September 1915

The following events occurred in September 1915:

September 1, 1915 (Wednesday)

• Four Imperial German Navy airships attempted to bomb England, but one was struck by lightning and crashed in flames in the North Sea near Neuwerk, Germany, with the loss of her entire 20-man crew.^[1]
• Siege of Mora – Allied forces brought in larger artillery pieces to bombard the German fort on Mora mountain in the German African colony of Kamerun.^[2]
• No. 19 Squadron, No. 20 Squadron and No. 22 Squadron of the Royal Air Force were established.^[3][4][5]
• Ross Sea party — While marooned from the British polar ship Aurora after it drifted away from the Antarctic in the Southern Ocean, the main party regrouped and used stores from previous expeditions to replenish food, clothing and equipment for the next ten months. Expedition commander Aeneas Mackintosh decided the group would complete their original mission to set up supply depots on the Ross Ice Shelf for the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, one that would result in the longest sledging journey on record.^[6]
• Electronic manufacturer Yokogawa Electric was founded in Tokyo as a research institute specializing in metering before incorporating as a manufacturer in 1920.^[7]
• Born: Bernard Opper, American basketball player, played guard for the Detroit Eagles and the Philadelphia Sphas from 1939 to 1947, in New York City (d. 2000)
• Died: August Stramm, German poet and playwright, one of the first German expressionists in literature, known for poetry collections You and Dripping Blood, killed in action on the Eastern Front (b. 1874); Inoue Kaoru, Japanese statesman, served several cabinet positions with the Meiji government from 1885 to 1898 (b. 1836)

September 2, 1915 (Thursday)

• The British troopship SS Vaderland was hit by a torpedo launched by German submarine UB-14 in the Aegean Sea and beached on the island of Lemnos, with the entire crew surviving. The ship was repaired and returned to service in 1916.^[8]
• Siege of Mora – A French force of 42 men made a second attempt to capture a local village near the Mora German fort in Kamerun that had been helping the defenders, but were again repulsed with seven dead.^[9]
• American actor John Barrymore's fifth film The Incorrigible Dukane was released through Famous Players, and remains the earliest surviving Barrymore film.^[10]
• Born: Meinhardt Raabe, American actor, last surviving cast member of the film The Wizard of Oz with dialogue, played the Munchkin coroner who certified the Wicked Witch of the East was dead, in Watertown, Wisconsin (d. 2010); Alys Faiz, British-Pakistani journalist and poet, feature editor for the Pakistan Times, wife to Faiz Ahmad Faiz, in London (d. 2003)
• Died: Elling Holst, Norwegian children's author, best known for his children book collections Norsk Billedbog for Børn (b. 1849); Geordie Dewar, Scottish association football player, played midfielder for the Blackburn Rovers F.C. from 1889 to 1897 and member of the Scotland national football team 1888-1889 (b. 1867)

September 3, 1915 (Friday)

• The Mexican rebel faction Seditionistas raided the village of Ojo de Agua, Texas, forcing the United States government to deploy calvary and signalmen to protect the Mexican-U.S. border.^[11]
• The P. G. Wodehouse novel Something Fresh is first published as a book in New York City by D. Appleton & Company.^[12]
• Born: Knut Nystedt, Norwegian composer, best known for his choral and organ compositions, in Oslo (d. 2014); Memphis Slim, American blues musician, best known for blues hit "Every Day I Have the Blues", in Memphis (d. 1988)
• Died: Wilbur Dartnell, Australian soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross, killed in German East Africa (d. 1885)

September 4, 1915 (Saturday)

• British submarine HMS E7 was scuttled after being caught in an anti-submarine net in the Dardanelles.^[13]
• Following heavy casualties sustained at the Battle of Scimitar Hill during the Gallipoli Campaign, five depleted British mounted brigades were combined to form the 1st and 2nd Composite Mounted Brigades, which were active four months until dissolved on their return to Egypt.^[14]
• Born: Anselmo Piccoli, Argentine painter, member of the Abstract movement in Argentina, in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina (d. 1992)
• Died: Holmes Conrad, American lawyer, U.S. Solicitor General from 1895 to 1897 (b. 1840)

September 5, 1915 (Sunday)

