On this day

September 20, 2011

Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.

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Headlines from September 20, 2011

Music on My Birthday

Billboard 200

The Top 50 albums for the chart week of September 14, 2011, covering September 20, 2011.

  1. 1
    Album cover for Tha Carter IV by Lil Wayne

    Tha Carter IV

    Lil Wayne

    Last week
    —
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    1
  2. 2
    Album cover for I'm With You by Red Hot Chili Peppers

    I'm With You

    Red Hot Chili Peppers

    Last week
    —
    Peak
    2
    Weeks
    1
  3. 3
    Album cover for 21 by Adele

    21

    Adele

    Last week
    3
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    28
  4. 4
    Album cover for Watch The Throne by Jay Z Kanye West

    Watch The Throne

    Jay Z Kanye West

    Last week
    2
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    4
  5. 5
    Album cover for Nothing But The Beat by David Guetta

    Nothing But The Beat

    David Guetta

    Last week
    —
    Peak
    5
    Weeks
    1

Notable Deaths

Oscar Handlin

2011Oscar Handlin, American historian and author (born 1915)[†]

Oscar Handlin was an American historian. As a professor of history at Harvard University for over 50 years, he directed 80 PhD dissertations and helped promote social and ethnic history, virtually inventing the field of immigration history in the 1950s. Handlin won the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for History for The Uprooted (1951). Handlin's 1965 testimony before Congress was played an important role in passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 that abolished the discriminatory immigration quota system. According to historian James Grossman, "He reoriented the whole picture of the American story from the view that America was built on the spirit of the Wild West, to the idea that we are a nation of immigrants."

Burhanuddin Rabbani

2011Burhanuddin Rabbani, Afghan academic and politician, 10th President of Afghanistan (born 1940)[†]

Burhānuddīn Rabbānī was an Afghan politician and teacher who served as the sixth president of Afghanistan from 1992 to 1996, and again from November to December 2001.

Historical Events

Don't ask, don't tell

2011The United States military ends its "don't ask, don't tell" policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly for the first time.[†]

"Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) was the official United States policy on military service of homosexual people. Instituted during the Clinton administration, the policy was issued under Department of Defense Directive 1304.26 on December 21, 1993, and was in effect from February 28, 1994, until September 20, 2011. The policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while barring openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual persons from military service. This relaxation of legal restrictions on service by gays and lesbians in the armed forces was mandated by Public Law 103–160, which was signed November 30, 1993. The policy prohibited people who "demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts" from serving in the armed forces of the United States, because their presence "would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability".

Historical Context for September 20, 2011

In 2011, the world population was approximately 7,110,923,765 people[†]