Find out past events from the days of this week: births, deaths and important moments from all corners of the globe and all eras of history.
Sept. 26, 1969: “Abbey Road,” the last recorded album and penultimate release of The Beatles, was released.
The Beatles, composed of members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison, was an English band that originated in Liverpool. Their first studio album “Please Please Me” was released in 1963 and launched the band into a global success. Although “Let It Be” was their last release, their final recording was “Abbey Road,” recorded in Abbey Road Studios in London. It featured 17 tracks: 14 by Lennon and McCartney, two by Harrison and one by Starr. A double A-side single was released with “Come Together” by Lennon and McCartney and “Something” by Harrison. The cover features the four members walking across a zebra crossing on Abbey Road.
Sept. 27, 1783: Agustin de Iturbide, the first emperor of Mexico, was born.
Born Agustin Cosme Damian de Iturbide y Aramburu in modern-day Morelia, Michoacan to a wealthy, landowning family. He enlisted in the royalist army as a young man. When the Mexican War of Independence broke out, de Iturbide pledged himself to Spain and spent most of the war combating the efforts of the insurgents. However, following a coup d’etat in Spain that established a constitutional monarchy, many conservative Mexican loyalists began advocating for independence, de Iturbide included. He published the “Plan de Iguala” to bring together warring factions under one united independence movement and created the Army of the Three Guarantees. Following the signing of the Treaty of Cordoba on Aug. 24, 1821, de Itrubide crowned himself Agustin I, emperor of Mexico. After failing to stabilize the country following the war, he was forced to go into exile in 1823 and was executed in July 1824 at age 40 after he returned to the country.
Sept. 28, 1781: The Siege of Yorktown began.
Lasting from Sept. 28 to Oct. 19, the Siege of Yorktown was a Franco-American campaign that entrapped British forces under General Cornwallis stuck on the Yorktown peninsula. The Continental Army was led by George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau, with adjacent commanders the Marquis de Lafayette, General Anthony Wayne and Baron von Steuben. Surrounded, outmanned and outgunned, Cornwallis surrendered his entire army to Washington on Oct. 19. Although he did not present himself at the ceremony out of shame, he sent one of his brigadier generals instead. Following the siege, negotiations started to remove British troops from American soil and finalize the independence of the United States.
Sept. 29, 1547: Spanish playwright Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was born.
Best known for authoring the epic novel “Don Quixote” (1605, 1615), de Cervantes was born in Alcalá de Henares, Spain, to a poor gentry family. He spent most of his childhood moving from town to town with his family, receiving no formal education. He enlisted as a soldier in the Spanish army in the Mediterranean sometime around 1570, where he fought against the Ottoman Empire. On his return voyage to Spain in 1575, his ship was attacked by pirates and he was sold into slavery in Algiers. His family was able to pay his ransom in 1580 so he could return to Spain. There, he struggled to make a living until he met literary success with “Don Quixote.” De Cervantes died on April 22, 1616, at age 68 and was buried in Central Madrid.
Sept. 30, 1520: Suleyman the Magnificent was declared sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
The only son of Sultan Selim I, Suleyman the Lawgiver succeeded his father at age 26 and reigned until his death at age 71 on Sept. 6, 1566, after which he was succeeded by his son Selim II. Suleyman was the longest-reigning monarch in the history of the Ottoman Empire and is celebrated as its greatest ruler, expanding its territory and stabilizing it with a centralized legal system. Apart from being a capable military strategist, Suleyman was also a student of art and architecture. He built up the Ottoman capital of Istanbul and various other cities, working with artisans and architects to develop monuments, public works and buildings with a distinctive Ottoman style.
Oct. 1, 1949: Communist Party leader Mao Zedong declared the creation of the People’s Republic of China.
Mao Zedong was born to a farmer and grain trader on Dec. 26, 1893, in the village of Shaoshan in Hunan province of China. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was founded in 1921 and Mao attended the first congress of the CCP in July of that same year. After a long career within the CCP, he led the Communist Revolution of 1949 against the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) and founded the People’s Republic of China on Oct. 1, 1949. The ceremony was held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, with around 300,000 people in attendance. Mao’s rival, nationalist and President of the Republic of China, Chiang Kai-shek, and his followers retreated to the island of Taiwan.
Oct. 2, 1678: Wu Sangui, self-proclaimed emperor of China, died.
Born in 1612 in Liaodong, China, Wu Sangui was a Ming military officer charged with protecting the northern border of the empire from the Jurchen people, later known as the Manchu. When the Ming capital of Beijing was attacked by rebels, Wu allied with the Manchu to reclaim it. The Manchu established the Qing Dynasty and suppressed any efforts to restore the Ming with the aid of Wu, who was put in charge of eliminating Ming resistance fighters. He served the Qing for 30 years before turning against them in 1673, having established a prosperous kingdom in the South. Allied with two other Southern rulers, Wu set up his own Dynasty in the Hunan province called Dazhou and proclaimed himself emperor in 1678, but died later that same year. The Revolt of the Three Feudatories ended when the Qing defeated Wu’s grandson, Wu Shifan, in 1681.
Oct. 3, 1985: Space Shuttle Atlantis made its maiden flight.
Atlantis was NASA’s fourth space-worthy orbiter shuttle, with construction starting on March 3, 1980. It launched in Oct. of 1985, only three months before the Challenger Disaster, on a mission to deploy a communications satellite for the US Department of Defence. Atlantis flew 33 missions, with its last one being on July 8, 2011. The decommissioned shuttle is currently on display in NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida.
