September 23......

September 23 is the 266th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (267th in leap years). There are 99 days remaining. It is known to be the first day of the autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, and the first day of the spring season in the Southern Hemisphere.

EVENTS

● 1122 - Concordat of Worms

● 1459 - Battle of Blore Heath, the first major battle of the English Wars of the Roses, is fought at Blore Heath in Staffordshire.

● 1529 - The Siege of Vienna begins as Suleiman I begins his attack on the city.

● 1642 - First commencement exercises occur at Harvard College in Cambridge, MA.

● 1779 - American Revolution; USS Bonhomme Richard, commanded by John Paul Jones, wins a fight against the British ships of war Serapis and Countess of Scarborough off the coast of England and is said to have declared, ''I have not yet begun to fight!''

● 1780 - American Revolution; British Major John André arrested as a spy by American soldiers exposing Benedict Arnold's treason.

● 1803 - Second Anglo-Maratha War: Battle of Assaye

● 1806 - Lewis and Clark return to St. Louis, after exploring the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

● 1818 - Border demarcation markers for Moresnet formally installed.

● 1845 - The Knickerbockers Baseball Club, the first baseball team to play under the modern rules, is founded in New York.

● 1846 - Discovery of Neptune by French astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier and British astronomer John Couch Adams; verified by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle.

● 1848 - First commercial production of chewing gum by John Curtis on a stove at his home in Bangor, Maine in the United States and marketed as 'The State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum'.

● 1868 - Grito de Lares (Lares Revolt) occurs in Puerto Rico against Spanish rule.

● 1875 - William Bonney ("Billy the Kid") is arrested for the first time.

● 1884 - Herman Hollerith patents his mechanical tabulating machine.

● 1889 - Nintendo Koppai (Later Nintendo Company, Limited) founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce and market the playing card game Hanafuda.

● 1905 - Norway and Sweden sign the "Karlstad treaty", officially ending the Union between the two countries peacfully.

● 1912 - First Mack Sennett "Keystone Comedy" is released.

● 1922 - Gdynia Seaport Construction Act passed by the Polish parliament.

● 1932 - The Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd is renamed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

● 1941 - The first gas experiments are conducted at Auschwitz.

● 1951 - Crowds gather outside Buckingham Palace for news of King George VI following an operation to remove part of his lung.

● 1952 - Rocky Marciano knocked Jersey Joe Walcott out in the thirteenth round, becoming the new Heavyweight Champion.

● 1952 - Republican vice-presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon went on television to deliver what came to be known as the “Checkers” speech as he denied allegations of improper campaign financing

● 1952 - The star of the silent movies, Charlie Chaplin, returns to his native England after 21 years in the US.

● 1957 - Hank Aaron of the MLB gives the Milwaukee Braves the pennant with a home run.

● 1957 - Nine black students who had entered Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas were forced to withdraw because of a white mob outside.

● 1962 - The Jetsons aired for the first time.

● 1962 - Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City opens with the first building completed, Philharmonic Hall, now Avery Fisher Hall home of the New York Philharmonic.

● 1969 - The Chicago 8 trial opens in Chicago, Illinois

● 1973 - Former Argentine president Juan Peron was returned to power.

● 1976 - A fire on one of the British Royal Navy's latest guided missile destroyers kills eight men.

● 1980 - Bob Marley's last concert

● 1980 - The premiere of Brian Friel's play Translations in Derry, Northern Ireland.

● 1981 - Jack Henry Abbott, best-selling author, is arrested for murder.

● 1983 - Saint Kitts and Nevis joins the United Nations.

● 1983 - Gerrie Coetzee of South Africa becomes the first African boxing world heavyweight champion.

● 1987 - Ban lifted on MI5 man's memoirs; An Australian court lifts the ban on the publication of Peter Wright's autobiography, Spycatcher.

● 1990 - Iraq threatened to destroy Middle East oil fields and attack Israel if other nations tried to force it from Kuwait.

● 1997 - Peace talks wobble after Unionist outburst; An MP in the Ulster Unionist Party launches a fierce attack on the British Government and Sinn Fein.

● 1999 - NASA announces that it lost contact with the Mars Climate Orbiter as it apparently burned up as it was about to go into orbit around the Red Planet.

● 1999 - Qantas Flight 1 overruns wet runway in Bangkok, while some passengers only received minor injuries, it was still the worst crash in Qantas history to date.

● 2000 - British rower Steve Redgrave makes Olympic history at the Sydney Games by winning his fifth consecutive gold medal.

● 2002 - Mozilla Firefox (Phoenix) web browser is born: version 0.1.

● 2002 - A 24-count indictment charging conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud was filed against the founding family and two executives of bankrupt cable company Adelphia Communications Corp.

● 2004 - At least 1,070 in Haiti reported killed by floods due to Hurricane Jeanne.

● 2005 - FBI killing of Filiberto Ojeda on Plan Bonito Hormigueros, Puerto Rico.

