14 September

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 14 September:

1. Isadora Duncan, modern dance pioneer died on this date in 1927. She was a passenger in the car of Italian mechanic, Benoît Falchetto. Before getting into the car, she said, "Goodbye, my friends, I am off to love." (A witness initially lied about her last words, substituting “glory” for “love”, embarrassed by the idea that the pair might be going off somewhere for a shag.) When Falchetto drove off, Duncan's large hand painted silk scarf became entangled around one of the vehicle's wheels and strangled her.
2. The Wacky Races was broadcast on CBS for the first time on this date in 1968.
3. In 312, as a battle was about to begin, Roman Emperor Constantine I reportedly saw a cross in the sky with the words “By this sign you will conquer.” Constantine won the battle and instituted the feast of the Holy Cross.
4. George Frederick Handel completed The Messiah (best known for The Hallelujah Chorus) on this date in 1741. He'd worked day and night for 24 days to complete it in time for a charity concert, staying in his room, drinking only Coffee. On this day, a servant found him in tears because he thought he'd seen God and heaven as he wrote.
5. Arguably, Handel might have benefited from an invention which was patented on this date in 1936 in Germany: a typewriter that could notate Music. It didn't catch on.
6. In 1988, a London taxi reached New Delhi as part of a six man expedition to Sydney. The meter showed a fare of £13,200.
7. Soviet spacecraft Lunik II became the first human-made object to reach the Moon on this date in 1959. It crash landed near the crater Archimedes at a speed of 2.1 miles (3.3 km) per second.
8. Amy Winehouse, singer, whose hits include Rehab, Back to Black and You Know I’m No Good, was born on this date in 1983.
9. In 1759, the earliest dated board game in England was sold at a price of 8s (40p), by its inventor, John Jeffreys in London. The game was called A Journey Through Europe, or the Play of Geography.
10. In 1975, Pope Paul the Sixth declared Mother Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton to be the first US born saint in the Roman Catholic Church. She was the founder of the church's first American religious order, the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph. In 1797 she founded the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children, the first such organisation in New York City.

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