• The first Zimmerwald Conference was held in the Swiss city for over three days by anti-militarist socialist parties from countries that were originally neutral during World War One.^[15]
• The first baptism was recorded in the Flower Lane Church, established months earlier in Fuzhou, China by Methodist missionary John W. Gowdy.^[16]
• Born: Horst Sindermann, German politician, President of the People's Chamber in East Germany from 1976 to 1989, in Dresden (d. 1990); Raymond Telles, American politician, first Hispanic to serve as a U.S. ambassador and serve as mayor for a major American city, Mayor of El Paso from 1957 to 1961, ambassador to Costa Rica from 1961 to 1967, in El Paso, Texas (d. 2013); Felix Fuentebella, Filipino politician, Governor of Camarines Sur in the Philippines from 1976 to 1986, in Partido, Camarines Sur, Philippines (d. 2000)
• Born: Jack Buetel, American actor, best known for playing Billy the Kid in The Outlaw, in Dallas (d. 1989); Nora Marlowe, American actress, best known for the role of Flossie Brimmer in the TV series The Waltons, in Worcester, Massachusetts (d. 1977); William H. Timbers, American judge, served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1971 to 1994, in Yonkers, New York (d. 1994)
• Born: Florencio Morales Ramos, Puerto Rican singer and composer, known for many folk hits including the patriotic song "Qué Bonita Bandera" (What a Beautiful Flag), in Caguas, Puerto Rico (d. 1989); Allan White, English cricketer, batman for both the Warwickshire and Worcestershire County Cricket Clubs from 1937 to 1949, in Earlsdon, England (d. 1993)

September 6, 1915 (Monday)

• Bulgaria signed alliance treaties with Germany and the Ottoman Empire.^[17]
• Born: Franz Josef Strauss, German politician, Minister President of Bavaria from 1978 to 1988, in Munich (d 1988); Ed Oliver, American golfer, eight-time winner of the PGA Tour, in Wilmington, Delaware (d. 1961)

September 7, 1915 (Tuesday)

• Two Imperial German Army airships raided England. One of the airships bombed Millwall, Deptford, Greenwich, and Woolwich, but crash-landed in Germany short of her base after suffering engine failure on the way home. The other dropped most of her bomb load on greenhouses in Cheshunt before dropping her lone remaining incendiary bomb onto a shop on Fenchurch Street in London.^[18]
• Siege of Mora – British forces launched an attack on the German defensive positions around Mora in Kamerun but were beaten back, with 15 African colonial soldiers and a British officer killed and five German troops wounded.^[19]
• American cartoonist Johnny Gruelle was given a patent for his Raggedy Ann doll.^[20]
• Born: Maria Corti, Italian writer, author of Voci del nord-est and II canto delle sirene, in Milan (d. 2002); Royden G. Derrick, American religious leader, served as general authority for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1989 to 2009, in Salt Lake City (d. 2009)

September 8, 1915 (Wednesday)

• Four German Navy Zeppelins attempt to bomb England. Two suffered engine trouble, while another attacked a benzole plant at Skinningrove, Yorkshire. However, her bombs failed to penetrate the roof of the benzol house or of a neighboring TNT store, and there are no casualties. The fourth reached London, dropping of a 300-kg (661-lb) bomb, the largest yet dropped on Britain, on address No.61 Farringdon Road where it killed 22 people and inflicted the most damage by a single airship or airplane bombing raid throughout all of World War One. The No. 61 was rebuilt in 1917 and called The Zeppelin Building.^[21]
• Pro tennis player Bill Johnston defeated Maurice McLoughlin 1–6, 6–0, 7–5, 10–8 in the final to win the Men's Singles tennis title at the 1915 U.S. National Championships.^[22]
• Born: Frank Cady, American actor, best known as shopkeeper Sam Drucker in the 1960s TV sitcoms Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, and The Beverly Hillbillies, in Susanville, California (d. 2012); Frank Pullen, English businessman, owner of property developer Pullen Estates and the Pullen Shops chain in Great Britain, in London (d. 1992); Yehoshua Bar-Hillel, Austrian-Israeli mathematician and linguist, known for his pioneering work in machine translation and formal linguistics, in Vienna (d. 1975)
• Died: Davide Calandra, Italian sculpture, known for such works as the Monument to Bartolomé Mitre in Buenos Aires (b. 1856)

