September 15 - Darwin in the Galápagos

On September 15, 1835, naturalist Charles Darwin arrived at the Galápagos Islands, nearly 1,000 miles west of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean. He was a crew member of the second voyage of the HMS Beagle, on its mission to survey South America and circumnavigate the globe. In the next five weeks, Darwin and others made geological and biological observation on four of the 18 main islands of the volcanic Galápagos archipelago. Though Darwin focused on geology and had no expertise in ornithology, he collected what he called mockingbirds (later known as “Darwin’s finches”) and other birds on each of the islands, though he did not label them for location. Back in England, in 1837, an ornithologist found that the birds were differing species of finches, each unique to specific islands, each with beaks that had been adapted over time to specific habitats. This discovery, and the knowledge that tortoises differed from island to island, were critical in the development of Darwin's theory of natural selection explaining evolution, presented in The Origin of Species (1859).

September 14 - Alexander von Humboldt

Naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt was born on September 14, 1769, in Berlin. His youthful interest in identifying and collecting natural objects – plants, shells and insects – developed into a passion for travel, inspired by a friendship with Captain James Cook’s illustrator who had sailed on Cook's second world voyage. During his scientific explorations of South America with a botanist, from 1799 to 1804, he collected 6,000 new species of plants, herbs, rocks, minerals and animals, and amassed a vast trove of maps and information about the natural world, ranging through geology, astronomy, meteorology, botany, anthropology and linguistics. On South America’s west coast, he discovered and measured what is now called the Humboldt Current in the Pacific Ocean. After exploring Mexico in 1803, he settled in Paris and later explored Russia. In 1845 he published the first of five volumes of “Cosmos,” a scientifically holistic treatise on the Earth and the universe. As famous as Napoleon in his time, von Humboldt promoted the interrelatedness of the natural sciences.

September 12 - Battle of Marathon

September 12, 490 BCE, is the likely date of the Battle of Marathon, fought in Attica in southern Greece during the first invasion of the Persians who, under generals of King Darius, sought to subjugate Athens and mainland Greece after a revolt by Greek colonists in Asia Minor. Athens' army was far less than half the size of the Persian forces, which had advanced across the Aegean Sea, but it blocked the two exits from the plain of Marathon and encircled and defeated the Persians. It then thwarted a surprise attack on Athens by quickly marching back to the city. The Persians fled to their ships and would not return again for another 10 years. The victory at Marathon was a pivotal moment for the young Athenian democracy, marking not only the start of its classical “golden age” – lasting nearly three centuries – but also fundamentally the birth of Western civilization. The story of the Greek messenger, Pheidippides, who brought news of the victory to Athens, then collapsed and died, is historically inaccurate but is the source of the modern “marathon” footrace.

September 10 - Robert Wise

Movie director and editor Robert Wise was born on September 10, 1914, in west-central Indiana. After landing an odd job at RKO Radio Pictures in Hollywood at age 19, he eventually became a film editor and performed that function on two landmark films by Orson Welles, “Citizen Kane” (1941) and “The Magnificent Ambersons” (1942). Later in the 1940s he began directing low-budget “B” movies, including “The Body Snatcher” (1945), and then achieved success in a wide range of film genres, including horror, western, war, science fiction, drama and musical. Many of his most notable movies deal with the futility of war, conflict or arms proliferation. These include “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951), now acclaimed for its moral significance; “Run Silent, Run Deep” (1958), about submarine warfare; “West Side Story” (1961), which won an unprecedented 10 Oscars; “The Sound of Music” (1965), the highest-grossing film of all time and winner of five Oscars; and “The Sand Pebbles” (1966), viewed as an early statement about U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

September 8 - Antonín Dvořák

Bohemian composer Antonín Dvořák was born on September 8, 1841, near Prague, in what is now the Czech Republic. Encouraged by his parents, he became a working musician and composer. In the 1870s he followed in the footsteps of Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, producing a range of works inspired by Czech, Moravian and Slavic traditional music, including Symphonies 4-6, his lyrical serenades for strings and for winds, his violin concerto and the popular first set of Slavonic Dances. Largely because of political tensions under Austro-Hungarian rule, Dvořák found much of his success abroad – first in London with his cantata “Stabat Mater” (1877), then in New York in the 1890s, where as director of the National Conservatory of Music he studied and promoted "American music," including African-American and Native American songs and idioms. In 1893 the New York Philharmonic premiered his Symphony No.9, "From the New World," and he spent that summer in the Czech community of Spillville, Iowa, where he composed his superb String Quartet in F (the "American").

