Edited daily
American history, reported as it happened
Made for the 250thOn this day › September 15
What happened on September 15 in American history
September 15 is the 258th day of the year (the 259th in leap years). Patriot Compass has published 6 stories from September 15 spanning 1789 to 2008. Among them: in 1789, Washington signs the department into a new name, and a new job description; and in 1950, Marines hit the seawall at Inchon; MacArthur's gamble is underway.
1789Member story · 1776 Club
Washington signs the department into a new name, and a new job description
Beyond diplomacy, the agency now keeps the Great Seal, runs the Mint, and counts the population.
1950
Marines hit the seawall at Inchon; MacArthur's gamble is underway
Seventy-five thousand troops and 261 ships bet on a 29-foot tide the North Koreans thought made this coast unassailable.
1959Member story · 1776 Club
Khrushchev steps onto American ground; no Soviet leader had ever done it before
He heads straight to the White House to meet Eisenhower the same afternoon.
1962Member story · 1776 Club
A Soviet freighter slips toward Cuba, cargo hidden under secrecy
The Poltava sails as part of a Soviet operation already four months underway to arm Cuba with nuclear missiles.
1963
A bomb tears through a Birmingham Sunday school; four girls are dead
The blast hit minutes after an anonymous caller warned the church secretary: three minutes.
2008
Lehman Brothers collapses into bankruptcy; $600 billion in assets, no buyer, no rescue
A weekend of failed talks with Barclays and Bank of America ends with the largest corporate bankruptcy filing ever recorded.
Read the full September 15 edition →
← September 14 · Every date · September 16 →