September 9, 1915 (Thursday)

• The Fourth State Duma, the legislative assembly of the Russian Empire met where elected members associated with the Progressive Bloc pushed for the resignations of all ministers if the Bloc's program of expanded democratic freedoms was not adopted. This led to calls for the Fourth Duma to be suspended.^[23]
• William Foster & Co. of Lincoln in England completed the first prototype military tank, nicknamed "Little Willie".^[24]
• American academic scholars Carter G. Woodson and Jesse E. Moorland established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in Chicago and incorporated it as an official organization in Washington, D.C. on October 2. It was renamed Association for the Study of African American Life and History in 1973. The organization's official mission is "to promote, research, preserve, interpret, and disseminate information about Black life, history, and culture to the global community."^[25]
• Born: Richard B. Sellars, American business executive, chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson from 1970 to 1976, in Worcester, Massachusetts (d. 2010); Gozo Shioda, Japanese martial artist, founder of the Yoshinkan style of aikido, in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan (d. 1994); Arthur Lithgow, American actor, member of the Little Theatre Movement, father to John Lithgow, in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic (d. 2004)
• Died: Albert Spalding, baseball player and sporting goods manufacturer, co-founder of A.G. Spalding and pitcher for the Chicago White Stockings (b. 1850)

September 10, 1915 (Friday)

• Born: Edmond O'Brien, American actor, best known for Oscar-winning role in The Barefoot Contessa, as well as roles in D.O.A. and The Wild Bunch, in New York City (d. 1985); Hasse Ekman, Swedish film director and actor, known for films such as Summer Place Wanted and Girl with Hyacinths, in Stockholm (d. 2004); Viva Leroy Nash, American murderer, oldest death row inmate in the United States, in Salt Lake City (d. 2010)
• Died: Charles Boucher de Boucherville, Canadian politician, third Premier of Quebec (b. 1822); Karl Eugen Guthe, German-American physicist, leading researcher on the properties of electricity, father to Carl E. Guthe (b. 1866); Joseph George Megler, American politician, member and speaker of the Washington House of Representatives from 1889 to 1912 (b. 1838)

September 11, 1915 (Saturday)

• Bulgaria began to mobilize its forces for World War One, which included 469,169 men in 390 battalions.^[26][27]
• The Pennsylvania Railroad began electrified commuter rail service between Paoli and Philadelphia, using overhead AC trolley wires for power. This type of system was later used in long-distance passenger trains between New York City, Washington, D.C., and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.^[28]
• A nitrate fire at Famous Players in New York destroyed several completed but unreleased silent films which were later remade. Films lost included Mary Pickford's Esmerelda and The Foundling and John Barrymore's The Red Widow.
• Born: Raúl Alberto Lastiri, Argentine politician, 39th President of Argentina, in Buenos Aires (d. 1978); Carl Fallberg, American animator, known for his film and TV work for Disney, Hanna-Barbera, and Warner Brothers, in Cleveland, Tennessee (d. 1996); August Deibel, Dutch air force pilot, member of the 2-VLG-V squadron that defended Singapore during World War Two in Fort De Kock, Dutch Indies (d. 1951)
• Died: William Sprague IV, America politician, 27th Governor of Rhode Island (b. 1830); William Cornelius Van Horne, Canadian rail executive, oversaw the major construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, youngest superintendent of Illinois Central Railroad (b. 1843); John McLachlan, New Zealand politician, Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Ashburton from 1893 to 1896 and 1899 to 1908 (b. 1840)

September 12, 1915 (Sunday)

