wounds sustained during the Battle of Loos) (b. 1863); Richard Garnons Williams, Welsh army officer and rugby player, member of the first Welsh national rugby team in 1881, commanding officer of the Royal Fusiliers in 1885 and 1914 (killed in the Battle of Loos) (b. 1856); Harry Minto, Superintendent of the Oregon State Penitentiary (shot by escaped inmate) (b. 1864);^[125][126] George Thesiger, British army officer, recipient of the Order of St Michael and St George and the Order of the Bath, killed at the Battle of Loos (b. 1868)

September 28, 1915 (Tuesday)

• Battle of Loos – The Allied offensive hit a lull despite British Field Marshal John French suggesting to French General Ferdinand Foch that a power assault could force a gap in the German line. Foch felt the maneuver would be difficult to co-ordinate and that the British First Army was in no position for further attacks, having lost over 20,000 casualties.^[127]
• Second Battle of Champagne – The French nearly break through the German line and capture a key German reserve area behind it.^[128]
• Battle of Es Sinn – British and Indian forces under command of Charles Townshend defeated Ottoman forces at a strategic point in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, setting the Allied forces for siege on Kut in what is now Iraq.^[129]
• The Anglo-French Financial Commission and an American syndicate led by J.P. Morgan & Co. reached a credit agreement for $500 million over five years, at that time the largest single loan in financial history.^[130]
• Born: Ethel Rosenberg, American spy, convicted along with Julius for sharing state secrets with the Soviet Union, in New York City (d. 1953, executed)
• Died:
  Meiji era in Japan (b. 1844
  )

September 29, 1915 (Wednesday)

• A hurricane struck Louisiana, killed 279 people causing $13 million in damages ($239 million us 2005 USD). While New Orleans was hit where 23 residents were killed, the worst was in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana where some 200 residents drowned when levees broke. The town of Ruddock, Louisiana was also destroyed, with 58 residents dead, and became a ghost town. It was the deadliest storm the state experienced until Hurricane Betsy 50 years later.^[131]
• Actions of the Hohenzollern Redoubt – A German attempt to recapture Hohenzollern Redoubt was called off due lack of suitable weaponry.^[132]
• Second Battle of Champagne – German counterattacks recaptured much of the ground lost, forcing French General Joseph Joffre to suspend the offensive until soldiers were resupplied with more ammo.^[128]
• At least 6,000 Ottoman troops were dispatched to break
  Armenian resistance in Urfa, Turkey.^[133]
• The German Eighth Army was formally dissolved, only to have the name renewed three months later by its replacement army.^[134]
• The No. 2 Canadian Overseas Siege Artillery Battery was established on Prince Edward Island to serve the Canadian Expeditionary Force on the Western Front.^[135][136]
• Shinano Railway extended the Ōito Line in the Nagano Prefecture, Japan, with stations Hosono and Ikeda-Matsukawa serving the line.^[137]
• Born: Vincent DeDomenico, American entrepreneur, one of the inventors of Rice-A-Roni and co-founder of the Napa Valley Wine Train, in San Francisco (d. 2007); Oscar Handlin, American historian, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for History for The Uprooted, leading contributor to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, in New York City (d. 2011); Fred Page, Canadian sports executive, president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, vice president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, chairman of the Canadian Junior Hockey League, in Port Arthur, Ontario (d. 1997)

September 30, 1915 (Thursday)

• Serbian Army private Radoje Ljutovac became the first soldier in history to shoot down an enemy aircraft with ground-to-air fire.^{[138][139][140]}
• French destroyer Branlebas struck a mine and sank in the North Sea between Dunkerque, France, and Nieuwpoort, Belgium.^[141]
• Siege of Mora – Captain Ernst von Raben, commander of German defenses in Mora, Kamerun was wounded by an artillery barrage. His second in command, Lieutenant Siegfried Kallmeyer, took over active command while Raben recovered.^[142]
• Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition – After being trapped in ice for close to 10 months, the polar exploration ship Endurance experienced pressure from the surrounding ice in what expedition leader Ernest Shackleton described in his log as "the worst squeeze we had experienced." Within a month, the damage to the hull by the ice would be so great Shackleton would order the ship to be abandoned.^[143]
• The University of British Columbia held its first day of lectures at the old campus of McGill University College in Vancouver, after the university postponed plans to build a new campus at Point Grey due to economic turmoil caused in part by World War I. A total 379 students enrolled in the three faculties: Arts, Applied Science and Agriculture.^[144]
• Born: Lester Maddox, American politician, 75th Governor of Georgia, in Atlanta (d. 2003)
• Died: Heinrich Schneidereit, German weightlifter, gold and bronze medalist at the 1906 Olympic Games (killed in action near Thionville, France) (b. 1884)

References