Historical anniversaries are great for “On This Day in History” features and anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with readers and viewers, editors and producers love them, they’re easy to research, and you can easily turn them into newspaper and magazine articles, films, TV/radio/theatre shows, and more.
Here are 30 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries coming up in September 2021 (so you have time to write about them!)
We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2021. You’ll find hundreds more in the book. The 2022 edition is also available.
1 Sep 1941 – 80 years ago
World War II: Nazi Germany ordered all Jews in Germany and occupied territories to wear a yellow Star of David badge.
2 Sep 2001 – 20 years ago
Death of Christiaan Barnard, South African surgeon who performed the first human heart transplant.
3 Sep 1941? – 80 years ago
Holocaust: the first gas chamber experiments were conducted at Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. (Some sources give the date as the end of August.)
4 Sep 1941 – 80 years ago
World War II: the Greer incident. A German submarine fired 2 torpedoes at the US destroyer USS Greer which was en route to Iceland. (Both torpedoes missed). Germany claimed that the Greer had initiated the attack, targeting its submarine with depth charges. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared the incident an act of piracy and said any German submarines spotted in waters which the USA considered vital to its defence would be shot on sight. (The USA did not officially enter the war until December, and was still technically a neutral country at this point.)
5 Sep 1946 – 75 years ago
Birth of Freddie Mercury, Zanzibar-born British rock singer and songwriter (Queen). (Died 1991.)
6 Sep 1991 – 30 years ago
The Russian city of Leningrad was renamed Saint Petersburg, restoring its original name.
7 – 8 Sep 1921 – 100 years ago
The first Miss America pageant was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The first Miss America was Margaret Gorman of Washington, DC.
8 Sep 1971 – 50 years ago
The John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts (commonly known as the Kennedy Center) was officially opened in Washington, DC, USA.
9 Sep 1991 – 30 years ago
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) video game console was officially released in the USA (though its actually went on sale on 23rd August). (Europe: 6th June 1992.)
10 Sep 1721 – 300 years ago
The Great Northern War between the Tsardom of Russia and the Swedish Empire ended after 21 years. Russian victory.
11 Sep 1961 – 60 years ago
The World Wildlife Fund (now the World Wide Fund for Nature) was founded in Switzerland.
11 Sep 2001 – 20 years ago
The 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
12 Sep 1956 – 65 years ago
Quiz-rigging scandal: the first episode of the television quiz show Twenty One was broadcast in the USA. Producer Dan Enright called it “a dismal failure” as neither contestant could answer the questions. Subsequent episodes were rigged – contestants were given a coaching session ahead of each broadcast, which included the answers they were expected to give. The show became the subject of a Senate investigation that almost led to the demise of the TV quiz show genre.
13 or 14 Sep 1321 – 700 years ago
Death of Dante, Italian poet. Regarded as the most important poet of the Middle Ages. Best known for his Divine Comedy.
14 Sep 1971 – 50 years ago
The first episode of the private detective television series Cannon was broadcast on CBS in the USA. It ran for 5 seasons until 1976.
15 Sep 1971 – 50 years ago
Greenpeace, the international environmental group, was founded in Vancouver, Canada
16 Sep 1956 – 65 years ago
Play-Doh modelling compound went on sale in the USA. (It was originally sold as a wallpaper cleaning compound but was relaunched as a modelling compound when the inventor’s nephew discovered that nursery school children were using it to make Christmas ornaments.)
17 Sep 2011 – 10 years ago
The Occupy Wall Street movement began in Zuccotti Park, New York City, USA. Protestors were forced out of the park on 15th November and began occupying other establishments, including banks, corporate headquarters, and college/university campuses.
18 Sep to 9 Oct 2001 – 20 years ago
Anthrax attacks in the USA. Contaminated letters were sent to 2 US Senators and various news and media organisations in New York and Florida. 5 people died and at least 12 were infected. Senate offices, the US Capitol and the Supreme Court were shut down for testing in October, and traces were found in the State Department and CIA Headquarters. Cost of damage: $1 billion (£625 million).
19 Sep 1991 – 30 years ago
Ötzi the Iceman, a 5,300-year-old mummified body, was discovered by a tourist in the Tirolean Alps on the Italian-Austrian border.
20 Sep to 5 Oct 1946 – 75 years ago
The first Cannes Film Festival was held.
21 Sep 1931 – 90 years ago
Britain abandoned the gold standard.
22 Sep 1991 – 30 years ago
Sponsorship of ITV television programmes in the UK was permitted.
23 Sep 1846 – 175 years ago
The planet Neptune was discovered by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle, based on calculations made by French astronomer and mathematician Urbain Le Verrier. Neptune’s largest moon, Triton, was discovered by British astronomer William Lassell on 10th October.
24 Sep 1896 – 125 years ago
Birth of F. Scott Fitzgerald, American novelist and short story writer. Regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Best known for his novel The Great Gatsby.
25 Sep 1996 – 25 years ago
The last Magdalene Laundry (also known as Magdalene Asylums) was closed in Ireland. The laundries housed thousands of “fallen women”, removing them from society. They were forced to work long hours in commercial laundries for no pay, and were often abused. Those who died were buried in mass graves. The nuns who ran the laundries often didn’t know the women’s names and kept no records. (Ireland issued a formal apology in 2013 and launched a compensation scheme for survivors. There were also Magdalene Laundries/Asylums in Australia, Canada, England and the USA. Those in Ireland were the last to close.)
26 Sep 1946 – 75 years ago
Death of William Strunk, Jr., American educator. Best known for his book The Elements of Style, later revised and expanded by his former student E. B White and commonly known as Strunk and White.
27 Sep 1991 – 30 years ago
Following the signing of the START I treaty in July, US President George H. W. Bush announced the elimination of all US land-based tactical nuclear arms and the removal of short-range nuclear arms from US ships and submarines. He also stood down all intercontinental ballistic missiles that were scheduled for deactivation in 1998. (The Soviet Union cut its nuclear arsenal on 5th October.)
28 Sep 1821 – 200 years ago
The Mexican Empire declared its independence from the Spanish Empire.
29 Sep 1946 – 75 years ago
The BBC Third Programme was launched. The national radio network became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces in Britain. It was incorporated into BBC Radio 3 in 1970.
30 Sep 1846 – 175 years ago
American dentist William Morton became the first person to use ether as an anaesthetic, performing a painless tooth extraction on a patient. When newspapers reported on this, ether was then used in a famous medical demonstration at Massachusetts General Hospital on 16th October, when a tumour was painlessly removed from a patient’s neck. (Morton’s claim to have invented medical anaesthesia was disputed when he tried to patent it, and it became an obsession for the rest of his life.)
More anniversaries:
You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2021. The 2022 edition is also available if you need to work further ahead. Find out more at ideas4writers.com.