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HISTORY & TIMELINE
27 September

A journey through
27 September in history

From the papal approval of the Jesuits in 1540 to a probe bound for the asteroid belt in 2007, 27 September has seen new orders, new nations and new ideas. This timeline follows the date across almost five centuries.

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III
A CHANGING WORLD

Early Modern Era

Exploration, political change, scientific development and expanding global connections.

1540
Ignatius of Loyola receives the bull Regimini militantis Ecclesiae from Pope Paul III, in an 18th-century fresco by Johann Christoph Handke in Olomouc.Ignatius of Loyola receives the bull Regimini militantis Ecclesiae from Pope Paul III, in an 18th-century fresco by Johann Christoph Handke in Olomouc.Image: Johann Christoph Handke / Michal Maňas · Public domain
culture · Europe

The Pope approves the Society of Jesus

On 27 September 1540 Pope Paul III issued the bull Regimini militantis Ecclesiae, formally recognising the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, as a religious order. The bull took in the ‘Formula of the Institute’, the charter written by Ignatius of Loyola and his first companions in 1539, which the pope had approved by word of mouth a year earlier. At first the bull limited the order to sixty members, a restriction lifted after two years. The Jesuits went on to become one of the largest orders of the Catholic Church, known above all for their schools, universities and missions.

Source: The Society of Jesus: On 27 September 1540 the Society of Jesus received papal approval ↗
IV
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The 1800s

Industry, empire, invention, reform and a century of enormous transformation.

1821
The generals of the Army of the Three Guarantees, in a 19th-century print.The generals of the Army of the Three Guarantees, in a 19th-century print.Image: Ferdinand Bastin, Julio Michauld and Thomas · Public domain
politics · Americas

The Army of the Three Guarantees enters Mexico City

On 27 September 1821 Agustín de Iturbide rode into Mexico City at the head of the Army of the Three Guarantees, completing Mexico’s independence from Spain after more than a decade of war. Iturbide, once a royalist officer, had joined forces with the insurgent leader Vicente Guerrero and proclaimed the Plan of Iguala on 24 February 1821. The army’s three guarantees were the Catholic religion, independence, and union between the country’s rival groups. In 1822 Iturbide was proclaimed emperor of Mexico.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Army of the Three Guarantees ↗
1822
Jean-François Champollion, painted by Léon Cogniet.Jean-François Champollion, painted by Léon Cogniet.Image: Léon Cogniet · Public domain
science · Europe

Champollion announces how to read hieroglyphs

On Friday 27 September 1822 Jean-François Champollion’s ‘Lettre à M. Dacier’ was read before the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in Paris. In it he explained how Egyptian hieroglyphs could be read, a moment the British Museum describes as the birth of Egyptology. Working from the Rosetta Stone and other inscriptions, and from his knowledge of Coptic, Champollion showed that hieroglyphs were used phonetically to spell foreign royal names such as Ptolemy and Berenice. Only a fortnight earlier, the story goes, he had burst into his brother’s room crying ‘I’ve got it!’

Source: British Museum: Eureka! Finding the key to ancient Egypt ↗
1825
A replica of Locomotion No. 1 passes the Shildon coal drops during the Rail 150 celebrations in 1975.A replica of Locomotion No. 1 passes the Shildon coal drops during the Rail 150 celebrations in 1975.Image: Murgatroyd49 · CC BY-SA 4.0
world · Europe

The first steam-hauled public railway opens

On 27 September 1825 the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened in north-east England. Large crowds watched George Stephenson drive Locomotion, built for the line by Robert Stephenson and Co., at the head of a train of wagons from the Shildon area through Darlington to Stockton. It was the first public railway in the world to use steam locomotives, built to carry coal from the collieries of south-west Durham to the River Tees. The engine had been delivered by road from Newcastle only days before the opening.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Stockton and Darlington Railway ↗
V
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The 1900s

War and peace, technological leaps, social change, politics, sport and popular culture.