• Belgium fighter pilot Jan Olieslagers forced a German Aviatik C.I while flying a Nieuport 10 named le Demon ("The Demon"), becoming the first Belgian pilot to score an aerial victory.^[29]
• Fearing growing public backlash for bombing civilian targets in London, Chief of the German General Staff General Erich von Falkenhayn issued a statement that restricted German Army airships to bombing London's docks and harbor works.^[30]
• Club El Porvenir was formed in Lanús Partido, Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina as a wrestling club but added association football to the organization in 1918.^[31]
• Born: Billy Daniels, American jazz singer, best known for the hit "That Ole Black Magic", in Jacksonville, Florida (d. 1988); Arthur C. Agan, Jr., American air force officer, commander of the Aerospace Defense Command, recipient of the Legion of Merit, in San Antonio (d. 2004)
• Died: Lyman U. Humphrey, American politician, 11th Governor of Kansas (b. 1844); George Alexander Forsyth, American cavalry officer, commanded the frontier cavalry unit at Battle of Beecher Island in 1868 (b. 1837)

September 13, 1915 (Monday)

• With the arrival of the 2nd Canadian Division in France, a separate Canadian Corps was created.^[32]
• Safford High School was established for senior students in Safford, Arizona.^[33]
• The crime drama Regeneration was released. Directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Rockliffe Fellowes and Anna Q. Nilsson, it was considered first feature-length gangster film based on an actual person (screenwriter Carl Harbaugh and Walsh adapted the story from a memoir My Mamie Rose by Owen Frawley Kildare. The film was considered lost until a copy was discovered in the 1970s, and is now preserved at the Library of Congress.^[34]
• Born: William King Harvey, American intelligence agent, member of the Cuban Project in the early 1960s, in Cleveland (d. 1976); S. Lewis Johnson, American theologian, lead professor at the Dallas Theological Seminary from 1950 to 1972, in Birmingham, Alabama (d. 2004); Heinz-Otto Schultze, German U-Boat commander during World War Two, recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, son of Otto Schultze. in Kiel, Germany (d. 1943, died in sinking of U-849)
• Died: Andrew L. Harris, American politician, 44th Governor of Ohio (b. 1835)

September 14, 1915 (Tuesday)

• In compliance with orders from the German General Staff, Admiral Henning von Holtzendorff, Chief of the German Naval Staff, ordered German naval airships raiding London to restrict their bombing targets to the banks of the River Thames and as far as possible to avoid bombing the poorer, working-class northern quarter of the city.^[35]
• The funeral train for William Cornelius Van Horne departed from Windsor Station in Montreal at 11:00 AM bound for Joliet, Illinois; the train was pulled by CP 4-6-2 no. 2213.
• Born: John Dobson, American amateur astronomer, creator of the Dobsonian telescope, in Beijing (d. 2014); Douglas Kennedy, American actor, best known for his Western roles in film and TV including Steve Donovan, Western Marshal, in New York City (d. 1973)
• Died: Edward H. Ripley, American army officer and businessman, served as Union officer during the American Civil War and served at Shenandoah Valley and Battle of Chaffin's Farm, one of the architects of the Raritan River Railroad in New Jersey (b. 1839); Ezra Ripley Thayer, American lawyer and academic, dean of Harvard Law School from 1910 to 1915 (b. 1866); Paul Friedrich Meyerheim, German artist, best known for his panel series "Life History of a Locomotive" (b. 1842)

September 15, 1915 (Wednesday)

