September 15 Birthday
On September 15, 1963, a bomb exploded at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four Black girls — Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley, ages eleven to fourteen. The church was a hub of the Civil Rights Movement. The bomb was planted by members of the Ku Klux Klan. The investigation was botched by the FBI, which had information about the bombers but did not share it. The first conviction came in 1977; the last in 2002. The bombing accelerated passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Agatha Christie, born this day in 1890, is the best-selling novelist of all time — over 2 billion copies sold. She wrote 66 detective novels, 14 short story collections, and the play The Mousetrap, which has been running continuously in London since 1952. She disappeared for eleven days in 1926, sparking a manhunt involving 15,000 volunteers. She was found at a hotel in Harrogate, registered under the name of her husband's mistress. She never explained. People born on September 15 fall under the zodiac sign of Virgo. The birthstone is Sapphire and the birth flower is Aster. Historical events on September 15 include 1935: Nuremberg Laws enacted — stripping German Jews of citizenship, 1963: Four Black girls killed in 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, 1916: First tanks used in battle at the Somme. Famous people born on September 15 include Agatha Christie (1890), Jackie Cooper (1922), Tommy Lee Jones (1946).