September 23

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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 480 BC – Euripides, Greek playwright (d. 406 BC)
• 63 BC – Augustus Caesar, Roman Emperor (d. 14)
• 1158 – Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany (d. 1186)
• 1161 – Emperor Takamura of Japan (d. 1181)
• 1215 – Kublai Khan, Mongol ruler (d. 1294)
• 1392 – Filippo Maria Visconti, Italian regent (d. 1447)
• 1434 – Yolande of Valois (d. 1478)
• 1495 – Bagrat III of Imereti, King of Imereti in Georgia (d. 1565)
• 1598 – Eleonore Gonzaga, wife of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1655)
• 1642 – Giovanni Maria Bononcini, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1678)
• 1647 – Joseph Dudley, American statesman (d. 1720)
• 1713 – King Ferdinand VI of Spain (d. 1759)
• 1740 – Empress Go-Sakuramachi of Japan (d. 1813)
• 1759 – Clothilde of France (d. 1802)
• 1771 – Emperor Kokaku of Japan (d. 1840)
• 1778 – Mariano Moreno, Argentine lawyer, journalist and politician (d. 1811)
• 1781 – Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (d. 1860)
• 1783 – Peter von Cornelius, German painter (d. 1867)
• 1791 – Johann Franz Encke, German astronomer (d. 1865)

• 1819 – Hippolyte Fizeau, French physicist (d. 1896)
• 1823 – John Colton, English-Australian politician, Premier of South Australia (d. 1902)
• 1834 – Aleksey Suvorin, Russian publisher, dramatist and theatre critic (d. 1912)
• 1838 – Victoria Woodhull, American Women's rights activist (d. 1927)
• 1850 – Alfred Boucher, French sculptor (d. 1934)
• 1852 – William Stewart Halsted, American surgeon (d. 1922)
• 1853 – Princess Marie Elisabeth of Saxe-Meiningen (d. 1923)
• 1853 – Konstantin Stoilov, Prime Minister of Bulgaria (d. 1901)
• 1861 – Robert Bosch, German industrialist, engineer and inventor (d. 1942)
• 1863 – Mary Church Terrell, American author and activist (d. 1954)
• 1864 – Draga Masin, Queen Consort of Serbia (d. 1903)
• 1865 – Emma Orczy, British novelist (d. 1947)
• 1865 – Suzanne Valadon, French painter (d. 1938).
• 1876 – Moshe Zvi Segal, Israeli scholar (d. 1968)
• 1880 – John Boyd Orr, 1st Baron Boyd-Orr, Scottish physician (d. 1971)
• 1883 – Grigory Zinoviev, Soviet politician (d. 1936)
• 1884 – Eugene Talmadge, American politician, Governor of Georgia (d. 1946)
• 1889 – Walter Lippmann, American journalist (d. 1974)
• 1890 – Friedrich Paulus, German general (d. 1957)
• 1892 – Georgi Damyanov, Bulgarian politician (d. 1958)
• 1893 – Aleksei Losev, Russian philosopher and philologist (d. 1988)
• 1895 – Miron Merzhanov, Soviet architect (d. 1975)
• 1897 – Walter Pidgeon, Canadian actor (d. 1984)
• 1899 – Tom C. Clark, 59th Attorney General of the United States (d. 1977)
• 1900 – Bill Stone, British World War I veteran (d. 2009)

• 1901 – Jaroslav Seifert, Czech writer (d. 1986)
• 1902 – Ion Gheorghe Maurer, Romanian jurist and Communist politician (d. 2000)
• 1902 – Su Buqing, Chinese mathematician and academic (d. 2003)
• 1905 – Tiny Bradshaw, American bandleader and musician (d. 1958)
• 1906 – Charles Ritchie, Canadian diplomat (d. 1995)
• 1907 – Albert Ammons, American pianist (d. 1949)
• 1907 – Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza, Portuguese royal (d. 1976)
• 1907 – Jarmila Novotna, Czech soprano and actress (d. 1994)
• 1908 – Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Indian Hindi poet (d. 1974)
• 1911 – Frank Moss, American politician (d. 2003)
• 1912 – Ghulam Mustafa Khan, Pakistani critic and linguist (d. 2005)
• 1913 – Tokutaro Ukon, Japanese footballer (d. 1944)
• 1913 – Carl-Henning Pedersen, Danish painter (d. 2007)
• 1914 – Omar Ali Saifuddin III, Sultan of Brunei (d. 1986)
• 1915 – Sergio Bertoni, Italian footballer (d. 1995)
• 1915 – Clifford Shull, American physicist (d. 2001)
• 1916 – Aldo Moro, Italian politician (d. 1978)
• 1917 – Asima Chatterjee, Indian organic chemist (d. 2006)
• 1917 – Santo, Mexican masked professional wrestler and actor (d. 1984)
• 1917 – Imre Németh, Hungarian hammer thrower (d. 1989)
• 1918 – Salvatore Pappalardo, Italian cardinal (d. 2006)
• 1920 – Alexander Arutunian, Armenian composer (d. 2012)
• 1920 – Mickey Rooney, American actor (d. 2014)
• 1920 – Ovadia Yosef, Israeli rabbi (d. 2013)
• 1922 – Louise Latham, American actress (d. 2018)
• 1923 – Basil Feldman, Baron Feldman, British politician and businessman (d. 2019)
• 1923 – Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, Egyptian journalist (d. 2016)
• 1923 – Margaret Pellegrini, American actress (d. 2013)
• 1924 – Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, Nicaraguan editor and journalist (d. 1978)
• 1924 – Jean Piat, French actor (d. 2018)
• 1925 – Angelo Acerbi, Italian Roman Catholic archbishop
• 1925 – George J. Laurer, American inventor
• 1926 – John Coltrane, American jazz musician (d. 1967)
• 1926 – André Cassagnes, French toymaker (d. 2013)
• 1927 – Mighty Joe Young, American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter (d. 1999)
• 1928 – Hollie Pihl, American judge (d. 2018)
• 1930 – Ray Charles, American musician (d. 2004)
• 1930 – Colin Blakely, British actor (d. 1987)
• 1930 – Albert Manent, Spanish writer (d. 2014)
• 1934 – Franc Rodé, Slovenian cardinal
• 1934 – Ahmad Shah Khan, Crown Prince of Afghanistan
• 1934 – Per-Olov Enquist, Swedish author
• 1936 – Valentín Paniagua, former President of Peru (d. 2006)
• 1937 – Martin Litchfield West, British philologist (d. 2015)
• 1938 – Romy Schneider, German-born actress (d. 1982)
• 1939 – Roy Buchanan, American guitarist (d. 1988)
• 1939 – Henry Blofeld, English cricket journalist
• 1940 – Tim Rose, American-born English musician (d. 2002)
• 1940 – Michel Temer, President and 25th Vice president of Brazil
• 1940 – Mohammad-Reza Shajarian, Iranian musician and songwriter
• 1941 – Norma Winstone, English singer and lyricist
• 1941 – Luis Durnwalder, Italian politician
• 1942 – Sila María Calderón, 7th Governor of Puerto Rico
• 1943 – Julio Iglesias, Spanish singer
• 1943 – Tanuja, Indian actress
• 1943 – Lino Oviedo, Paraguayan general and politician (d. 2013)
• 1945 – Igor Ivanov, Russian politician
• 1945 – Ron Bushy, American drummer (Iron Butterfly)
• 1946 – Bernard Maris, French economist, writer and journalist (d. 2015)
• 1947 – Jerzy Popieluszko, Polish priest (d. 1984)
• 1947 – Mary Kay Place, American actress and singer
• 1949 – Bruce Springsteen, American singer-songwriter and musician
• 1949 – Floella Benjamin, British actress, author, television presenter and politician
• 1950 – Dietmar Lorenz, German judoka

