Born on This Day British writer who challenged early-20th-century norms about class and sexuality in novels like Lady Chatterley’s Lover . American filmmaker known for his Hitchcockian style in thrillers like Dressed to Kill , Scarface and Blow Out . Taraji P. Henson American actor who brought a feisty strength to roles in Hustle & Flow , Hidden Figures and TV’s “Empire.” John Goffe Rand, an American portrait painter, receives a patent for the first collapsible tin paint tube. Up until then, artists had to mix their own oil paints and store whatever was left over in animal bladders. Also on This Day in History Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on September 11th The Battle of Brandywine begins On September 11, 1777, General Sir William Howe and General Charles Cornwallis launch a full-scale British attack on General George Washington and the Patriot outpost at Brandywine Creek near Chadds Ford, in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, on the road linking Baltimore and Philadelphia. Howe and Cornwallis spilt their 18,000 British troops into two separate divisions, with […] Russians dedicate Fort Ross, their first stronghold on the California coast Staking a tenuous claim to the natural riches of California, Russians dedicate Fort Ross on the coast north of San Francisco on September 11, 1812. As a growing empire with a long Pacific coastline, Russia was in many ways well positioned to play a leading role in the settlement and development of the West. The […]

America victorious on Lake Champlain During the Battle of Plattsburg on Lake Champlain, a newly built U.S. fleet under Master Commandant Thomas Macdonough destroys a British squadron, forcing the British to abandon their siege of the U.S. fort at Plattsburg and retreat to Canada on foot. The American victory saved New York from possible invasion and helped lead to the […] The Christiana Resistance In Christiana, Pennsylvania, a group of African Americans and white abolitionists skirmish with a Maryland posse intent on capturing four fugitive enslaved people hidden in the town. 120 emigrants murdered at the Mountain Meadows Massacre Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and local Paiute tribes murder 120 emigrants at Mountain Meadows, Utah, on September 11, 1857. Donny Osmond has the No. 1 hit on the U.S. pop charts with “Go Away Little Girl” On September 11, 1971, 13-year-old teen idol Donny Osmond earns his first solo (and second overall) No. 1 hit with “Go Away Little Girl.” Nikita Khrushchev dies Former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, one of the most significant figures of the Cold War and certainly one of the most colorful, dies on September 11, 1971. During the height of his power in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Khrushchev was involved in some of the most important events of the Cold War. Khrushchev […] Chilean president Salvador Allende dies in coup Chile’s armed forces stage a coup d’état against the government of President Salvador Allende, the first democratically elected Marxist leader in Latin America. Allende retreated with his supporters to La Moneda, the fortress-like presidential palace in Santiago, which was surrounded by tanks and infantry and bombed by air force jets. Allende survived the aerial attack […]