1905
Albert Einstein in about 1904, during his years at the patent office in Bern.Albert Einstein in about 1904, during his years at the patent office in Bern.Image: Lucien Chavan [1] (1868 - 1942), a friend of Einstein's when he was living in Berne. · Public domain
science · Europe

Einstein’s E = mc² paper reaches the journal

On 27 September 1905 the journal Annalen der Physik received a three-page paper by Albert Einstein, then a clerk at the Swiss patent office, titled ‘Does the inertia of a body depend upon its energy content?’. It was the last of the four great papers of his ‘miracle year’. Einstein concluded that when a body gives off energy as radiation its mass falls accordingly: the mass of a body is a measure of its energy content. The relationship, later written E = mc², became the most famous equation in physics.

Source: Physics Today (American Institute of Physics): E = mc² ↗
1908
An advertisement for the 1908 Ford Model T.An advertisement for the 1908 Ford Model T.Image: User Rmhermen on en.wikipedia · Public domain
world · Americas

The first production Model T is built

The first Ford Model T built for sale was completed at Ford’s Piquette Avenue plant in Detroit on 27 September 1908; its production card, now at The Henry Ford museum, lists it as car number one. Production started slowly, with only 11 cars in October, but the first 12,000 Model Ts were assembled at Piquette before the moving assembly line at Highland Park made the car affordable to millions.

Source: The Henry Ford: First Ford Model T production card, 27 September 1908 ↗
1938
The Queen Elizabeth at Southampton in 1967.The Queen Elizabeth at Southampton in 1967.Image: Wolfgang Fricke · CC BY 3.0
world · Europe

The liner Queen Elizabeth is launched on the Clyde

On 27 September 1938 Queen Elizabeth, later the Queen Mother, launched the Cunard liner that bore her name at John Brown’s shipyard in Clydebank, with the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret beside her. The largest passenger liner then built, she served first as a troopship in the Second World War and entered regular transatlantic service in 1946.

Source: University of Glasgow: Her Majesty The Queen, gallery ↗
1940
The signing ceremony of the Tripartite Pact in Berlin, 27 September 1940.The signing ceremony of the Tripartite Pact in Berlin, 27 September 1940.Image: Heinrich Hoffmann · Public domain
world · Global

Germany, Italy and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact

On 27 September 1940, a year into the Second World War, Germany, Italy and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact in Berlin. It was signed by the foreign ministers Joachim von Ribbentrop and Galeazzo Ciano and by Japan’s ambassador, Kurusu Saburo, and was to last ten years. The three powers promised to help one another if any of them was attacked by a power not yet involved in the European war or the war in China. That wording left out the Soviet Union and was aimed chiefly at deterring the United States. Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria and others later joined.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Tripartite Pact ↗
1983
Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU project.Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU project.Image: Patafisik · CC BY-SA 4.0
science · Americas

Richard Stallman announces the GNU project

On 27 September 1983 Richard Stallman, a programmer at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab, posted a message to Usenet announcing GNU, a complete Unix-compatible operating system that would be free for anyone to use, share and change. Work began in January 1984, and GNU software, combined later with the Linux kernel, became the basis of a large part of the world’s computing.

Source: GNU Project: Initial announcement ↗
VI
2000 TO TODAY

Modern Day

The events of recent decades that have already become part of the historical record.

2007
The Dawn mission emblem, showing the spacecraft between Vesta and Ceres.The Dawn mission emblem, showing the spacecraft between Vesta and Ceres.Image: NASA · Public domain
science · Americas

NASA’s Dawn sets off for the asteroid belt

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft was launched on 27 September 2007 on a mission to the two largest bodies in the asteroid belt. Driven by ion engines burning xenon, it reached the giant asteroid Vesta in July 2011 and orbited it for over a year before moving on. In March 2015 Dawn arrived at Ceres, becoming the first spacecraft to visit a dwarf planet and the only one to have orbited two separate bodies beyond the Earth-Moon system. Its mission ended on 1 November 2018 when it ran out of fuel.

Source: NASA: 15 years ago, Dawn begins voyage to asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres ↗
RESEARCH

Sources & Further Reading

Selected authoritative references supporting the events on this page.

WHY THESE MOMENTS?

Significance before volume

This page is not the longest possible list of events. It is a chronological journey through 27 September, where each entry is chosen for historical significance, human interest and reliability.

Facts are checked against authoritative museums, archives, universities and reference works. Where sources disagree, the page says so.

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