TODAY IN HISTORY

September 15

1789:The U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs changed its name to the Department of State.

1821:Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador gained independence.

1835:Charles Darwin and the HMS Beagle reached the Galapagos Islands.

1917:Alexander Kerensky proclaimed Russia a republic.

1935:The Nuremberg Laws deprived Jews of their citizenship and made the Swastika the official emblem of Nazi Germany.

1963:A church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, killed four young black girls.

1989:Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Penn Warren, the first poet laureate of the United States, died.