Here are 50 newsworthy anniversaries in September 2012 for you to write about (and earn money from). The anniversaries are listed 6 months in advance to give you enough time for research and writing.
The list presented here is just a fraction of that contained in The Date-A-Base Book 2012. There are more than 180 anniversaries for this month in the book, which also covers the whole of 2012.
The Date-A-Base Book 2013 (Part 1: Jan-June) is also available if you need to work further ahead. (Part 2 will be available at the end of this month.)
We have painstakingly cross-checked every entry, but you are advised to check all facts again as part of your research. Please let us know of any errors you find.
200 years ago (19 Sep 1812)
Death of Meyer Amschel Rothschild, German banker, founder of the Rothschild international banking dynasty
150 years ago (11 Sep 1862)
Birth of O. Henry, American short story writer, known for his twist endings
150 years ago (13-15 Sep 1862)
American Civil War – the Battle of Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Confederate victory. General ‘Stonewall’ Jackson’s troops captured the town and took more than 12,500 prisoners – the largest Union surrender of the war
150 years ago (17 Sep 1862)
American Civil War – the Battle of Antietam (also called the Battle of Sharpsburg), Maryland. The bloodiest single day of the war with over 26,000 casualties
150 years ago (22 Sep 1862)
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, ordering the freeing of slaves in the Confederate-held territories from 1st January 1863
150 years ago (27 Sep 1862)
Birth of Louis Botha, first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa (1910-19)
100 years ago (5 Sep 1912)
Birth of John Cage, American avant-garde composer
100 years ago (5 Sep 1912)
Birth of Kristina Söderbaum, Swedish-born German film and television actress and photographer
100 years ago (7 Sep 1912)
Birth of David Packard, American electrical engineer and businessman, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard
100 years ago (21 Sep 1912)
Birth of Chuck Jones, American cartoon animator and director (Looney Tunes, Merrie Melodies)
100 years ago (23 Sep 1912)
The first Keystone Cops film ‘Cohen Collects a Debt’ was released, produced by Mack Sennett
100 years ago (28 Sep 1912)
American bandleader and composer W.C. Handy published his highly influential song ‘The Memphis Blues’, considered by some to be the first ever blues song, and certainly the one that introduced blues into the mainstream market and popularised it
90 years ago (13 Sep 1922)
The highest temperature ever recorded in the world: 57.7°C (136°F) in Al ‘Aziziyah, Libya
80 years ago (23 Sep 1932)
Saudi Arabia was founded when the Kingdom of Hejaz and Najd was unified
75 years ago (2 Sep 1937)
Death of Pierre de Coubertin, French educator and historian, father of the modern Olympics, founding member and president of the International Olympic Committee
75 years ago (14 Sep 1937)
Death of Tomáš Masaryk, founder and first President of Czechoslovakia (1918-35)
75 years ago (21 Sep 1937)
J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic children’s novel ‘The Hobbit’ was published
60 years ago (1 Sep 1952)
Ernest Hemingway’s novella ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ was published
60 years ago (6 Sep 1952)
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) launched its first television broadcasts
60 years ago (6 Sep 1952)
Death of Gertrude Lawrence, British stage actress and singer, best known for comedies and musicals
60 years ago (22 Sep 1952)
Death of Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg, first President of Finland (1919-25)
60 years ago (25 Sep 1952)
Birth of Christopher Reeve, American stage, film and TV actor, best known for his role as ‘Superman’. (Died 2004)
60 years ago (30 Sep 1952)
Birth of Jack Wild, Academy Award-winning British stage and film actor and singer, best known as the Artful Dodger in ‘Oliver!’ (Died 2006)
50 years ago (1 Sep 1962)
Channel Television launched in the Channel Islands, UK
50 years ago (3 Sep 1962)
Death of E.E. Cummings, American poet and artist
50 years ago (12 Sep 1962)
U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave his second famous Moon speech: ‘We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.’ (See also 25th May 1961)
50 years ago (23 Sep 1962)
