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... that Kirkpatrick Chapel (pictured) at Rutgers University , built in 1873, was designed by architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh , and features four stained-glass windows from the studios of Louis Comfort Tiffany ?
... that Arthur Fields took over 180,000 photographs of Dublin pedestrians?
... that according to the 1871 census, the first in British India, Tiruchirappalli had a population of 76,530 making it the second largest city in Madras Presidency , next only to Madras ?
... that Daft Punk 's "Doin' It Right ", featuring Panda Bear of the Animal Collective , was considered by both Pitchfork Media and Paperblog to be the best track out of their fourth album Random Access Memories ?
... that the sister of Natchez warchief Tattooed Serpent said that he was like a Frenchman?
... that 17th-century churches in Germany , Austria and Switzerland spent significant amounts of money decorating the corpses of unknown Christians so that they could be worshipped as saints?
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On this day...
September 15 : International Day of Democracy ; Independence Day in Costa Rica , El Salvador , Guatemala , and Nicaragua (1821 ); Battle of Britain Day in the United Kingdom
1440 – French knight Gilles de Rais , one of the earliest known serial killers , was taken into custody upon an accusation brought against him by the Bishop of Nantes .
1831 – The John Bull (pictured) , the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world, ran for the first time in New Jersey on the Camden and Amboy Railroad .
1916 – Tanks , the "secret weapons" of the British Army during the First World War , were first used in combat at the Battle of the Somme in Somme , Picardy , France, leading to strategic Allied victory.
1944 – American and Australian forces landed on the Japanese-occupied island of Morotai , starting the Battle of Morotai .
1963 – A bomb planted by members of the Ku Klux Klan exploded in the 16th Street Baptist Church , an African American Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama , US, killing four children and injuring at least 22 others.
More anniversaries: September 14 – September 15 – September 16
Today's featured picture
The bashi-bazouk were irregular soldiers of the Ottoman army who could originate from any part of the empire. Known for such a lack of discipline that they were sometimes forcibly disarmed and worked for plunder, they were formally abandoned by the end of the 19th century.
This painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme , now held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art , was produced after he visited Asia Minor in 1868. According to the museum, "Gérôme's virtuosic treatment of textures provides a sumptuous counterpoint to the figure’s dignified bearing".
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