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Computer / National Anthem / Golden Girls / COVID-19

On This Day (September 14): Your quick daily trip back in time.

Author

Fatih Taskiran
September 14, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

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🌟 Editor's Note

Good morning — it’s Sunday, September 14. Today we’re diving into the birth of the national anthem, the first helicopter, Hindi Day, the first computer, the Golden Girls, and much more — quick, sharp, and source-clean.

Oh, and don't miss our legendary Strange Times story about Charles VI, which will blow your mind.

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— Fatih Taskiran, Editor

🚀 Time Machine

-1741

After 24 days of nonstop work, George Frideric Handel finishes his "Messiah" oratorio.

-1752

The British Empire, including the American colonies, adopted the Gregorian Calendar by skipping 11 days from September 3 to September 13.

-1812

Napoleon's Grande Armée entered Moscow a week after winning a bloody victory at the Battle of Borodino.

-1814

Francis Scott Key wrote a poem that was later set to music and, in 1931, became America’s national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

-1901

President William McKinley died eight days after being shot by a deranged anarchist during the Pan-American Exposition.

-1922

During the burning of Smyrna, the Ottoman army expelled Greeks and other non-Turks from Asia Minor, ending the Greco-Turkish War.

-1936

Walter Freeman and James W. Watts performed the first prefrontal lobotomy in America at George Washington University Hospital.

-1939

World's first practical helicopter, the VS-300, designed by Igor Sikorsky, flew tethered in Stratford, Connecticut.

-1949

India's Constituent Assembly chose Hindi as an official language, and we celebrate that today as Hindi Day.

-1956

IBM introduces the RAMAC 305, the first computer with a hard drive and magnetic disk storage, weighing over a ton.

-1960

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was founded by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.

-1964

Writer John Steinbeck was awarded the U.S. Medal of Freedom.

-1975

Pope Paul VI canonizes Elizabeth Ann Seton at the Vatican in Rome, making her the first American-born saint.

-1985

-2020

Astronomers report possible signs of life on Venus by detecting phosphine in its atmosphere with a telescope.

-2021

COVID-19 has killed 1 in 500 Americans, bringing the country's death toll to 663,913.

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📸 Snapshot

Opening of the first subway ride in New York City, 1904

🗨️ Final Words

❝

“Now I have overcome.”

🤯 Strange Times

Crystal Crown: Inside Charles VI’s Breakable World

Meet Charles VI of France, the poster child for the medieval "glass delusion"-the belief that you could literally shatter glass. Court life was like a "fragile" shipment to Charles: no bumps, no hugs, no sudden movements.

His precautions were unforgettable: iron rods sewn into his clothes like a human splint, and thick blankets wrapped around his hips so his "glass buttocks" wouldn't break. The diagnosis vanished; the image didn't. Sometimes, the heaviest thing about a crown is the mind wearing it.

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