With an elusive specificity, Theodore Roosevelt always attributed his most famous statement to “Africa”—sometimes he introduced it with the statement that it was “a proverb you are all familiar with from West Africa” and sometimes he said it was a saying from South Africa.

“Speak softly and carry a big stick—you will go far,” was the saying that he credited to ancients from a land far away. He started to use the phrase in correspondence as early as 1900, when he was governor, but on this date in 1901, Vice President Roosevelt used the phrase in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair entitled National Duties. President William McKinley was gunned down four days later and died eight days after that, so this speech was visited and re-visited by the media as the only exposition the public had of the new young president’s worldview.
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There are many songs that feature the word “September” in the title and as a theme—”September Song,” of course, and “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” “The September of My Years,” “Miss September,” “September” (Earth, Wind, & Fire). All of us together can probably name several dozen September songs. Each one represents a different reason for crafting a song with September in the title and as a theme.

Here is one other, Bill McGuffie’s “Sweet September,” in a 1963 recording by pianist Bill Evans (video after the jump):
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Judge Richard Owen found that George Harrison had subconsciously plagiarized the song “He’s So Fine” in composing his own hit song, “My Sweet Lord,” on this date 40 years ago.

Judge Owen, who was himself a composer and musician, wrote a decision full of empathy for the composer’s plight:
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