The first episode of the animated TV series ‘The Jetsons’ was broadcast
50 years ago (26 Sep 1962)
Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) was established
50 years ago (26 Sep 1962)
The first episode of the TV series ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ was broadcast in the USA. (UK: 1st February 1963)
50 years ago (29 Sep 1962)
Canada’s first satellite, Alouette 1, was launched
50 years ago (30 Sep 1962)
The National Farm Workers Association (now the United Farm Workers of America) was founded in Fresno, California by César Chávez
40 years ago (5 Sep 1972)
Palestinian terrorists invaded the Olympic Village in Munich, Germany during the 20th Olympic Games and took 11 members of the Israeli team hostage. All the hostages were killed, as well as 5 of the 8 terrorists and a German police officer, when a rescue attempt failed
40 years ago (11 Sep 1972)
The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system began operating in San Francisco, California, USA
40 years ago (14 Sep 1972)
The first episode of the family drama series ‘The Waltons’ was broadcast on CBS TV in the USA
40 years ago (15 Sep 1972)
Death of Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury (1945-61)
40 years ago (16 Sep 1972)
The first episode of ‘The Bob Newhart Show’ was broadcast in the USA
40 years ago (17 Sep 1972)
The first episode of the TV comedy series ‘M*A*S*H’ was broadcast in the USA. (UK: 20th May 1973)
30 years ago (5 Sep 1982)
Death of Sir Douglas Bader, British RAF fighter pilot during WWII. He returned to flying despite losing both his legs
30 years ago (14 Sep 1982)
Death of Princess Grace of Monaco, formerly the Academy Award-winning American film and television actress Grace Kelly. (Car crash)
30 years ago (15 Sep 1982)
The first issue of the newspaper ‘USA Today’ was published
30 years ago (30 Sep 1982)
The TV comedy series ‘Cheers’ was first broadcast in the USA. (UK: 4th February 1983)
25 years ago (5 Sep 1987)
Death of Quinn Martin, American TV producer (‘The Untouchables’, ‘The Fugitive’, ‘Cannon’, ‘The Streets of San Francisco’, and others)
25 years ago (11 Sep 1987)
Death of Lorne Greene, Canadian broadcaster and actor (‘Bonanza’, ‘Battlestar Galactica’, and others)
25 years ago (11 Sep 1987)
Death of Peter Tosh, Jamaican reggae singer, songwriter and musician, a founding member of The Wailers with Bob Marley
25 years ago (22 Sep 1987)
Death of Dan Rowan, American comedian, best known for the TV show ‘Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In’
25 years ago (25 Sep 1987)
Death of Emlyn Williams, Welsh playwright and actor (‘Night Must Fall’, ‘A Murder Has Been Arranged’, ‘The Corn Is Green’, and others)
20 years ago (12 Sep 1992)
Death of Anthony Perkins, American stage and film actor and singer, best known for his role as Norman Bates in the Hitchcock thriller ‘Psycho’
20 years ago (16 Sep 1992)
Black Wednesday sterling crisis. Britain crashed out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), raised interest rates from 10% to 15%, and spent billions of pounds buying up sterling that was being frantically disposed of on international financial markets
10 years ago (18 Sep 2002)
The body of British schoolgirl Amanda (‘Milly’) Dowler was found in Yateley Heath, Hampshire. She had been missing since March
10 years ago (24 Sep 2002)
British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that Iraq had an arsenal of chemical and biological weapons capable of being activated in 45 minutes, and was attempting to acquire nuclear weapons
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You’ll find lots more anniversaries in
The Date-A-Base Book 2012, which covers the whole of 2012 and lists over 2,250 newsworthy and notable anniversaries – more than three times as many entries each month as we feature here in the blog. You’ll find out about hundreds of fascinating anniversaries that other writers don’t know about – giving you a huge advantage!
The Date-A-Base Book 2012 is a terrific source of ideas for writers, journalists, film-makers, editors, researchers, producers, teachers, students, speakers and event planners.
Click here for more details
(You’ll also be able to download the complete chapter for January 2012)
The Date-A-Base Book 2013 (Part 1: Jan-June) is also available. (Part 2 will be available from the end of this month.)
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