September 15th 1916 : Tanks introduced into warfare at the Somme

During the Battle of the Somme, the British launch a major offensive against the Germans, employing tanks for the first time in history. At Flers Courcelette, some of the 40 or so primitive tanks advanced over a mile into enemy lines but were too slow to hold their positions during the German counterattack and subject to mechanical breakdown. However, General Douglas Haig, commander of Allied forces at the Somme, saw the promise of this new instrument of war and ordered the war department to produce hundreds more.

On July 1, the British launched a massive offensive against German forces in the Somme River region of France. During the preceding week, 250,000 Allied shells had pounded German positions near the Somme, and 100,000 British soldiers poured out of their trenches and into no-man's-land on July 1, expecting to find the way cleared for them. However, scores of heavy German machine guns had survived the artillery onslaught, and the infantry were massacred. By the end of the day, 20,000 British soldiers were dead and 40,000 wounded. It was the single heaviest day of casualties in British military history.

After the initial disaster, Haig resigned himself to smaller but equally ineffectual advances, and more than 1,000 Allied lives were extinguished for every 100 yards gained on the Germans. Even Britain's September 15 introduction of tanks into warfare for the first time in history failed to break the deadlock in the Battle of the Somme. In October, heavy rains turned the battlefield into a sea of mud, and on November 18 Haig called off the Somme offensive after more than four months of mass slaughter.

Except for its effect of diverting German troops from the Battle of Verdun, the offensive was a miserable disaster. It amounted to a total advance of just five miles for the Allies, with more than 600,000 British and French soldiers killed, wounded, or missing in action. German casualties were more than 650,000. Although Haig was severely criticized for the costly battle, his willingness to commit massive amounts of men and resources to the stalemate along the western front did eventually contribute to the collapse of an exhausted Germany in 1918.

September 15 1858: The First Transcontinental Mail Service to San Francisco begins.

The new Overland Mail Company sends out its first two stages,
inaugurating government mail service between the eastern and western regions of the nation.

With California booming, thanks to the 1849 Gold Rush,
Americans east and west had been clamoring for faster and surer transcontinental mail service for years.
Finally, in March 1857,
the U.S. Congress passed an act authorizing an overland mail delivery service and a $600,000 yearly subsidy
for whatever company could succeed in reliably transporting the mail twice a week from St. Louis to San Francisco in less than 25 days.
The postmaster general awarded the first government contract and subsidy to the Overland Mail Company.
Under the guidance of a board of directors that included John Butterfield and William Fargo,
the Overland Mail Company spent $1 million improving its winding 2,800-mile route and building way stations at 10-15 mile intervals.
Teams of thundering horses soon raced across the wide open spaces of the West,
pulling custom-built Concord coaches with seats for nine passengers and a rear boot for the mail.

September 16 1940: United States Imposes the Draft.

The Burke-Wadsworth Act is passed by Congress, by wide margins in both houses,
and the first peacetime draft in the history of the United States is imposed. Selective Service was born.

On Sept 17:

1862 - This was the bloodiest single day of fighting in the American Civil War; more than 26,000 men were killed, wounded, or missing in action at the Battle of Antietam in western Maryland.

September 18 1904: Couple Crosses the Rockies by Car

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Glidden completed the first crossing of the Canadian Rockies by automobile on this day,
arriving exhausted from their 3,536-mile trip.
The couple had driven from Boston, Massachusetts, to Vancouver, Canada, in their 24hp Napier.