my birthday: september 15th 2002

• 1584: san lorenzo del escorial palace in madrid finished
• 1616: first non-aristocratic, free public school in europe is opened in frascati, italy
• 1656: england & france sign peace treaty
• 1795: "lyrical ballads" published by samuel taylor coleridge and william wordsworth - 1st work of english romantic movement
• 1821: act of independence of central america: costa rica, el salvador, guatemala, honduras & nicaragua declare their independence from the spanish empire
• 1835: hms beagle with charles darwin on board reaches the galapagos islands
• 1873: last german troops leave france
• 1887: philadelphia celebrates 100th anniversary of us constitution
• 1898: national afro-american council forms in rochester ny
• 1914: first battle of aisne finishes germans vs french & british during ww i
• 1916: first use of tanks in warfare, "little willies" at battle of flers-courcelette, part of the battle of the somme
• 1917: russia proclaimed a republic by alexander kerensky's provisional government
• 1928: scottish bacteriologist alexander fleming discovers penicillin while studying influenza
• 1935: nuremberg laws deprives german jews of citizenship & makes swastika official symbol of nazi germany
• 1943: benito mussolini forms a rival fascist government in italy
• 1944: soviet troops free sofia, bulgaria
• 1952: european parliament forms in strasbourg
• 1988: "les miserables" opens at raimund theatre, vienna
• 1997: google.com is registered as a domain name
• 2013: japan switches off its last working nuclear reactor
• 2019: hong kong police fire water cannons and tear gas at thousands of protesters outside the british embassy, as protests continue in the city