122 Construction begins on Hadrian’s Wall
In 122, on September 13, construction on Hadrian’s Wall begins. When finished, it is a wall 72 miles long across Britain. It is not known for sure why the wall was built. There was probably not enough of a population in that area for a wall to make sense for defensive reasons. Even if there were raiders and small groups roaming, the cost of the wall and manning it would be more than the loss. It may have been used as a method of raising taxes for those traveling, or just to show the power of Rome. There are still parts of the wall visible today.
604 Pope Sabinian Consecrated
Pope Sabinian was consecrated on September 13, 604, and holds the office of pope until his death on February 22, 606. Little is known of Pope Sabinian, except that he had a short and difficult term as Pope. There was war and famine in the region, and he collected wheat, and then sold it to help the country. He was sometimes criticized for selling the wheat and not giving it away, so there have been various stories about him, but they are unsubstantiated.
1224 St Francis of Assisi Receives Stigmata
Frances was born wealthy and lived that way for the first part of his life. He went to war, and while away had a vision. When he returned he lived in poverty and preached on the streets. He quickly gathers a following, which would become the Franciscan Order. He also founded the women’s Order of St Clare and later the Third Order of Saint Francis (although it was not called that at the time) for lay people. The Franciscan Order was endorse by Pope Innocent in 1210. As he got older, he spent more time in seclusion. He was the first to arrange for a Christmas Manger scene in 1223. In 1224, he was the first recorded person to receive stigmata, which is wounds, marks or pain in the hands and feet, representing Christ’s wounds on the cross.
Pope Gregory pronounced Frances a saint in 1228. He is known as the patron saint of animals and of the environment. He is also one of the two patron saints of Italy.
1814 Francis Scott Key Writes Poem
Francis Scott Key, a successful lawyer and US Attorney for District of Columbia, went onto a British ship to try to negotiate the release of a friend of his, Dr William Beanes. He was successful, but the two men were not allowed to leave until the British were finished bombarding Fort McHenry. The bombardment lasted for a day, before the British gave up. Key saw the flag still flying, and wrote the Star Spangled Banner. It was published in the newspapers and then set to music. President Woodrow Wilson said it was to played at played at all official events, and in 1931 the song became the national anthem.
1948 Margaret Chase Smith Elected to US Senate from Maine
By being elected to the position of Senator from Maine, Margaret Chase Smith became the first women in the United States to serve in both houses of the federal government. Her husband had served in the House Of Representatives, but had died in office. She was elected to his seat, then re-elected several times, before running for Senate and winning the seat. She was also the first woman to be elected to either house from Maine, and the first woman to be nominated for the presidency by a main political party. She was nominated at the 1964 Republican Convention, but lost to Barry Goldwater.
1956 IBM Announces Magnetic Disk Storage Computer
On September 13, 1956 IBM announced the first commercial computer, the IBM 305 RAMAC, which would use magnetic disk storage. It was built with vacuüm tubes, but was one of the last ones to do so. It stored 5 MB of data. It needed a room of 50 by 30 feet to house it. Chrysler, the first of the auto manufacturers to buy one, installed on the following year.
1970 – First New York Marathon
The first New York Marathon is run and consists of several loops Park Drive in Central Park. The first running had 127 entrants with 55 finishers. It has been run each year since then. The course was redesigned later to include all 5 boroughs, and last year had more than 35,000 entrants.
2001 – Osama bin Laden is #1 Suspect and Resumption of Air Travel
Secretary of State Collin Powell says that Osama bin Laden and his organization are the primary suspects of the 9/11 bombings, but that the government would be following all leads to track down the perpetrators of the attacks.
Commercial air travel was grounded after the air attacks on 9/11, but on September 13, 2001 air travel was resumed.
2003 Palestinian and Israel sign Peace Agreement
Yitzjak Rabin of Israel and Yasser Arafat of the Palestinians sign a peace agreement on September 13, 2003. They are called the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords between Palestinians and Israel, and were negotiated in secret with Norway hosting the talks. The agreement was signed on the White House lawn, with Bill Clinton in attendance. Rabin and Arafat, along with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, was awarded the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for the work, but the agreement did not change anything.
2004 Colin Powell Admits Bad Information Used
Secretary of State Colin Powell admits, while testifying in front of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, that some of the information he used for his 2003 UN Presentation about Weapons Of Mass Destruction (WMD) was flawed. He stated that he did not think that any WMDs would be found in Iraq.
2009 – Osama bin Laden releases tape
Osama bin Laden released a new audio tape where he rails against America for the war. He stated that the losses created by the war are worse than the losses that happened on 9/11. He also said that President Obama is just continuing in the mistakes that President Bush started and he is not ending the wars as he campaigned he would.