September 19
Activity of the day
Today is . . .
- International Talk Like a Pirate Day
- Independence Day in Saint Kitts and Nevis
On this day . . .
- The English defeat the French at the Battle of Poitiers in the Hundred Years’ War (1356)
- The American inventor Melville Bissell patents the first carpet sweeper (1876)
- The first ever beauty contest is held in Belgium (1888)
- New Zealand becomes the first country to let women vote (1893)
- Mickey Mouse appears in the first cartoon talking picture (1928)
- The United States conducts its first underground nuclear test, in the Nevada desert (1957)
- A new dance craze begins when Chubby Checker’s The Twist enters the U.S. charts (1960)
- Traffic wardens issue the first 344 parking tickets in London (1960)
- The first Glastonbury music festival is staged (1970)
- The first episode of Fawlty Towers is broadcast by the BBC (1975)
- Emoticons are born when the first “smiley face” :-) is created (1982)
- A teddy bear is sold for a record £55,000 at a Sotheby’s auction (1989)
Births
- George Cadbury, English chocolate manufacturer and social reformer (1839)
- William Golding, English author (1911)
- Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles (1934)
- Adam West, American actor (1938)
- Zandra Rhodes, English fashion designer (1940)
- Mama Cass Elliot, American singer (1943)
- Jeremy Irons, English actor (1948)
- Twiggy (Lesley Hornby), English model (1949)
- Jarvis Cocker, English musician (1963)
Deaths
- Meyer Amschel Rothschild, German banker (1812)
- Thomas John Barnardo, British philanthropist (1905)
- Chester Carlson, American inventor of the xerography photocopying process (1968)
- Italo Calvino, Italian writer (1985)