• 1952 – Mark Bego, American author
• 1953 – Nicholas Witchell, English journalist
• 1954 – Cherie Blair, English lawyer, wife of Tony Blair
• 1956 – Paolo Rossi, Italian footballer
• 1956 – Andoni Goikoetxea, Basque-Spanish footballer
• 1957 – Emilia Contessa, Indonesian actress and singer
• 1957 – Rosalind Chow, American actress
• 1957 – Fergus Ewing, Scottish footballer
• 1958 – Larry Mize, golfer
• 1959 – Fernando Romay, Spanish basketball player
• 1959 – Jason Alexander, American actor, director and producer
• 1959 – Elizabeth Peña, American actress (d. 2014)
• 1961 – William McCool, American astronaut (d. 2003)
• 1962 – Deborah Orr, Scottish journalist
• 1963 – Alex Proyas, Australian director and producer
• 1964 – Clayton Blackmore, Welsh footballer
• 1964 – Larry Krystkowiak, American basketball player
• 1965 – Aleqa Hammond, former Prime Minister of Greenland
• 1967 – Masashi Nakayama, Japanese footballer
• 1968 – Yvette Fielding, British actress and producer
• 1968 – Adam Price, Welsh politician
• 1968 – Erik Weihenmayer, American athlete, adventurer and author
• 1970 – Lucia Ciffarelli, American singer-songwriter and pianist
• 1970 – Ani DiFranco, American singer
• 1971 – Sean Spicer, former White House Press Secretary
• 1972 – Karl Pilkington, English radio personality
• 1973 – Jermaine Dupri, American hip hop musician
• 1973 – Toshihiro Hattori, Japanese footballer
• 1973 – Artim Sakiri, Macedonian footballer
• 1974 – Matt Hardy, American professional wrestler
• 1975 – Chris Hawkins, English journalist

• 1976 – Homaro Cantu, American chef and inventor (d. 2015)
• 1977 – Rachael Yamagata, American singer
• 1977 – Suzanne Tamim, Lebanese singer (d. 2008)
• 1979 – Ricky Davis, American basketball player
• 1979 – Fábio Simplício, Brazilian footballer
• 1981 – Natalie Horler, German singer (Cascada)
• 1981 – Helen Richardson-Walsh, English field hockey player
• 1983 – Leinier Dominguez, Cuban chess player
• 1984 – Anneliese van der Pol, Dutch-American actress
• 1984 – Kate French, American actress
• 1985 – Hossein Kaebi, Iranian footballer
• 1986 – Maki Goto, Japanese singer-songwriter and actress
• 1986 – Martin Cranie, English footballer
• 1986 – Gina-Lisa Lohfink, German model and television personality
• 1987 – Skylar Astin, American actor and singer
• 1987 – Yu Kobayashi, Japanese footballer
• 1988 – Juan Martín del Potro, Argentine tennis player
• 1988 – Shannon Chan-Kent, Canadian actress and singer
• 1989 – Brandon Jennings, American basketball player
• 1991 – Lee Alexander, Scottish footballer
• 1991 – Key, South Korean singer and actor
• 1991 – Melanie Oudin, American tennis player
• 1992 – Finn Russell, Scottish rugby union player
• 1994 – Yerry Mina, Colombian footballer
• 1996 – Lee Hi, South Korean singer

• 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)

• 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)

• 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)

• 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)