September 23

2024 Calendar

September 23 is the 266th day of the year (267th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 99 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

1338 – Hundred Years' War: The Battle of Arnemuiden is fought, as the first naval battle.
1409 – Battle of Kherlen: Second significant victory by the Mongols over Ming Dynasty China since 1368.
1459 – Battle of Blore Heath: First major battle of the English Wars of the Roses.
1568 – Spanish naval forces rout and English fleet under command of John Hawkins, at the Battle of San Juan de Ulua near Veracruz.
1641 – The Merchant Royal, carrying treasure worth over a billion US Dollars, is lost at sea off Land's End, Cornwall.
1805 – Napoleonic Wars: After the Austrians march into Bavaria, France declares war on Prussia.
1806 – The Lewis and Clark expedition ends with the return to St. Louis, Missouri.
1821 – Tripolitsa, Greece, falls and 30,000 Turks are massacred during the Greek War of Independence.
1845 – Knickerbockers Baseball Club is founded in New York City. It is the first baseball team to play under modern rules.
1846 – The planet Neptune is officially discovered.
1868 – Grito de Lares, "Lares Revolt", occurs in Puerto Rico against Spanish rule.
1875 – Billy the Kid is arrested for the first time, for stealing clothes from a laundryman.
1889 – Nintendo Koppai, later the Nintendo Company, is founded in Japan by Fusajiro Yamauchi.

1901 – 2000

1905 – Norway and Sweden sign the "Karlstad Treaty", peacefully ending their union.
1908 – The University of Alberta is founded.
1909 – The Phantom of the Opera, a novel by Gaston Leroux, is published as a series in the Le Gaulois newspaper.
1910 – French-Peruvian pilot Geo Chavez becomes the first person to fly a plane across the Alps.
1913 – Roland Garros becomes the first person to fly a plane across the Mediterranean Sea, doing so from San Raphael, France to Bizerte, Tunisia.
1932 – The Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd is renamed Saudi Arabia.
1938 – Mobilisation of the Czech army in response to the Munich Crisis.
1939 – Psychologist and key figure in Psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud dies at the age of 83.
1941 – Holocaust: The first gas chamber experiments take place at Auschwitz.
1943 – The Nazi puppet state of the Italian Social Republic is founded.
1959 – Iowa farmer and corn breeder Roswell Garst hosts Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
1965 – Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 ends.
1972 – Ferdinand Marcos announces the implementation of martial law over TV and radio in the Philippines.
1973 – Chilean poet Pablo Neruda dies, 12 days after the coup that brought Augusto Pinochet to power in Chile.
1973 – Juan Perón retakes power in Argentina, but dies just over 9 months later.
1980 – Bob Marley plays in his last live performance, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1983 – Saint Kitts and Nevis joins the UN.
1983 – Gerrie Coetzee becomes the first African heavyweight boxing World champion.
1983 – Gulf Air Flight 771 is bombed, killing all 117 people on board.
1989 – Azerbaijan declares its sovereignty from the Soviet Union.
1993 – The 2000 Summer Olympics are awarded to Sydney, Australia.
1999 – NASA announces it has lost contact with the Mars Climate Orbiter.

From 2001

2002 – The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox (Phoenix 0.1) is released.
2004 – Hurricane Jeanne reportedly kills 1,070 people in Haiti.
2008 – The Kauhajoki Shooting occurs in Finland, as 10 people are shot dead. The gunman, Matti Saari, later turns the gun on himself.
2009 – Major dust storms affect Eastern Australia, as people in Sydney wake up to find their city shrouded in red dust.
2017 – New Zealand general election: The centre-right New Zealand National Party under Prime Minister Bill English becomes the largest party for the 4th term in-a-row. The New Zealand Labour Party under Jacinda Ardern performs a lot better than in the previous election.
2017 – Iran announces a weapon-test, only a few days after a speech by US President Donald Trump in which he strongly criticised the country.
2019 – British travel company Thomas Cook collapses.
2019 – Russia joins the Paris Climate Agreement.
2019 – Climate change activist Greta Thunberg speaks at a United Nations Climate summit.