• British transport ship Patagonia was torpedoed and sunk in the Black Sea 10.5 nautical miles (19.4 km) off Odessa by German submarine SM UB-7, with all crew surviving.^[36]
• German submarine SM U-6 was torpedoed and sunk in the North Sea off Stavanger, Rogaland, Norway by Royal Navy submarine HMS E16 with the loss of 24 of her 29 crew.^[37]
• British gunboat HMS Aphis was launched by Ailsa Shipbuilding Company in Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland for service at Port Said in Egypt, but won most its battle honors during World War Two.^[38]
• The Chinese magazine New Youth (also known as La Juenesse) published its first issue in Shanghai. Founded by Chen Duxiu, a leader of the anti-imperial Xinhai Revolution, the magazine would play an important role advocating Western-style democracy pertaining to the New Culture Movement in China during the 1910s and 1920s. Duxiu advertised the new magazine his established political publication The Tiger but later merged the editorials in October.^[39]
• The Dutch daily newspaper Het Belgisch Dagblad was published in The Hague as an organ of the Flemish Patriotic League.^[40]
• The Belgium monarchy created the Queen Elisabeth Medal to recognize exceptional services to Belgium in the relief of the suffering of its citizens during World War One.^[41]
• The football stadium Hammarby IP opened to the public in Stockholm and is the home field of the Hammarby IF DFF.^[42]
• Born: Helmut Schön, German football player and manager, best known for the managing the West Germany national football team from 1964 to 1978, in Dresden (d. 1996); Georgy Tovstonogov, Russian theater director, main director of the Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theater from 1956 to 1989, in Tbilisi, Russian Empire (d. 1989); Jeffrey Hamm, Welsh political leader, leader of the far-right Union Movement from 1948 to 1973, in Ebbw Vale, Wales (d. 1992); Karam Singh, Indian soldier, recipient of the Param Vir Chakra, the first Sikh to be awarded the military honor, in Barnala, India (d. 1993)
• Born: Silas Rhodes, American artist and educator, co-founder of the School of Visual Arts, in New York City (d. 2007); Albert Whitlock, British-American art designer, best known for his matte work for Disney and Universal Studios, in London (d. 1999); John Conte, American actor, best known for his work on the TV variety series Star Time, in Palmer, Massachusetts (d. 2006)
• Died: Isidor Bajić, Serbian composer, best known for piano and choral works, and his national opera Prince Ivo of Semberia (b. 1878); Alfred Agache, French painter, best known for his portraits including L'Épée (The Sword) (b. 1843); Napoleon B. Thistlewood, American politician, U.S. Representative of Illinois (b. 1837); Benedetto Lorenzelli, Italian priest, Cardinal for Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem from 1907 to 1915 (b. 1853)

September 16, 1915 (Thursday)

• The U.S. Senate ratified the Haitian–American Convention which allowed United States to provide security and handle finances in Haiti for the next 10 years.^[43]
• The Fourth State Duma in the Russian Empire was suspended and would not meet again until February 1916.^[44]
• 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.^[45]
• The first British Women's Institute meeting was held in Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, Wales.^[46]
• The first edition of the UK release of the P. G. Wodehouse novel Something Fresh was published in London by Methuen & Company.^[47]
• Born: Cy Walter, American pianist, best-selling piano instrumentalist and accompanist to singers Greta Keller, Mabel Mercer, and Lee Wiley, in Minneapolis (d. 1968); Rita Harradence, Australian chemist, leading researcher on biosynthesis for the medicine penicillamine, steroids and cholesterol, in Bexley, New South Wales, Australia (d. 2012)
• Died: Sam Pollard, British missionary, member of the China Inland Mission and inventor of Pollard script for use with the A-Hmao language in Guizhou, China (b. 1864)

September 17, 1915 (Friday)

• The German 1st Army was dissolved but would reform the following summer for the Battle of the Somme.^[48]
• French Air Force squadron Escadrille 67 was established.^[49]
• Born: M. F. Husain, Indian artist, founding member of The Progressive Artists Group of Bombay, in Pandharpur, India (d. 2011); Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez, Spanish philosopher, leading expert and proponent of Marxism, author of The Philosophy of Praxis, in Algeciras, Spain (d. 2011)
• Died: Konstantin Makovsky, Russian painter, member of the Peredvizhniki group (b. 1839)

September 18, 1915 (Saturday)

• The Carlton Football Club won the 19th Australian Football League Premiership, beating Collingwood Football Club 11.12 (78) to 6.9 (45) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the 1915 VFL Grand Final.^[50]
• 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.^[51]
• Born: James Tully, Irish politician, Minister of Defence for Ireland in 1981 to 1982, survivor of the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981, in County Meath, Ireland (d. 1992)

September 19, 1915 (Sunday)

• Great Retreat — The Germans occupied Vilna (now Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania), ending the Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive that had started in May.^[52]
• 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.^[53]
• 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.^[54]
• Born: Dorothy Bridges, American actress and poet, wife to Lloyd Bridges, mother to Beau Bridges and Jeff Bridges, in Worcester, Massachusetts d. 2009); Richard Altick, American academic, pioneer literary critic in Victorian Studies, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (d. 2008)

September 20, 1915 (Monday)

• Gallipoli Campaign — The Royal Newfoundland Regiment landed at Sulva Bay to provide needed support for Allied forces on the Gallipoli Peninsula.^[55]
• 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.^[56]
• The association football club Club Atlético 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.^[57]
• Born: Hughie Lee-Smith, American artist, second African-American to become a member of the National Academy Museum and School, in Eustis, Florida (d. 1999)

