September 21

is the 264th day of the year (265th in leap years). There are 101 days remaining.

Events

345 - Roman Emperor Valentinian III assassinates Aëtius in his own throne room.
1745 - Battle of Prestonpans: A Hanoverian army under the command of Sir John Cope is defeated, in ten minutes, by the Jacobite forces of Prince Charles Edward Stuart
1765 - Antoine de Beauterne announced he had killed the Beast of Gévaudan.
1780 - American Revolutionary War: Benedict Arnold gives the British the plans to West Point.
1792 - The French National Convention votes to abolish the monarchy.
1827 - Joseph Smith, Jr., claims that the angel Moroni gave him a record of gold plates, one-third of which is "translated" into The Book of Mormon.
1860 - In the Second Opium War, an Anglo-French force defeats Chinese troops at the Battle of Baliqiao.
1896 - British force under Horatio Kitchener takes Dongola in the Sudan.
1897 - The "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" letter is published in the New York Sun.
1898 - Empress Dowager Cixi seizes power and ends the Hundred Days' Reform in China.
1921 - Oppau explosion, a storage silo at a fertilizer producing plant exploded in Oppau, Germany, 500—600 killed.
1937 - J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is published.
1938 - The Great Hurricane of 1938 makes landfall on Long Island in New York. The death toll is estimated at 500-700 people.
1939 - Romanian Prime Minister Armand Calinescu is assassinated by pro-Nazi members of the Iron Guard.
1942 - The B-29 Superfortress makes its debut.
1950 - George Marshall sworn in as the 3rd Secretary of Defense of United States.
1964 - Malta becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
1970 - Monday Night Football premieres.
1972 - Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos issues Proclamation No. 1081 placing the entire country under martial law.
1981 - Belize is granted full independence from the United Kingdom.
1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor, the first female supreme court justice, is confirmed by the senate in a 99-0 vote.
1991 - Armenia is granted independence from Soviet Union.
1993 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin suspends parliament and scraps the then-functioning constitution, thus triggering the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993.
1995 - The Hindu milk miracle occurs, in which statues of the Hindu god Ganesh began drinking milk when spoonfuls were placed near their mouths.
1999 - Chi-Chi earthquake occurs in central Taiwan, leaving about 2,400 people dead.
2001 - Deep Space 1 flies within 2,200 km of Comet Borrelly.
2003 - Galileo mission terminated by sending the probe into Jupiter's atmosphere, where it is crushed by the pressure at the lower altitudes.
2004 - The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War and the Maoist Communist Centre of India merge to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist).

Births

1328 - Hongwu Emperor of China (d. 1398)
1411 - Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, claimant to the English throne (d. 1460)
1415 - Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1493)
1428 - Jingtai Emperor of China (d. 1457)
1452 - Girolamo Savonarola, Dominican priest and ruler of Florence (d. 1498)
1629 - Philip Cardinal Howard, English Catholic cardinal (d. 1694)
1645 - Louis Joliet, Canadian explorer (d. 1700)
1756 - John MacAdam, Scottish engineer and road-builder (d. 1836)
1760 - Ivan Dmitriev, Russian statesman (d. 1837)
1840 - Murad V, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1904)
1842 - Abd-ul-Hamid II, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1918)
1849 - Maurice Barrymore, actor; patriarch of the Barrymore family (d. 1905.
1853 - Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1926)
1863 - John Bunny, American film comedian (d. 1915)
1866 - H. G. Wells, English writer (d. 1946)
1866 - Charles Nicolle, French bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1936)
1873 - Papa Jack Laine, American musician (d. 1966)
1874 - Gustav Holst, English composer (d. 1934)
1895 - Sergei Yesenin, Russian poet (d. 1925)
1899 - Frederick Coutts, the 8th General of The Salvation Army (d. 1986)
1902 - Luis Cernuda, Spanish poet (d. 1963)
1912 - Chuck Jones, American animator (d. 2002)
1912 - György Sándor, Hungarian pianist (d. 2005)
1919 - Mario Bunge, Argentine philosopher and physicist
1919 - Fazlur Rahman, Pakistani scholar (d. 1988)
1920 - Jay Ward, American animator (d. 1988)
1926 - Donald A. Glaser, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1929 - Bernard Williams, English philosopher (d. 2003)
1929 - Sándor Kocsis, Hungarian footballer (d. 1979)
1931 - Larry Hagman, American actor
1934 - Leonard Cohen, Canadian singer and songwriter
1935 - Henry Gibson, American actor
1936 - Yuriy Luzhkov, Russian politician, mayor of Moscow
1940 - Bill Kurtis, American television journalist
1941 - R. James Woolsey, Jr., CIA director
1944 - Fannie Flagg, American actress and novelist
1944 - Hamilton Jordan, Carter's 1ST Chief of Staff
1945 - Jerry Bruckheimer, American film and television producer
1945 - Richard Childress, NASCAR Team Owner
1945 - Shaw Clifton, the 18th General of The Salvation Army
1946 - Moritz Leuenberger, Swiss Federal Councilor
1947 - Stephen King, American author
1947 - Marsha Norman, American playwright
1949 - Artis Gilmore, American basketball player
1950 - Charles Clarke, British politician
1950 - Bill Murray, American actor
1951 - Bruce Arena, American soccer coach
1951 - Aslan Maskhadov, Chechen rebel leader (d. 2005)
1953 - Arie Luyendyk, Dutch race car driver
1954 - Shinzo Abe, Japanese politician
1955 - Mika Kaurismäki, Finnish director
1955 - Richard Hieb, American astronaut
1957 - Ethan Coen, American film director
1959 - Dave Coulier, American actor
1960 - David James Elliott, Canadian actor
1961 - Nancy Travis, American actress
1962 - Rob Morrow, American actor
1963 - Angus Macfadyen, Scottish actor
1963 - Curtly Ambrose, West Indian cricketer
1963 - Cecil Fielder, baseball player
1965 - Cheryl Hines, American actress
1967 - Faith Hill, American singer
1967 - Tyler Stewart, Canadian drummer (Barenaked Ladies)
1968 - Ricki Lake, American actress and talk show hostess
1971 - John Crawley, Former England international cricketer
1971 - Luke Wilson, American actor
1971 - Alfonso Ribeiro, Dominican-born actor
1972 - Liam Gallagher, British singer (Oasis)
1972 - Jon Kitna, American football player
1972 - David Silveria, American drummer (KoЯn)
1974 - Andy Todd, English footballer
1975 - Doug Davis, baseball player
1979 - Richard Dunne, Irish footballer
1979 - Chris Gayle, West Indian cricketer
1979 - Julian Gray, English footballer
1980 - Kareena Kapoor, Indian actress
1981 - Nicole Richie, American actress
1982 - Danny Kass, American snowboarder
1983 - Maggie Grace, American actress
1991 - Zoe Weizenbaum, American child actress

