September 1915

[September 1], 1915 (Wednesday)

• Siege of Mora - Allied forces brought in larger artillery pieces to bombard the German fort on Mora mountain in German Cameroon.
• The No. 19, No. 20, No. 22 and No. 23 Squadrons of the Royal Flying Corps were established.
• Ross Sea party – While marooned from the British polar ship Aurora after it drifted away from the Antarctic in the Southern Ocean, the main party regrouped and used stores from previous expeditions to replenish food, clothing and equipment for the next ten months. Expedition commander Aeneas Mackintosh decided the group would complete their original mission to set up supply depots on the Ross Ice Shelf for the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, one that would result in the longest sledging journey on record.
• Electronic manufacturer Yokogawa Electric was founded in Tokyo as a research institute specializing in metering before incorporating as a manufacturer in 1920.
• The Iwate Light Railway was extended in the Iwate Prefecture, Japan, with station Aozasa serving the line.
• Born: Ken Aston, English sports official, developed the penalty card system for association football; as Kenneth George Aston, in Colchester, England
• Died: Inoue Kaoru, 79, Japanese state leader, cabinet minister for the Itō Hirobumi administration including the first Minister for Foreign Affairs

  [September 2], 1915 (Thursday)

• The British troopship SS Vaderland was hit by a torpedo launched by German submarine in the Aegean Sea and beached on the island of Lemnos, with the entire crew surviving. The ship was repaired and returned to service in 1916.
• Siege of Mora - A French force of 42 men made a second attempt to capture a local village near the Mora German fort in German Cameroon that had been helping the defenders, but were again repulsed with seven dead.
• The Knockaloe rail line opened on the Isle of Man to serve the Knockaloe Internment Camp and its 23,000 prisoners of war and 3,000 guards.
• American actor John Barrymore's fifth film The Incorrigible Dukane was released through Famous Players, and remains the earliest surviving Barrymore film.
• Born: Meinhardt Raabe, American actor, last surviving cast member of the film The Wizard of Oz with dialogue, played the Munchkin coroner who certified that the Wicked Witch of the East was dead; in Watertown, Wisconsin, United States

  [September 3], 1915 (Friday)

• The Mexican rebel faction Seditionistas raided the village of Ojo de Agua, Texas, forcing the United States government to deploy cavalry and signalmen to protect the Mexican-U.S. border.
• Four Imperial German Navy airships attempted to bomb England, but the L40 airship was struck by lightning and crashed in flames in the North Sea near Neuwerk, Germany, with the loss of her entire 20-man crew.
• The P. G. Wodehouse novel Something Fresh is first published as a book in New York City by D. Appleton & Company.
• Born:
• * Memphis Slim, American blues musician, best known for blues hit "Every Day I Have the Blues;" as John Len Chatman, in Memphis, Tennessee, United States
• * Eddie Stanky, American baseball player, second baseman for the Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers, Boston Braves, New York Giants, and St. Louis Cardinals between 1943 and 1953; as Edward Raymond Stanky, in Philadelphia, United States
• Died: Wilbur Dartnell, 30, Australian soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross; killed in action in German East Africa during World War I

  [September 4], 1915 (Saturday)

• British submarine was scuttled after being caught in an anti-submarine net in the Dardanelles.
• Following heavy casualties sustained at the Battle of Scimitar Hill during the Gallipoli campaign, five depleted British mounted brigades were combined to form the 1st and 2nd Composite Mounted Brigades, which were active four months until dissolved on their return to Egypt.

  [September 5], 1915 (Sunday)

• The first Zimmerwald Conference was held in the Swiss city for over three days by anti-militarist socialist parties from countries that were originally neutral during World War I.
• The Casablanca Fair officially opened for a two-month affair in Casablanca, with exhibitions representing the six major regions of Morocco as well as engineering and government projects.
• The first baptism was recorded in the Flower Lane Church, established months earlier in Fuzhou, China by Methodist missionary John W. Gowdy.
• Born:
• * Raymond Telles, American politician, first Mexican American to serve as a U.S. ambassador and serve as mayor for a major American city, Mayor of El Paso from 1957 to 1961, ambassador to Costa Rica from 1961 to 1967; in El Paso, Texas, United States
• * Paul Păun, Romanian-Israeli poet, member of the Proletkult movement in Eastern Europe; as Zaharia Herșcovici, in Bucharest, Kingdom of Romania
• Died: David Bedell-Sivright, 34, Scottish rugby player, forward for the Scotland national rugby union team from 1900 to 1908 and the British and Irish Lions from 1903 to 1904; killed in action during the Gallipoli campaign