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.^[58]
• No. 24 Squadron of the Royal Air Force was established at Hounslow Heath Aerodrome in London.^[59]
• 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.^[60]
• Died: Austin Flint II, American physician, made major discoveries on the function of the liver, son to 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 John Stenhouse to estimate the vessel had traveled over 700 nautical miles (1,300 km) from Cape Evans where most of the expedition was marooned.^[61]
• 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 Roman Catholic Bishop of Charleston, John England.^[62]

September 23, 1915 (Thursday)

• 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.^[63]
• The German 11th Army, dissolved only two weeks earlier, was reformed to participate in the Serbian Campaign.^[64]
• Louisville Collegiate School was established in Louisville, Kentucky as a preparatory school for women entering college, and remained a girls-only school until 1972.^[65]
• Actor Douglas Fairbanks made his leading film debut in the comedy Western in the 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.^[66]
• Born: John Rowlands, Welsh air force officer, one of the developers of Great Britain's nuclear weapons program, recipient of the George Cross, in Hawarden, Wales (d. 2006); Zdenko Blažeković, Croatian fascist leader, member of the Ustaše regime of Yugoslavia during World War Two, in Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina (d. 1947, executed);
• Born: Clifford Shull, American physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics for the development of the neutron scattering technique, in Pittsburgh (d. 2001); Julius Baker, American musician and music teacher, key performer of the flute for the New York Philharmonic and on CBS in the 1950s, in Cleveland (d. 2003)
• Died: Frederick Hamilton Davey, English botanist, lead researcher of flora in Cornwall, England, author of Flora of Cornwall (b. 1868); Harold Thomas Cawley, British politician and soldier, Parliamentary Private Secretary from 1910 to 1914, son of Frederick Cawley, killed during the Gallipoli Campaign (b. 1878)

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.^[67]
• Born: Knut Schmidt-Nielsen, Norwegian-American biologist, leading researcher on comparative physiology for Duke University, in Trondheim, Norway (d. 2007); Shaukat Hayat Khan, Indian-Pakistani military officer and politician, member of the Pakistan Movement and co-founder of the Muslim League, in Amritsar, Punjab, British India (d. 1998)
• Born: Larry Gates, American actor, best known for his role as H.B. Lewis in the TV soap opera Guiding Light and Doc Caugh in the Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, in Saint Paul, Minnesota (d. 1996); Lucy Boscana, Puerto Rican actress, best known for her lead role in Ante la Ley, the first telenovela produced on Latin television, in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico (d. 2001)

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.^[68]
• Battle of Loos — British forces took the French town of Loos-en-Gohelle but with substantial casualties and were unable to press their advantage. It was the first time the British used poison gas in World War I and also their first large-scale use of the new Kitchener's Army units.^[69] At least three Victoria Crosses were awarded posthumously for bravery in the field, with the recipients being Anketell Moutray Read,^[70] Arthur Forbes Gordon Kilby,^[71] and George Peachment.^[72]
• Action of the Hohenzollern Redoubt — British forces assaulted the Hohenzollern Redoubt, a defensive strong point for the German 6th Army on the Western Front.^[73]
• Second Battle of Champagne — The French Second and Fourth Armies armies attacked the German line near Champagne, France, breaking it in four places and capturing 14,000 soldiers and several guns despite heavy casualties.^[74]
• 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.^[75]
• No. 25 Squadron of the Royal Air Force was established at RAF Montrose in Scotland.^[76]
• The Queensland War Council was established in Queensland, Australia to assist Australian World War One veterans and their families.^[77]
• 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 1915 SAFL Grand Final.^[78]
• 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 SK Forward was established in Oslo for hockey, and became one of the founding members of GET-ligaen, the premier Norwegian hockey league.^[79]
• Born: Victor Herman, Jewish-American political activist, spent 18 years as a Soviet prisoner in the Gulags of Siberia, author of Coming Out of the Ice, in Detroit (d. 1985); Betty Box, British film producer, best known for popular British film series including The Huggetts and Doctor, in Beckenham, England (d. 1999)
• Died: Ernest Deane, Irish rugby player and army medical officer, member of the Ireland national rugby union team in 1909, killed at the Battle of Loos (b. 1887); Hugh Butterworth, English-New Zealand cricketer and educator, batsman for the Oxford University Cricket Club, master of the Wanganui Collegiate School, killed at Flanders in France (b. 1885)

