#Middlebury
On Sept. 27, 1540, in Rome, the Society of Jesus – a Roman Catholic missionary organization – receives its charter from Pope Paul III. The Jesuit order succeeded in converting millions around the world to Catholicism.- On Sept. 28, 1066, claiming his right to the English throne, William, duke of Normandy, invades England. On Christmas Day, William the Conqueror was crowned the first Norman king of England. William I also is known for his “Domesday Book,” a great census of the lands and people of England.
- On Sept. 24, 1941, the Japanese consul in Hawaii is instructed to divide Pearl Harbor into five zones and calculate the number of battleships in each zone. The United States had intercepted the message, but it was dismissed a month later as being of no great consequence.
- On Sept. 26, 1957, “West Side Story,” composed by Leonard Bernstein, opens on Broadway. The show went on to an impressive maiden run of 732 performances. In 1961, a film version was an enormous hit and took home 10 Academy Awards.
- On Sept. 23, 1969, the trial for eight antiwar activists charged with sparking violent demonstrations at the August 1968 Democratic National Convention opens in Chicago. Most were convicted on criminal charges or contempt of court, but none served time after convictions eventually were overturned on appeal or charges dropped.
- On Sept. 25, 1970, ABC premieres “The Partridge Family,” which would become a smash hit. The group’s songs were not actually recorded by the five siblings and their mom in a garage, but were mostly the work of professional musicians in Los Angeles.
- On Sept. 29, 1982, seven people die in Chicago after ingesting over-the-counter painkiller laced with cyanide. No other contaminated capsules were found in a nationwide recall, but the mass murder led to new tamper-proof medicine containers.
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