BELIEVE it or not but historically September is a month of natural and human induced disasters. Let’s go back to major events in the world that occurred in this month that are dreadfully noteworthy.
On Sept. 1, 1939 - Hitler’s army invaded Poland starting World War II in Europe. In 1969, military officers overthrew the Libyan government. The Libyan Arab Republic was proclaimed under Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. In 1983, Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was shot down by a Russian fighter jet while on route from New York to Seoul, killing all 269 persons on board.
Sept. 3, 1939 - Great Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany after its invasion of Poland two days earlier. In 1943, Italy signed an armistice with the Allies during World War II in Europe as British Eight Army invaded the Italian mainland from Sicily.
Sept. 8, 1900 - A hurricane with winds of 120 mph struck Galveston, Texas killing over 8,000 persons and destroyed 2,500 buildings making it the worst natural disaster in US history. In Germany 1941, the German Army began its blockade of Leningrad, lasting until January 1944, resulting in the deaths of almost one million Russian civilians.
Sept. 9, 1943 - The invasion of Salermo began during the World War II in Europe as Allied forces made amphibious landings along the western coast of Italy near Naples.
Sept. 11, 2011 - The worst terrorist attack in US history occurred as four large passenger jets were hijacked then crashed on different landmarks, killing nearly 3,000 persons.
Sept. 19-20, 1985 - Earthquakes in Mexico City killed an estimated 5,000 to 20,000 persons and left more than 100,000 homeless. The quake registered 8.1 and 7.5 on the Richter scale.
Sept. 21, 1972 - President Ferdinand E. Marcos placed the Philippines under Martial Law. Marcos defended the declaration stressing the need for extra powers to quell the rising wave of violence allegedly caused by communists.
Sept. 24, 1980 - War erupted between Iran and Iraq as Iraqi troops crossed the border and encircled Abadan, then set fire to the world’s largest oil refinery.
Sept. 29-30, 1941 – Nazis killed 33,771 Jews during the Babi Yar massacre near Kiev.
Among famous persons, political and church figures, celebrities who died in September were the following: King Louis XIV of France, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Elizabeth-Empress of Austria-Hungary, US President William McKinley, French ballet dancer Isadora Duncan, Princess Grace of Monaco, Pope John Paul I, and American Actor James Dean. (Credits: Library of Congress and US National Archives)