Ripped from the Headlines: September 2025: September Words

The War of 1812 had been raging for two years when Francis Scott Key wrote the words to the song that would become the national anthem of the United States. It was September 14, 1814, and as Key watched British bombs falling on Baltimore's Fort McHenry, he spotted an American flag that remained flying amid the mayhem. Inspired, he wrote The Star-Spangled Banner. The patriotic tune, which is sung before nearly every U.S. sporting event, became the official anthem in 1931.

President William McKinley was six months into his first term when he was shot by an anarchist on September 6, 1901 at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Eight days later, McKinley died, becoming the third U.S. president to be assassinated. The word's origins go back to a Crusades-era Muslim sect, hashishiyy, which was reputed to indiscriminately murder leaders of opposition groups.

Though plenty of students attend school year-round, or head back into the classroom in July or October, September is synonymous with the start of the school year for many. That means backpacks will soon be loaded with books, laptops, notebooks, and tablets, and lugged from class to class. Before the word backpack was coined in the U.S. around 1910, people called them "moneybags" or "packsacks."

Constitution Day is observed every year on September 17, the anniversary of the date in 1787 when delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the brand new U.S. Constitution. This document outlines the country's fundamental laws and government structure, and stipulates the guaranteed rights of its citizens. To this day, after being amended 27 times, the Constitution is still considered the "supreme law of the land."

Since 2008, September 15 has marked the International Day of Democracy. The United Nations created this holiday on the 20th anniversary of its first International Conference of New or Restored Democracies, with the goal of encouraging participatory governments around the world. It’s the perfect opportunity to learn about the importance of free elections and advocate for global human rights. Democracy has a Greek root that means "rule by the common people."

In the Northern Hemisphere, the autumnal equinox occurs sometime between September 21 and 24, the sun moving south across the celestial equator and giving us one of the two days each year when day and night are equal in length. The equinox also marks the official beginning of fall — or spring, if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere. Equinox derives from the medieval Latin equinoxium, "equality of night (and day)."

Be sure to do something extra nice for your Grandma or Grandpa on the first Sunday following Labor Day — it’s Grandparents' Day! While most people who are lucky enough to know their parents’ parents appreciate it every day, this is an added excuse to spend time with your Granny, Opa, Abuelito, or Grandmère. Grandparents' Day was created in 1978, when President Jimmy Carter proclaimed it an annual celebration of these beloved family members who connect us to the past.

Labor Day, which falls annually on the first Monday in September, honors the hard work and achievements of working people in the United States. It's been a federal holiday since 1894, after being proposed by members of the American labor movement. Labor Day weekend is also traditionally one last chance to get time off from work and celebrate the end of the summer. In Latin, labor means "toil, exertion, or fatigue."

If you love to read, International Literacy Day on September 8 is the perfect opportunity to celebrate with a book — and spread the word about the benefits of reading and writing. Since the U.N. originated the holiday in 1967, literacy advocates have used it to inform the world about the dignity and power people gain when they're able to read. The root of literacy means "written letter."

September 15, 1890, is the birthday of one of the most famous mystery writers of all time, Agatha Christie. Christie's 66 detective novels introduced iconic characters like Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, investigators who follow clues to solve crimes, reveal secrets, and uncover culprits. Mystery derives from the Latin mysterium, "secret rite or a secret thing."

Unroll your treasure map and grab your parrot — shiver me timbers, September 19 is International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Two friends, known in pirate lingo as Cap’n Slappy and Ol’ Chumbucket, invented this fun holiday in 1995, when a racquetball injury led one of them to say, "Arrr!" Their campaign to encourage the use of privateer jargon for one day each year has since gone viral. If your lily-livered friends won’t play along, give ‘em no quarter — they can walk the plank!

If it's September 24, it must be National Punctuation Day! From possessive apostrophes to suspenseful semicolons, punctuation is a vital part of every well-written sentence. Commas and parentheses organize your ideas, and exclamation points express your enthusiasm! And how would you recognize a question without the question mark at the end? Punctuation comes from a Latin word meaning "mark with points or dots."

International Skyscraper Day is September 3, the birthday of American architect Louis Henry Sullivan, known as the "father of skyscrapers." The earliest examples of these high-rise buildings were constructed in the 1880s, reaching up to 20 stories tall. Today's skyscrapers range from about 400 feet to a dizzying 2,500 feet high. In French, this kind of towering structure is a gratte-ciel, "scrape the sky," and in German a Wolkenkratzer, or "cloud scraper."

On September 11, 2001, hijackers flew commercial airplanes into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, DC. A fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Carried out by the extremist militant group Al-Qaeda, it was the worst act of terrorism on American soil, resulting in 3,000 deaths.

The Revolutionary War didn’t formally end until September 3, 1783. That's when a U.S. delegation and Great Britain's King George III signed the Treaty of Paris. The agreement stipulated a precise boundary between the United States and British North America, today known as Canada. It also served as a written contract acknowledging that the U.S. was officially free, independent from British rule. Treaty comes from the Latin tractatus, "discussion."