September 21
is the 264th day of the year (265th in
leap years). There are 101 days remaining.
*
454 -
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, 500â€"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.
* 1964 -The
North American XB-70 Valkyrie, the world's first air-breathing aircraft to achieve a speed of
Mach 3, made its maiden flight from
Palmdale, California.
*
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.
* 1989 -
Hurricane Hugo makes landfall in the U.S. state of
South Carolina.
* 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).
*
2005 -
JetBlue Airways Flight 292 peformed an emergency landing at
Los Angeles International Airport following a front landing gear failure.
*
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
* 1959 -
Danny Cox, baseball player
*
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
*
1969 -
Jason Christiansen, baseball player
*
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
* 1983 -
Anna Meares, Australian cyclist
*
1991 -
Zoe Weizenbaum, American child actress
*
454 -
Aëtius, Roman general (bc.
396)
*
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. (b.
1755)
*
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)
*
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.
*
BBC: On This Day-
September 20 ·
September 22 ·
August 21 ·
October 21 · more
historical anniversaries
