This Week in History

SEPTEMBER 12TH 1935: Howard Hughes sets an airspeed record in a plane of his own design. Hughes reached a speed of 352.46 miles per hour during the flight. 1959: Bonanza airs for the first time. The series was the first regularly scheduled TV show in color. It ran on NBC until 1973. SEPTEMBER 13TH 1814: Francis Scott Key pens “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Originally titled “Defense of Fort McHenry,” the poem described the bombardment of the fort by the British fleet in Baltimore Harbor during the War of 1812. Key was a captive on the British Navy’s HMS Minden during the battle. He watched while the British ships pounded the fortress with shells and rocket fire, and saw that the fort’s small “storm flag” was flying during the rainy night, illuminated the 19th century it was set to music, and officially adopted by the US Navy. In 1931, the song was officially adopted as the by the explosions. After the barrage had finished, Key would not know until the next morning what the outcome of the battle was. That morning, the defenders raised the fort’s larger American flag, and Key was inspired by the sight. He wrote the poem on the back of a letter, and later it was published in a national magazine. In national anthem. SEPTEMBER 14TH 1224: Saint Francis of Assisi has an epiphany. The Italian Catholic friar had been a soldier as a young man but had left the military to pursue a religious calling. He went on a pilgrimage to Rome and would often spend time praying and fasting in solitude. Upon seeing a vision of Jesus, Francis renounced his family inheritance and took a vow of poverty, begging for alms in Assisi and working to rebuild churches in the local countryside. Later in his life, he traveled to Egypt during the Fifth Crusade in an attempt to convert the Sultan to Christianity. He was not successful. Back in Italy, Francis founded a religious order that still exists today. Its followers take a vow of poverty and serve the poor. On this day in 1224, Francis was praying when he reportedly had a vision of an angel and was struck by the stigmata, a condition of wounds on the hands and feet. He died in 1226 and was canonized as a saint two years later.