BIRTHS

● 480 BC - Euripides, Greek playwright (d. 406 BC)

● 63 BC - Augustus Caesar, First Roman Emperor (d. 14)

● 1158 - Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany (d. 1186)

● 1161 - Emperor Takakura of Japan (d. 1181)

● 1215 - Kublai Khan of the Mongol Empire (d. 1294)

● 1598 - Eleonore Gonzaga, wife of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1655)

● 1647 - Joseph Dudley, American statesman (d. 1720)

● 1650 - Jeremy Collier, English bishop (d. 1726)

● 1713 - King Ferdinand VI of Spain (d. 1759)

● 1740 - Empress Go-Sakuramachi of Japan (d. 1813)

● 1771 - Emperor Kokaku of Japan (d. 1840)

● 1791 - Johann Franz Encke, German astronomer (d. 1865)

● 1800 - William McGuffey, American educator; published popular elementary school readers (d. 1873)

● 1819 - Hippolyte Fizeau, French physicist (d. 1896)

● 1838 - Victoria Clafin Woodhull Martin, American suffragist, American women's rights advocate and who ran for United States president in 1872. (d. 1927)

● 1839 - Helen Almira Shafer, American educator; president of Wellesley College (1888-94) (d. 1894)

● 1852 - William Stewart Halsted, American surgeon (d. 1922)

● 1861 - Robert Bosch, German inventor, engineer and industrialist (d. 1942)

● 1863 - Mary Eliza Church Terrell, American writer, social activist and civil rights advocate (d. 1954)

● 1864 - Draga Mašin, Queen of Serbia (d. 1903)

● 1865 - Emmuska Orczy, Hungarian-born English novelist; wrote "The Scarlet Pimpernel" (d. 1947)

● 1880 - John Boyd Orr, Scottish physician, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1971)

● 1889 - Walter Lippmann, American journalist, newspaper commentator and author (d. 1974)

● 1890 - Friedrich Paulus, German general (d. 1957)

● 1895 - Johnny Mokan, baseball player (d. 1985)

● 1897 - Walter Pidgeon, Canadian actor (d. 1984)

● 1899 - Tom C. Clark, American associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (d. 1977)

● 1900 - Louise Nevelson, American sculptor (d. 1988)

● 1901 - Jaroslav Seifert, Czech writer, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1986)

● 1907 - Dominique Aury, French novelist (d. 1998)

● 1911 - Frank Moss, United States Senator from Utah (d. 2003)

● 1915 - Clifford Shull, American physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 2001)

● 1916 - Aldo Moro, Italian premier five times; murdered by terrorists (d. 1978)

● 1920(21?) - Mickey Rooney, American actor

● 1923 - Timber Wolf, Chinese-Vietnamese revolutionary

● 1924 - Pedro Chamorro, Nicaraguan newspaper editor (d. 1978)

● 1926 - John Coltrane, American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer (d. 1967)

● 1930 - Ray Charles, American musician was born Ray Charles Robinson in Albany, GA. (d. 2004)

● 1931 - Gerald Stairs Merrithew, Canadian educator (d. 2004)

● 1936 - Valentín Paniagua, Peruvian politician

● 1938 - Tom Lester, American actor

● 1938 - Romy Schneider, Austrian actress (d. 1982)

● 1939 - Roy Buchanan, American guitarist (d. 1988)

● 1939 - Janusz Gajos, Polish actor

● 1942 - Sila María Calderón, Puerto Rican politician

● 1943 - Julio Iglesias, Spanish singer

● 1943 - Marty Schottenheimer, American football coach

● 1945 - Paul Petersen, American actor (''The Donna Reed Show'')

● 1946 - Franz Fischler, Austrian politician

● 1947(48?) - Mary Kay Place, American actress

● 1947 - Jerry Corbetta, American singer and musician (Sugarloaf)

● 1949(50?) - Bruce Springsteen, American singer and songwriter

● 1954 - Charlie Barnett, American actor (d. 1996)

● 1956 - Paolo Rossi, Italian footballer

● 1956 - Peter David, American writer

● 1957 - Rosalind Chao, American actress

● 1957 - Tony Fossas, baseball player

● 1957 - June Forester, Country singer (The Forester Sisters)

● 1958 - Marvin Lewis, American football coach

● 1959(60?) - Jason Alexander, American actor (''Seinfeld'')

● 1959(62?) - Elizabeth Peña, American actress

● 1960 - Jason Carter, British actor

● 1961 - Willie McCool, American astronaut (d. 2003)

● 1962 - Chi McBride, Actor

● 1963 - Don Herron, Country musician (BR549)

● 1964 - Koshi Inaba, Japanese singer (B'z)

● 1965 - Erik Todd Dellums, Actor

● 1966(67?) - LisaRaye, American actress

● 1969 - Michelle Thomas, American actress (d. 1998)

● 1969 - Patrick Fiori, French singer

● 1969 - Tapio Laukkanen, Finnish rally driver

● 1969 - Donald Audette, National Hockey League player

● 1970(71?) - Ani DiFranco, American musician

● 1972 - Karl Pilkington, British radio personality

● 1973 - Sarah Bettens, Rock singer (K's Choice)

