1752 - Britain and the British Empire (including the American colonies) adopt the Gregorian calendar (no Sept 3 – Sept 13)
1936 - 1st prefrontal lobotomy in America performed by Walter Freeman and James W. Watts at George Washington University Hospital in Washington D.C.
1939 - World’s 1st practical helicopter, the VS-300 designed by Igor Sikorsky takes (tethered) flight in Stratford, Connecticut
1949 - India’s Constituent Assembly adopts Hindi as an official language. Celebrated today as Hindi Day.
1956 - IBM introduces the RAMAC 305, 1st commercial computer with a hard drive that uses magnetic disk storage, weighs over a ton
1960 - Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi-Arabia and Venezuela form the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
1975 – Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born saint, was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. 2001 - Historic National Prayer Service held at Washington National Cathedral for victims of the September 11 attacks. A similar service is held in Canada on Parliament Hill, the largest vigil ever held in the nation’s capital.
2019 - Drone attack on Abqaiq oil plant in Saudi Arabia takes out half of country’s oil production and 5% of the world’s. Yemen Houthi rebels claim responsibility.
Births & Deaths: 1849 – Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, known chiefly for his development of the concept of the conditioned reflex, was born.
1879 – American social reformer Margaret Sanger, who was a founder of the birth-control movement in the United States and an international leader in the field, was born.
1982– Grace Kelly—an American actress who abandoned her Hollywood career to marry Rainier III, prince de Monaco—died after suffering a stroke and losing control of the car she was driving. 2009 – American dancer and actor Patrick Swayze, who was best known for his performances in the box-office hits Dirty Dancing (1987) and Ghost (1990), died in Los Angeles after battling pancreatic cancer.
TV & Film: 1985 – “The Golden Girls”, starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty, debuts on NBC
Music:
1741 - George Frideric Handel finishes his “Messiah” oratorio after working on it non-stop for 23 days
Sport:
1868 - Golf’s 1st recorded hole-in-one by Tom Morris at Prestwick’s 8th hole, Scotland