  [September 6], 1915 (Monday)

• Bulgaria signed alliance treaties with Germany and the Ottoman Empire.
• Born: Franz Josef Strauss, German politician, Minister President of Bavaria from 1978 to 1988; in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire

  [September 7], 1915 (Tuesday)

• Two Imperial German Army airships raided England. One of the airships bombed Millwall, Deptford, Greenwich, and Woolwich, but crash-landed in Germany short of her base after suffering engine failure on the way home. The other dropped most of her bomb load on greenhouses in Cheshunt before dropping her lone remaining incendiary bomb onto a shop on Fenchurch Street in London.
• Siege of Mora - British forces launched an attack on the German defensive positions around Mora in German Cameroon but were beaten back, with 15 African colonial soldiers and a British officer killed and five German troops wounded.
• The British Army established the 120th Brigade.
• American cartoonist Johnny Gruelle was given a patent for his Raggedy Ann doll.
• The community of Dikson was established in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia.
• Born: Jock Dodds, Scottish association football player, striker for the Scotland national football team during World War II and clubs including Sheffield from 1932 to 1950; as Ephraim Dodds, in Grangemouth, Scotland

  [September 8], 1915 (Wednesday)

• Four German Navy Zeppelins attempt to bomb England. Two suffered engine trouble, while another attacked a benzole plant at Skinningrove, Yorkshire. However, her bombs failed to penetrate the roof of the benzol house or of a neighboring TNT store, and there were no casualties. The fourth reached London, dropping of a 300-kg bomb, the largest yet dropped on Britain, on address No.61 Farringdon Road where it killed 22 people and inflicted the most damage by a single airship or airplane bombing raid throughout all of World War I. The No. 61 was rebuilt in 1917 and called The Zeppelin Building.
• Pro tennis player Bill Johnston defeated Maurice McLoughlin 1–6, 6–0, 7–5, 10–8 in the final to win the men's singles tennis title at the U.S. National Championships.
• Born:
• * Frank Cady, American actor, best known as shopkeeper Sam Drucker in the 1960s TV sitcoms Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, and The Beverly Hillbillies; in Susanville, California, United States
• * Duffy Daugherty, American football coach, head of the Michigan State Spartans football team from 1954 to 1972, two-time NCAA champion; as Hugh Duffy Daugherty, in Emeigh, Pennsylvania, United States
• * Frank Pullen, English businessman, owner of property developer Pullen Estates and the Pullen Shops chain in Great Britain; as Francis Henry Pullen, in London, England
• * Nela Arias-Misson, Cuban artist, member of the abstract expressionism movement; as Manuela Paula Covadonga Josefa Arias García, in Havana, Cuba
• Died: Jack Verge, 35, Australian rugby player, fullback for the Australia national rugby union team for 1904, and New South Wales Waratahs from 1902 to 1904; died of dysentery

  [September 9], 1915 (Thursday)

• At a meeting of the Fourth State Duma, the legislative assembly of the Russian Empire, elected members associated with the Progressive Bloc pushed for the resignations of all ministers if the Bloc's program of expanded democratic freedoms was not adopted. This led to calls for the Fourth Duma to be suspended.
• William Foster & Co. of Lincoln, England, completed the first prototype military tank, nicknamed "Little Willie".
• An ammunition explosion aboard the U.S. Navy destroyer killed three sailors.
• American academic scholars Carter G. Woodson and Jesse E. Moorland established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in Chicago and incorporated it as an official organization in Washington, D.C., on October 2. It would be renamed Association for the Study of African American Life and History in 1973. The organization's official mission is "to promote, research, preserve, interpret, and disseminate information about Black life, history, and culture to the global community."
• Born:
• * Arthur Lithgow, American actor, member of the Little Theatre Movement, father to John Lithgow; in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic
• * Richard B. Sellars, American business executive, chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson from 1970 to 1976; in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
• * Gozo Shioda, Japanese martial artist, founder of the Yoshinkan style of aikido, in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Empire of Japan
• Died: A. G. Spalding, 66, baseball player and sporting goods manufacturer, co-founder of Spalding and pitcher for the Chicago White Stockings; died of a stroke