● 1973 - Jermaine Dupri, CEO of So So Def Records

● 1974 - Matt Hardy, American professional wrestler

● 1974 - Harumi Inoue, Japanese actress and model

● 1975 - Jaime Bergman, American model and actress

● 1975 - Chris Hawkins, British radio personality

● 1979 - Ricky Davis, American basketball player

● 1980 - Erik-Michael Estrada, Pop singer (O Town)

● 1981 - Natalie Horler, singer

● 1981 - Robert Doornbos, Dutch race car driver

● 1984 - Anneliese van der Pol, American actress

● 1985 - Maki Goto, Japanese pop idol

● 1985 - Brian Brohm, American football player

DEATHS

● 79 - Pope Linus

● 1241 - Snorri Sturluson, Icelandic historian, poet, and politician (b. 1178)

● 1390 - John I, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1346)

● 1535 - Catherine of Saxe-Lauenburg, queen of Gustav I of Sweden (b. 1513)

● 1571 - John Jewel, English bishop (b. 1522)

● 1573 - Azai Hisamasa, Japanese warlord (b. 1524)

● 1605 - Pontus de Tyard, French poet

● 1675 - Valentin Conrart, founder of the Académie Française (b. 1603)

● 1728 - Christian Thomasius, German jurist (b. 1655)

● 1738 - Herman Boerhaave, Dutch humanist and physician (b. 1668)

● 1764 - Robert Dodsley, English writer (b. 1703)

● 1773 - Johann Ernst Gunnerus, Norwegian bishop and botanist (b. 1718)

● 1789 - John Rogers, American Continental Congressman (b. 1723)

● 1835 - Vincenzo Bellini, Italian composer (b. 1801)

● 1844 - Alexander von Benckendorff, Russian general and statesman (b. 1783)

● 1846 - John Ainsworth Horrocks, English-born explorer of South Australia (b. 1818)

● 1850 - José Gervasio Artigas, Uruguayan hero (b. 1764)

● 1870 - Prosper Mérimée, French author (b. 1803)

● 1871 - Louis-Joseph Papineau, French Canadian politician (b. 1786)

● 1873 - Jean Chacornac, French astronomer (b. 1823)

● 1877 - Urbain Le Verrier, French mathematician (b. 1811)

● 1889 - Wilkie Collins, British author (b. 1824)

● 1900 - William Marsh Rice, American philanthropist and university founder (b. 1816)

● 1917 - Werner Voss German World War I pilot (b. 1897)

● 1929 - Richard Adolf Zsigmondy, Austrian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)

● 1939 - Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist, the founder of psychoanalysis, died in London. (b. 1856)

● 1943 - Elinor Glyn, English author (b. 1864)

● 1950 - Sam Barry, American basketball player and coach (b. 1892)

● 1968 - Francesco Forgione, "Padre Pio", Catholic saint (b. 1887)

● 1970 - Bourvil, French actor and singer (b. 1917)

● 1971 - J. W. Alexander, American mathematician (b. 1888)

● 1971 - Billy Gilbert, American actor (b. 1894)

● 1973 - Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)

● 1974 - Cliff Arquette, American comedian and actor (b. 1905)

● 1978 - Lyman Bostock, American baseball player (murdered) (b. 1950)

● 1981 - Chief Dan George, Canadian actor (b. 1899)

● 1987 - Bob Fosse, American dancer, choreographer, director and actor (b. 1927)

● 1988 - Tibor Sekelj, Croatian explorer (b. 1912)

● 1992 - James Van Fleet, U.S. Army general (b. 1892)

● 1994 - Robert Bloch, American author (b. 1917)

● 1994 - Madeleine Renaud, French theater and film actress (b. 1900)

● 1998 - Mary Frann, American actress (b. 1943)

● 2000 - Aurelio Rodríguez, Mexican Major League Baseball player (b. 1947)

● 2000 - Carl Rowan, American journalist (b. 1925)

● 2002 - Vernon Corea, Sri Lankan broadcaster (b. 1927)

● 2003 - Yuri Senkevich, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1937)

● 2004 - André Hazes, Dutch singer (b. 1951)

● 2005 - Filiberto Ojeda, Puerto Rican revolutionary (b. 1933)

● 2005 - Roger Brierley, English actor (b. 1935)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● In 2006, Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) falls on this day, beginning at sunset the evening before.

● Astrology: Usually the first day of sun sign Libra in the tropical zodiac.

● In ancient Latvia, the second day of Mikeli

● RC Saints - Feast day of Saint Adomnan of Iona, Saint Constantius, Saint Thecla.

● Also see September 23 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

● Traditional New Year's Day in Constantinople and Eastern Orthodox churches — because of the birthday of August, not because of the equinox.

● Celebrate Bisexuality Day - September 23rd of every year is designated as Celebrate Bisexuality Day and celebrated by members of the bisexual community and their allies worldwide. Observed annually since 1999.

● Japanese Autumnal equinox Day (秋分の日/Shūbun no hi)

● Saudi Arabia - National Day (unification 1932)

● French Republican Calendar - Safran (Saffron) Day, second day in the Month of Vendémiaire

ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA

● Autumnal equinox in the Northern hemisphere, Vernal equinox in the Southern hemisphere, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2014 (by UT).


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

The BBC Take on the day

On this day in the New York Times