1813Oliver Hazard Perry wins the Battle of Lake Erie
In the War of 1812 between the United States and Britain, control of the Great Lakes decided who could move troops and supplies along the frontier with Canada. The British held Lake Erie, and with it Detroit. Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry, aged 27, was sent to Erie, Pennsylvania, to build a squadron almost from nothing, and by late summer 1813 he had nine vessels ready to sail. His flagship, the brig Lawrence, flew a blue banner with the words ‘Don’t Give Up the Ship’.
On 10 September 1813 Perry’s squadron met six British ships under Commander Robert Barclay near Put-in-Bay at the western end of the lake. The Lawrence took the brunt of the British fire and was wrecked, with most of her crew killed or wounded. Perry had himself rowed to the almost untouched Niagara, sailed her back into the fight and forced the whole British squadron to surrender, something that had never happened before in the Royal Navy’s history. He reported to General William Henry Harrison: ‘We have met the enemy and they are ours.’ The victory let the Americans retake Detroit and push into Upper Canada.
Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Naval History and Heritage Command: 1813 on the Lakes, Lake Erie ↗
1919Austria signs the Treaty of Saint-Germain
When the First World War ended in November 1918, the Habsburg empire fell apart. Czechoslovakia, Poland and the new kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes broke away, Hungary went its own way, and the German-speaking heartland declared itself the Republic of German-Austria, hoping to join Germany. At the peace conference in Paris the Allies dealt with Austria separately, and its delegation, led by the chancellor Karl Renner, was summoned to the château at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, west of the city.
Renner signed the treaty there on 10 September 1919. Austria recognised the independence of the new states and gave up South Tyrol, Trentino, Trieste and Istria to Italy and other lands to its neighbours, leaving a small country of about six and a half million people. Union with Germany was forbidden without the consent of the League of Nations, the army was limited to 30,000 volunteers and the old imperial navy was shared out among the Allies. The country had to drop the name German-Austria and became simply the Republic of Austria. The treaty came into force in July 1920.
Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Britannica: Treaty of Saint-Germain ↗
1967Gibraltar votes to stay British
Britain had held Gibraltar, the rocky peninsula at the mouth of the Mediterranean, since 1704, and Spain had never stopped asking for it back. In the 1960s Francisco Franco’s government pressed its claim at the United Nations as a case of decolonisation, and tightened restrictions at the land frontier. The British government decided to let the people of Gibraltar themselves say where they wanted to belong.
On 10 September 1967 Gibraltarians were asked whether they wished to pass under Spanish sovereignty or to keep their link with Britain. Almost 96 per cent of voters took part, and the result was 12,138 votes for Britain and 44 for Spain. Spain did not accept the vote and in 1969 closed the frontier completely; it did not fully reopen until 1985. In Gibraltar the anniversary of the referendum is now celebrated every year as National Day, when the streets fill with red and white.
Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: HM Government of Gibraltar: Gibraltar fact sheets ↗
1974Portugal recognises the independence of Guinea-Bissau
From the early 1960s the PAIGC, the liberation movement founded by Amílcar Cabral, fought a guerrilla war against Portuguese rule in Guinea, a small colony on the west coast of Africa. By the early 1970s it controlled much of the countryside. Cabral was murdered in January 1973, but on 24 September that year the movement declared the independent Republic of Guinea-Bissau, with his half-brother Luís Cabral as president, and many countries recognised it. Portugal did not.
The long colonial wars in Africa helped bring down Portugal’s dictatorship in the Carnation Revolution of April 1974, and the new government in Lisbon opened talks with the liberation movements. On 10 September 1974 Portugal formally recognised Guinea-Bissau as an independent state, the first of its African colonies to be let go. Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe and Angola followed to independence in 1975.
Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Britannica: Guinea-Bissau, independence ↗
