September 23rd

Events

• 490 BC - Battle of Marathon; origin of marathon long-distance race (26.2 miles run by Phidippides)
• 1529 - Siege of Vienna begins as Suleiman II begins his attack on the city.
• 1459 - The Battle of Blore Heath. The first major battle of the English Wars of the Roses, fought at Blore Heath, in Staffordshire, England
• 1779 - 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
• 1780 - British Major John Andre arrested as a spy by American soldiers
• 1803 - Battle of Assaye
• 1806 - Lewis and Clark return
• 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
• 1875 - William Bonney ("Billy the Kid") is arrested for the first time
• 1868 - Puerto Rico declares its independence from Spain
• 1884 - Herman Hollerith patents his mechanical adding machine
• 1922 - Gdynia Seaport Construction Act passed by the Polish parliament
• 1932 - The Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd renamed Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
• 1941 - First gas experiments at Auschwitz
• 1952 - Richard Nixon makes his "Checkers" speech
• 1969 - The Chicago 8 trial opens in Chicago, Illinois
• 1973 - Juan Peron returns to power in Argentina
• 1981 - Jack Henry Abbott, best-selling author, is arrested for murder
• An equinox usually occurs on this date.
• 1993 - Sonic the Hedgehog CD is released for the Sega Mega-CD in Japan.

Births

• 480 BC - Euripides, playwright († 406 BC)
• 62 BC - Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar
• 1713 - King Ferdinand VI of Spain
• 1800 - William McGuffy, educator (McGuffy's Readers)
• 1838 - Victoria Woodhull, suffragist
• 1852 - William Stewart Halsted, surgeon († 1922)
• 1865 - Baroness Emmuska Orczy, novelist (The Scarlet Pimpernel) († 1947)
• 1889 - Walter Lippmann, journalist
• 1897 - Walter Pidgeon, actor († 1984)
• 1911 - Frank Moss, U.S. Senator Utah
• 1916 - Aldo Moro, Italian politician
• 1920 - Mickey Rooney, actor
• 1926 - John Coltrane, saxophonist, composer
• 1931 - Pat Suzuki, actor
• 1931 - Gerald Stairs Merrithew, educator, statesman
• 1932 - Ray Charles, singer
• 1938 - Romy Schneider, actress († 1982)
• 1939 - Janusz Gajos, Polish actor
• 1942 - Sila Maria Calderon, Governor of Puerto Rico
• 1943 - Julio Iglesias, singer
• 1945 - Paul Petersen, actor
• 1949 - Bruce Springsteen, singer, songwriter
• 1959 - Jason Alexander, actor
• 1959 - Lita Ford, singer, guitarist
• 1959 - Elizabeth Peña, actress
• 1970 - Ani Difranco, musician

Deaths

• 918 - King Conrad I of Germany
• 1241 - Snorri Sturluson, Icelandic historian, poet and politician
• 1835 - Vincenzo Bellini, composer (Norma)
• 1870 - Prosper Mérimée, author
• 1889 - Wilkie Collins, author (The Moonstone)
• 1900 - William Marsh Rice, philanthropist, university founder
• 1939 - Sigmund Freud, psychiatrist
• 1973 - Pablo Neruda, poet
• 1974 - Cliff Arquette, comedian, actor ("Charley Weaver")
• 1987 - Bob Fosse, dancer, choreographer, actor
• 1994 - Robert Bloch, author (Psycho)
• 1998 - Mary Frann, actress

Sports

• 1983 - Gerrie Coetzee of South Africa becomes the first boxing world heavyweight champion ever to come from Africa when he knocks out defending WBA champion Michael Dokes in Akron, Ohio.

Holidays

• Feast of Saint Adomnan of Iona
• In ancient Latvia, the second day of Mikeli

See Also: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December - more historical anniversaries