September 17

1787 The American Constitution was signed in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787. It has 4,543 words and takes a half hour to read, making it longer than the Declaration of Independence, which takes ten minutes to read. The United States Constitution is the oldest written constitution in the world still in operation.

Signing the Constitution, September 17, 1787

1787 George Washington bought Miguel de Cervantes's novel Don Quixote on September 17, 1787, the day the Constitution was signed. Washington's copy of Don Quixote is now part of the collection at Mount Vernon, his home in Virginia. It is a reminder of his love of reading and his appreciation for the power of literature.

1796 Mary Priestley, the wife of English chemist, theologian, and political theorist Joseph Priestley, passing away on September 17, 1796. Their marriage had been a happy one and Mary's death was a great loss to Priestley. "I have lost my best friend, the partner of my life, and the sharer of all my joys and sorrows," he write in his journal.

1830 Broad Green station, Liverpool, which opened on September 17, 1830, is the oldest station site in the world still in use as a passenger station. When the Liverpool and Manchester passenger railway trains set out on the first day from the Crown Street terminus, the second station on the line was the original Edge Hill railway station (decommissioned in 1836), the third was Broad Green station.

1862 On Wednesday, September 17, 1862, around 2 pm, The Allegheny Arsenal, a supply and manufacturing center for the troops in the west, exploded. The explosion was heard in Pittsburgh, over two miles away. By the time the fire was put out, the lab had been reduced to a pile of smoldering rubble. 78 workers, mostly young women, were killed, making it the single largest civilian disaster during the American Civil War.

1862 The Battle of Antietam was fought on September 17, 1862 near the mouth of Antietam Creek in Maryland during the American Civil War. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with a combined tally of 22,717 dead, wounded, or missing. Although the battle was tactically inconclusive, General McClellan of the Union Army did succeed in blocking Confederate General Lee's advance on Washington.

The Battle of Antietam, by Kurz & Allison (1878),

1874 Whilst restoring the Church of St Jilt in St Juliot, Cornwall, Thomas Hardy fell in love with the rector's sister Emma Gifford. Their courtship inspired Hardy's third novel, A Pair of Blue Eyes. They got married on September 17, 1874 at St Peter's Church, Paddington, London. The wedding ceremony was conducted by Emma's uncle, Edwin Hamilton Gifford, Canon of Worcester Cathedral and Archdeacon of London.

1908 The first mortality in an airplane accident was Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge who was the passenger when Orville Wright crashed a US War Department test plane in on September 17, 1908 after losing control at 75 feet. Orville broke a leg and two ribs.

1920 The National Football League was formed as the American Professional Football Association in Canton, Ohio on September 17, 1920. The league consisted of 14 teams of which only two remain: the Decatur Staleys (now the Chicago Bears) and the Chicago Cardinals (now the Arizona Cardinals).

1954 William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies was published on September 17, 1954. Lord of the Flies tells the story of a group of schoolboys, marooned on a desert island following a plane crash and their decline from adolescent innocence to vengeful barbarism. Golding drew on the wartime ‘evil’ he witnessed in the Royal Navy for the story, and admitted having been a childhood bully. “I enjoyed hurting people,” he said.

1980 After weeks of strikes at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, the Polish trade union Solidarity was founded on September 17, 1980. It was the first independent labor union in a Soviet-bloc country. Solidarity's leader, Lech Wałęsa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 and the union is widely recognized as having played a central role in the end of communist rule in Poland.

Solidarity, ETUC Demonstration—Budapest 2011. By Derzsi Elekes Andor 

1985 Welsh fashion designer and businesswoman Laura Ashley died on September 17, 1985 after falling down the stairs at her daughter Jane’s home on her 60th birthday. Laura Ashley was known for her iconic floral designs and contributions to the fashion industry.

1987 Pope John Paul II embraced an AIDS-infected boy while visiting San Francisco on September 17, 1987. The pope drove past several groups of angry protesters in order to embrace the teary-eyed 4-year-old Brendan O'Rourke, who had contracted the disease through a blood transfusion. He then assured all AIDS victims of God's love for them.

The Pope embraces Brendan O'Rourke,

2010 As the World Turns was an American television soap opera that aired on CBS for 54 years from April 2, 1956, to September 17, 2010. It had the longest total running time of any TV show, with 13,763 hours of total narrative. If you binged it for 8 hours a day, it would take you 4 years and 8 months to finish it all.

2013 The late New York schoolteacher Irv Gordon holds the Guinness Book of World Records certification for having registered the greatest number of miles driven by an owner in one car. On September 17, 2013, while traversing Alaska's Seward Highway, Gordon hit the 3 million mile mark in his Volvo P1800 which he bought in 1966.

2015 After 47 visits to the Hot 100, Justin Bieber topped the tally for the first time on September 17, 2015 with "What Do You Mean?" It meant the 21-year-old became the youngest male artist to debut at the top on the Billboard Hot 100.