Births

Deaths

Up to 1900

76 – Pope Linus
1241 – Snorri Sturluson, Icelandic historian and poet (b. 1179)
1386 – Dan I of Wallachia (b. 1354)
1390 – John I, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1346)
1535 – Catherine of Saxe-Lauenberg (b. 1513)
1657 – Joachim Jung, German philosopher and mathematician (b. 1587)
1738 – Herman Boerhaeve, Dutch humanist and physician (b. 1668)
1773 – Johan Ernst Gunnerus, Norwegian bishop and naturalist (b. 1718)
1789 – John Rogers, American Congressman (b. 1723)
1816 – Alessandro Verri, Italian writer (b. 1741)
1830 – Elizabeth Monroe, First Lady of the United States (b. 1768)
1835 – Vincenzo Bellini, Italian composer (b. 1801)
1836 – Maria Malibran, French mezzo soprano (b. 1808)
1844 – Alexander von Benckendorff, Russian general and statesman (b. 1783)
1850 – José Artigas, Uruguayan national hero (b. 1764)
1870 – Prosper Mérimée, French writer (b. 1803)
1877 – Urbain Le Verrier, French mathematician (b. 1811)
1882 – Friedrich Wöhler, German chemist (b. 1800)
1889 – Wilkie Collins, English author and playwright (b. 1824)
1896 – Ivar Aasen, Norwegian poet and linguist (b. 1813)

1901 – 2000

1917 – Werner Voss, German World War I pilot (b. 1897)
1929 – Richard Adolf Zsigmondy, Austrian chemist (b. 1865)
1939 – Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychologist (b. 1856)
1943 – Salvo D'Acquisto, Italian military officer (b. 1920)
1943 – Ernst Trygger, Swedish politician (b. 1857)
1944 – Jakob Schaffner, Swiss author (b. 1875)
1950 – Sam Barry, American basketball player and coach (b. 1892)
1968 – Padre Pio, Italian priest (b. 1887)
1970 – Bourvil, French actor (b. 1917)
1971 – Billy Gilbert, American actor (b. 1894)
1971 – James Waddell Alexander II, American mathematician (b. 1888)
1973 – Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet (b. 1904)
1973 – A. S. Neill, Scottish educator (b. 1883)
1974 – Cliff Arquette, American actor (b. 1905)
1987 – Bob Fosse, American choreographer (b. 1927)
1988 – Tibor Sekelj, Yugoslavian explorer (b. 1912)
1992 – James Van Fleet, American general (b. 1892)
1994 – Jerry Barber, American golfer (b. 1916)
1994 – Robert Bloch, American writer (b. 1917)
1994 – Madeleine Renaud, French actress (b. 1900)
1998 – Ray Bowden, English footballer (b. 1909)
1999 – Ivan Goff, Australian-American screenwriter and producer (b. 1910)

From 2001

2003 – Shawn Lane, American musician (b. 1963)
2006 – Malcolm Arnold, British composer (b. 1921)
2006 – Etta Baker, American blues guitarist and singer (b. 1913)
2006 – Tim Rooney, American actor (b. 1947)
2009 – Ertugrul Osman, head of the Ottoman dynasty (b. 1912)
2012 – Corrie Sanders, South African boxer (b. 1966)
2012 – Pavel Grachev, Russian general (b. 1948)
2013 – Vlatko Markovic, Croatian footballer (b. 1937)
2014 – Al Suomi, American ice hockey player (b. 1913)
2014 – Gilles Latulippe, Canadian comedian, actor and theatre manager (b. 1937)
2014 – Henryk Glücklich, Polish speedway rider (b. 1945)
2015 – Mike Gibson, Australian sports journalist and broadcaster (b. 1940)
2015 – Dragan Holcer, Croatian footballer (b. 1945)
2015 – Denis Sonet, French priest (b. 1926)
2017 – Charles Bradley, American singer (b. 1948)
2017 – Elizabeth D. Phillips, American educator and academic administrator (b. 1945)
2017 – Samuel H. Young, American politician (b. 1922)
2018 – Charles K. Kao, Chinese-born electrical engineer (b. 1933)
2018 – Gary Kurtz, American film producer (b. 1940)
2019 – Al Alvarez, English poet and writer (b. 1929)
2019 – Madhav Apte, Indian cricketer (b. 1932)
2019 – Elaine Feinstein, English poet and novelist (b. 1930)
2019 – Robert Hunter, American songwriter, poet and guitarist (b. 1941)
2019 – Curt Wittlin, Swiss philologist (b. 1941)

Observances

Feast of Saint Pio
Celebrate Bisexuality Day
National holiday of Saudi Arabia
September equinox in some years (autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, and spring in the Southern Hemisphere)

September 23

Events

Up to 1900

1901 – 2000

From 2001

Births

Up to 1800

1801 – 1900

1901 – 1950

1951 – 1975

From 1976

Deaths

Up to 1900

1901 – 2000

From 2001

Observances