September 7 - Grandma Moses

Folk painter Grandma Moses was born Anna Mary Robertson on September 7, 1860, near Glens Falls in Upstate New York. She was one of 10 children. For two decades starting in 1887 she and her husband farmed in Virginia, then ran a farm in Eagle Bridge, NY, near her birthplace. Her earliest work was embroidery, done as a hobby. In her 70’s, arthritis made needlework painful, so at her sister’s suggestion she took up painting. Her individualistic folk style, heedless of perspective and depicting everyday scenes, evolved from early works that were more realistic and “primitive” in nature. She sold paintings locally ($2 for small, $5 for large) until fame courted her in the form of an art collector, Louis Caldor, who bought her paintings on display in a pharmacy window. Gallery shows in New York in 1940 rocketed her to fame at age 80. She painted more than 1,600 pictures, many reproduced in ads and other commercial media – all popular for reflecting traditional American values. Pictured: “Sugaring Off” (1943), a version of which sold for $1.36 million in 2006.

September 6 - Marquis de Lafayette

The Marquis de Lafayette was born Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier on September 6, 1757, in Auvergne, in south central France. At age 13 he became a wealthy orphan. In 1775, he supported the cause of the American Revolution and joined efforts to help the colonials fight France’s major enemy, England. When the Continental Congress could not pay for his voyage, he bought a ship, La Victoire, instead. King Louis XVI forbade him to leave France, and the British ambassador ordered seizure of his ship at Bordeaux. But in April 1777, disguised as a woman, he sailed for America, leaving behind his pregnant wife. To avoid possible arrest in the West Indies, he bought the ship’s entire cargo and sailed directly to an island off South Carolina’s coast. He served as a major-general in the Continental Army under Gen. Washington, was wounded in the Battle of Brandywine, served in the Battle of Rhode Island, and in 1781 blocked Cornwallis’ troops at the Battle of Yorktown while Continental armies prepared to battle the British to defeat.

September 5 - The Terror

220 years ago: The Reign of Terror was begun in France when the Revolutionary government made “terror” an official policy in a decree issued on September 5, 1793. The First French Republic’s Committee of Public Safety was formalized the next day to suppress counter-revolutionary activities and raise military forces to fight wars with European powers seeking to crush the Revolution and stop its influence. “La Terreur” resulted from conflict between political factions, the relatively moderate Girondins and the radical Jacobins, led by Maximilien Robespierre. The latter prevailed, using the guillotine (the "National Razor") to execute more than 16,500 “enemies” of the Revolution, including King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, the Girondins, even the chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who recognized and named oxygen and hydrogen. Many thousands more were killed throughout France. When bloodshed greatly increased in June and July 1794 (“la Grande Terreur”), a coup overthrew Robespierre, who lost his head to the blade, and ended the Terror.

September 4 - Daniel H. Burnham

Architect and city planner Daniel H. Burnham was born on September 4, 1846, near Watertown, NY, and raised in Chicago. He apprenticed as a draftsman with noted architect William LeBaron Jenney, who in Chicago designed and built the first skyscraper (1884-5). He partnered with John Wellborn Root, forming Burnham and Root, which prospered after the Great Chicago Fire (1871). By 1891 the firm had designed nearly 300 structures, including railroad stations, warehouses, office buildings, schools, churches and many private homes. The 21-story, steel-framed Masonic Temple (1892) was the world’s tallest office building in occupied floors. After Root’s death, Burnham was the chief coordinating architect for the World Columbian Exposition (1893) and its vast Beaux-Arts plan. He also designed New York’s Flatiron Building (1902) and Union Station (1907) in Washington, DC, which was part of his replanning and expansion of the National Mall. His masterwork was the “Plan of Chicago” (1909), which is considered a landmark in the history of urban planning.

September 2 - Great Fire of London

At 2.00 a.m. on Sunday, September 2, 1666, the Great Fire of London began at the house of a baker in Pudding Lane, near London Bridge. Fanned by strong winds, flames spread westward over the following three days and destroyed what was the medieval City, inside the ancient Roman walls. A long summer drought had heightened the danger of fire among the City’s old timber houses overhanging haphazard, narrow streets. For years the aristocracy had shunned the City and lived either in the country, beyond suburban slums, or in posh Westminster (today’s West End), where King Charles II held court during the Restoration. Celebrated diarist Samuel Pepys recorded much of the conflagration and described a huge, shocking encampment of homeless refugees in a public park, "poor wretches carrying their good(s).” The Great Fire consumed the dwellings of an estimated 70,000 of the 80,000 Londoners. But by 1711, a reconstructed London included 50 new churches by architect Christopher Wren, including today’s majestic St. Paul’s Cathedral.