September 15 in History

France divided the department of Corse into Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud, creating two administrative regions to better govern the Mediterranean island's distinct northern and southern populations. The split acknowledged Corsica's complex regional identities and foreshadowed the broader decentralization reforms that would reshape French governance in the following decade.

Before his arrest, Gilles de Rais was one of the wealthiest men in France and had fought alongside Joan of Arc at Orléans. He'd personally financed theatrical productions so elaborate they bankrupted him. The Bishop of Nantes moved against him in 1440, and what followed was a confession — disputed by some historians ever since — to the murders of dozens of children on his estates in Brittany. He was hanged and burned in Nantes on October 26. The man who'd helped save France had apparently been conducting something unspeakable inside his own castles.

A miraculous portrait of Saint Dominic appeared in Soriano Calabro on this date, sparking a local devotion that grew so intense the Roman Catholic Church officially recognized it as a feast day from 1644 to 1912. This brief liturgical celebration cemented the town's identity around the image before the observance faded into history.

Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington, stepped onto the battlefield at Boxtel to face Dutch Republican forces for the first time. This engagement launched a military career that would eventually end Napoleon's dominance at Waterloo.

Napoleon's Grande Armée marched into a burning Kremlin, finding only ash and silence where they expected surrender. This hollow victory triggered a catastrophic retreat that shattered the French military and ended Napoleon's dominance over Europe.

They'd already lost the first supply convoy. The second one, sent to relieve the besieged garrison at Fort Harrison on September 14, 1812, was ambushed at a narrow river passage — likely by Miami and Potawatomi warriors — and turned back without reaching the fort. The fort itself had been attacked just weeks earlier, and a teenage Captain Zachary Taylor had held it with about 50 men. That defense launched Taylor's career. The ambushed convoy that didn't make it is the footnote. The man it was trying to supply became the 12th President of the United States.

Eight Trigram Sect followers loyal to Lin Qing stormed the Forbidden City, hoping to overthrow the Jiaqing Emperor. The failed assault triggered a brutal crackdown that exposed severe security lapses within the Qing palace and forced the court to tighten imperial defenses for decades.

The Liverpool to Manchester railway line opens, launching an era of rapid industrial transport. Just hours later, British MP William Huskisson becomes the first widely reported railway passenger fatality when he steps onto the tracks and gets struck by the locomotive Rocket. This tragedy forces immediate safety reforms that reshape how passengers board trains for decades.

It crossed the Atlantic in pieces, packed in crates. The John Bull locomotive was built in England, shipped to New Jersey, and assembled on American soil — then rolled on its own power for the first time on September 15, 1831, on the Camden and Amboy Railroad. It could haul passengers at speeds up to 28 mph, which terrified most of them. The engine is still intact. And 150 years later, the Smithsonian would fire it up again — making the John Bull the oldest self-propelled mechanical vehicle ever to run under its own power.

Japan's decisive victory at the Battle of Pyongyang forces the retreating Qing army back across the Korean border, effectively ending their control over the peninsula. This collapse shatters China's regional dominance and propels Japan onto the world stage as a major imperial power within months.