September 27

On September 7, 1940, nearly 1,000 German bombers launched the first major air raid against London, marking the dramatic beginning of the Blitz - a sustained bombing campaign by Nazi Germany that targeted Britain’s cities and civilians for months. The violence changed the face of London overnight and left scars, visible and invisible, for generations.

In the weeks after the September 11 attacks, at least one envelope postmarked September 18, 2001, in Trenton, New Jersey, and addressed to American Media Inc. in Boca Raton, Florida, carried a powder later confirmed to contain Bacillus anthracis spores. A handful of tabloid employees were exposed; photo editor Robert K. Stevens developed inhalational anthrax with symptom onset around September 30, was hospitalized in early October, and died after CDC confirmed the diagnosis on October 5, 2001. The mailing launched a national investigation into what became known as Amerithrax, prompted widespread decontamination and policy change, and left lingering scientific and criminal questions.

Beginning on September 19, 1944, U.S. forces entered the ancient Hürtgen Forest east of the Belgian–German border. What followed was months of grinding, close-quarter fighting in mud and cold as American infantry struggled to clear ridges, villages, and observation points while German defenders used the trees, bunkers, and minefields to bleed them slowly. The fighting stretched into winter and is remembered as one of the bloodiest, most contested forest battles on the Western Front.