1789 – The United States "Department of Foreign Affairs", established by law in July, is renamed the Department of State and given a variety of domestic duties.

1835 – HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the Galápagos Islands. The ship lands at Chatham or San Cristobal, the easternmost of the archipelago.

1952 – The United Nations cedes Eritrea to Ethiopia.

1959 – Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet leader to visit the United States.

1963 – Baptist Church bombing: Four children killed in the bombing of an African-American church in Birmingham, Alabama, United States.

1967 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation.

1971 – The first Greenpeace ship departs from Vancouver to protest against the upcoming Cannikin nuclear weapon test in Alaska.

1978 – Muhammad Ali outpointed Leon Spinks in a rematch to become the first boxer to win the world heavyweight title three times at the Superdome in New Orleans.

1981 – The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

1981 – The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution operates it under its own power outside Washington, D.C.

2008 – Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.

1789 – James Fenimore Cooper, American novelist, short story writer, and historian (d. 1851)

1830 – Porfirio Díaz, Mexican general and politician, 29th President of Mexico (d. 1915)

1857 – William Howard Taft, American lawyer, jurist, and politician, 27th President of the United States (d. 1930)

1876 – Bruno Walter, German-American pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1962)

1890 – Agatha Christie, English crime novelist, short story writer, and playwright (d. 1976)

1894 – Jean Renoir, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1979)

1903 – Roy Acuff, American singer-songwriter and fiddler (d. 1992)

1907 – Fay Wray, Canadian-American actress (d. 2004)

1913 – John N. Mitchell, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician, 67th United States Attorney General (d. 1988)

1914 – Robert McCloskey, American author and illustrator (d. 2003)

1918 – Nipsey Russell, American comedian and actor (d. 2005)

1924 – Bobby Short, American singer and pianist (d. 2005)

1928 – Cannonball Adderley, American saxophonist and bandleader (d. 1975)

1934 – Tomie dePaola, American author and illustrator (d. 2020)

1945 – Jessye Norman, American soprano (d. 2019)

1946 – Tommy Lee Jones, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter

1946 – Oliver Stone, American director, screenwriter, and producer

Almanac - Wednesday 9/15/21

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