September 15

994 – Major Fatimid victory over the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of the Orontes. 1440 – Gilles de Rais, one of the earliest known serial killers, is taken into custody upon an accusation brought against him by Jean de Malestroit, Bishop of Nantes. 1530 – Appearance of the miraculous portrait of Saint Dominic in Soriano in Soriano Calabro, Calabria, Italy; commemorated as a feast day by the Roman Catholic Church 1644–1912. 1556 – Departing from Vlissingen, ex-Holy Roman Emperor Charles V returns to Spain. 1762 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Signal Hill. 1776 – American Revolutionary War: British forces land at Kip's Bay during the New York Campaign. 1789 – The United States "Department of Foreign Affairs", established by law in July, is renamed the Department of State and given a variety of domestic duties. 1794 – French Revolutionary Wars: Arthur Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington) sees his first combat at the Battle of Boxtel during the Flanders Campaign. 1795 – Britain seizes the Dutch Cape Colony in southern Africa to prevent its use by the Batavian Republic. 1812 – The Grande Armée under Napoleon reaches the Kremlin in Moscow. 1812 – War of 1812: A second supply train sent to relieve Fort Harrison is ambushed in the Attack at the Narrows. 1816 – runs aground on the Doom Bar. 1820 – Constitutionalist revolution in Lisbon, Portugal. 1821 – The Captaincy General of Guatemala declares independence from Spain. 1830 – The Liverpool to Manchester railway line opens; British MP William Huskisson becomes the first widely reported railway passenger fatality when he is struck and killed by the locomotive Rocket. 1835 – , with Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the Galápagos Islands. The ship lands at Chatham or San Cristobal, the easternmost of the archipelago. 1862 – American Civil War: Confederate forces capture Harpers Ferry, Virginia (present-day Harpers Ferry, West Virginia). 1873 – Franco-Prussian War: The last Imperial German Army troops leave France upon completion of payment of indemnity.