September 26, 1915 (Sunday)

• Third Battle of Artois — The French captured the village of Souchez, France but fail to make headway south-east of Neuville-St Vaast. ^[80]
• 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.^[81]
• Second Battle of Champagne — The French advanced and closed a 7.5-mile (12.1 km) gap, capturing another 2,000 German soldiers.^[82]
• The opera Mona Lisa, composed by Max von Schillings, premiered at the Stuttgart Opera House in Germany. It opera 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.^[83]
• Born: Eli M. Oboler, American librarian, head librarian of Idaho State University from 1949 to 1980, leading advocate for intellectual freedom, in Chicago (d. 1983); Tony Romano, American musician, guitarist and sideman for Bob Hope and Frances Langford's USO tours during World War Two, in Madera, California (d. 2005)
• 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 five teams (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.^[84]
• The British Royal Family lost one of their own during World War One when Fergus Bowes-Lyon, older brother of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. was killed during the Action of the Hohenzollern Redoubt.^[85] The same day, author Rudyard Kipling's only son John was killed during the Battle of Loos, just weeks after his 18th birthday.^[86]
• 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.^[87]
• 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.^[88]
• Born: Marjorie Chibnall, British historian, leading researcher in medieval history, in Atcham, England (d. 2012)
• Died: Remy de Gourmont, French poet, member of the Symbolism movement in France, author of Litanies de la Rose, Les Saintes du Paradis, and Divertissements (b. 1858); Ramalho Ortigão, Portuguese writer, member of the Romanticism movement in Portugal (b. 1836)
• Died: Thompson Capper, British army officer, recipient of the Distinguished Service Order for actions during the Second Boer War, 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); 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 that a gap. Foch felt the maneuver would be difficult co-ordinate and that the British First Army was in no position for further attacks, having lost over 20,000 casualties.^[89]
• Second Battle of Champagne — The French nearly break through the German line and capture a key German reserve area behind it.^[90]
• Battle of Es Sinn — British and Indian forces under command of Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend defeated Ottoman forces at a strategic point in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, setting the Allied forces for siege on Kut is what in now Iraq.^[91]
• Born: Mosess Fishman, American partisan fighter, member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War and general secretary for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Veterans' Association, in Astoria, New York (d. 2007)

September 29, 1915 (Wednesday)

• A hurricane struck Louisiana, killed 279 people and 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.^[92]
• Action of the Hohenzollern Redoubt — A German attempt to recapture Hohenzollern Redoubt was called off due lack of suitable weaponry.^[93]
• 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.^[90]
• The German 8th Army was formally dissolved, only to have the name renewed three months later by its replacement army.^[94]
• 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); Brenda Marshall, American film actress, best known for her roles in Espionage Agent and The Sea Hawk, wife to William Holden, in Negros, Philippines (d. 1992); Anne Nagel, American actress, best known for her roles in My Little Chickadee and Black Friday, in Boston (d. 1966)
• Died: Rudi Stephan, German composer, considered a fore-runner of New Objectivity that became prominent during the Weimer Republic, killed in action of the Eastern Front (b. 1887)

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.^[95][96][97]
• French destroyer Branlebas struck a mine and sank in the North Sea between Dunkerque, France, and Nieuwpoort, Belgium.^[98]
• 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.^[99]
• 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.^[100]
• 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 One. A total 379 students enrolled in the three faculties: Arts, Applied Science and Agriculture.^[101]
• Born: Lester Maddox, American politician, 75th Governor of Georgia, in Atlanta (d. 2003); Robert Sheats, American naval diver, master diver for the U.S. Navy from 1935 to 1966, recipient of the Legion of Merit (d. 1995); Betty Eisner, American psychologist, pioneering researcher into the use of LSD as part of psychotherapy, in Kansas City, Missouri (d. 2004)

References