Deaths

454 - Aëtius, Roman general
1217 - Lembitu of Lehola, Estonian soldier
1327 - King Edward II of England (b. 1284)
1397 - Richard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of Arundel, English military leader (executed) (b. 1346)
1542 - Juan Boscán Almogáver, Spanish poet
1558 - Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1500)
1576 - Gerolamo Cardano, Italian mathematician (b. 1501)
1586 - Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, French church leader (b. 1517)
1626 - François de Bonne, duc de Lesdiguières, Constable of France (b. 1543)
1719 - Johann Heinrich Acker, German writer (b. 1647)
1743 - Jai Singh II, King of Amber-Juiper (b. 1688)
1748 - John Balguy, English philosopher (b. 1686)
1776 - Nathan Hale hung by the British as a spy.
1796 - François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers, French general (b. 1769)
1798 - George Read, American lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1733)
1832 - Sir Walter Scott, Scottish writer (b. 1771)
1860 - Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (b. 1788)
1874 - Jean-Baptiste Élie de Beaumont, French geologist (b. 1794)
1897 - Wilhelm Wattenbach, German historian (b. 1819)
1904 - Chief Joseph, Nez Perce leader (b. 1840)
1926 - Leon Charles Thevenin, French telegraph engineer (b. 1857)
1938 - Ivana Brlic-Mazuranic Croatian writer (b. 1874)
1939 - Armand Călinescu Romanian prime-minister (assassinated) (b. 1893)
1954 - Kokichi Mikimoto, Japanese inventor (b. 1858)
1957 - King Haakon VII of Norway (b. 1872)
1971 - Bernardo Houssay, Argentine physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)
1974 - Walter Brennan, American actor (b. 1894)
1974 - Jacqueline Susann, American novelist (b. 1918)
1987 - Jaco Pastorius, American bassist (b. 1951)
1988 - Glenn Robert Davis, member of United States Congress (b. 1914)
1995 - Rudy Perpich, American politician (b. 1928)
1998 - Florence Griffith Joyner, American athlete (b. 1959)
2002 - Robert L. Forward, American physicist and writer (b. 1932)
2004 - Barry Noble Wakeman, American naturalist and educator (b. 1939)

Holidays and observances

International Day of Peace of the United Nations, as propagated by Peace One Day
RC Saints - Matthew the Evangelist
Also see September 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Independence Day in Malta (1964), Belize (1981) & Armenia (1991)
Philippines - Thanksgiving Day
Mabon - Neopagan festival of Mabon
In ancient Greece, the eighth day of the Eleusinian Mysteries, when the secret rites in the Telesterion finish and the feast, Pannychis, begins.

External links

BBC: On This Day

- September 20 · September 22 · August 21 · October 21 · more historical anniversaries

Gourt Home::Gourt :: September 21

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links