September 11: New Year's Day in the Coptic and the Ethiopian calendars; National Day of Catalonia, Teacher's Day in parts of Latin America.

• 1297 – First War of Scottish Independence: The Scots defeated English troops at the Battle of Stirling Bridge on the River Forth near Stirling.

• 1857 – At Mountain Meadows, Utah Territory, USA, a local brigade of the Mormon militia led a massacre of about 120 California-bound pioneers from Arkansas.

• 1961 – The World Wide Fund for Nature, the world's largest independent conservation organisation, was founded in Morges, Switzerland.

• 1973 – A coup d'état in Chile led by General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the government of President Salvador Allende and established an anti-communist military dictatorship.

• 2001 – September 11 attacks: Terrorists hijacked four passenger airliners, intentionally crashing two of them into the World Trade Center in New York City (burning pictured) and one plane into the Pentagon near Washington, D.C.; the fourth aircraft crashed in Pennsylvania. In total, almost 3,000 people were killed.

More events on this day... Recent days: September 10 – September 9 – September 8