[Edit]

top

451 - According to some sources, this was the date of the Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' victory over Attila the Hun.

1187 - Saladin begins the Siege of Jerusalem.

1378 - Cardinal Robert of Geneva, called by some the Butcher of Cesena, is elected as Avignon Pope Clement VII, beginning the Papal schism.

1519 - Ferdinand Magellan - set sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda with about 270 men on his expedition to circumnavigate the globe.

1596 - Diego de Montemayor founded the city of Monterrey in New Spain.

1737 - Runner Edward Marshall completes his journey in the Walking Purchase forcing the cession of 1.2 million acres (4,860 km²) of Lenape-Delaware tribal land to the Pennsylvania Colony.

1854 - Battle of Alma: British and French troops defeat Russians in the Crimea.

1860 - The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII of the United Kingdom) visits the United States.

1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chickamauga ends.

1870 - Bersaglieri corps enters Rome through Porta Pia and completes the unification of Italy.

1871 - Bishop John Coleridge Patteson martyred on the island of Nukapu a Polynesian outlier island now in the Temotu province of the Solomon Islands. He was the first bishop of Melanesia.

1881 - Chester A. Arthur is inaugurated as the 21st President of the United States.

1891 - The first gasoline-powered car debuts in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States.

1906 - Cunard Line's RMS ''Mauretania'' is launched at the Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson shipyard in Newcastle, England.

1917 - Paraguay becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

1920 - Foundation of the Spanish Legion.

1939 - A German Messerschmitt Bf 109 is shot down by Fairey Battle gunner Sgt. F. Letchard during a patrol near Aachen. This is the RAF's first aerial victory of the Second World War.

1940 - Genevieve Grotjan completes the decryption of the Japanese Purple code.

1942 - Holocaust in Letychiv, Ukraine. In the course of two days German SS murders at least 3.000 Jews

1946 - The first Cannes Film Festival is held.

1954 - New Zealand's Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents reports just ten days after concluding hearings.

1962 - James Meredith, an African-American, is barred from entering the University of Mississippi.

1967 - The RMS ''Queen Elizabeth 2'' is launched at John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Scotland. It is operated by the Cunard Line.

1970 - Syrian tanks roll into Jordan in response to continued fighting between Jordan and the fedayeen. The Jordanians knock out 30 of the Syrian tanks.

1973 - Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in battle-of-sexes tennis match at the Houston Astrodome in Houston, Texas.

1979 - Lee Iacocca is elected president of the Chrysler Corporation.

1979 - A coup d'état in the Central African Empire overthrows Emperor Bokasa I.

1979 - The Punjab wing of the Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India (Marxist-Leninist) formally splits and constitutes a parallel UCCRI(ML).

1979 - Assassination of French left-wing militant Pierre Goldman.

1981 - A coup d'état in the Central African Republic overthrows President David Dacko.

1984 - A suicide bomber in a car attacks the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing twenty people.

1989 - Miss Saigon makes its world premiere in London.

1998 - Major League Baseball: Cal Ripken, Jr of the Baltimore Orioles takes a day off after playing a record 2,632 consecutive games.

2001 - George W. Bush delivers his "Freedom at War with Fear" speech to a joint session of Congress.

2002 - Kolka-Karmadon rock/ice slide started.

2003 - A referendum is held in Latvia to decide the country's accession to the European Union.

2003 - Maldives civil unrest: the death of prisoner Hassan Evan Naseem sparks a day of rioting in Malé.

2006 - Richard Hammond of the television show Top Gear is critically injured while attempting to set a land speed record.

top

1486 - Arthur, Prince of Wales, son of King Henry VII of England (d. 1502)

1599 - Christian the Younger, German protestant military leader (d. 1623)

1778 - Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, Russian naval officer and explorer (d. 1852)

1833 - Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Italian pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1918)

1842 - Sir James Dewar, Scottish chemist (d. 1923)

1853 - Chulalongkorn, Rama V, King of Thailand (d. 1910)

1861 - Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress (d. 1955)

1872 - Maurice Gamelin, French army general (d. 1958)

1873 - Sidney Olcott, Canadian film director (d. 1949)

1873 - Ferenc Szisz, Hungarian-born race car driver (d. 1944)

1878 - Upton Sinclair, American writer (d. 1968)

1884 - Maxwell Perkins, American editor and publisher (d. 1947)

1889 - Charles Reidpath, American athlete (d. 1975)

1899 - Leo Strauss, German-born philosopher (d. 1973)

1902 - Stevie Smith, British poet (d. 1971)

1914 - Kenneth More, English actor (d. 1982)

1917 - Red Auerbach, American basketball coach and official (d. 2006)

1917 - Fernando Rey, Spanish-born actor (d. 1994)

1920 - Jay Ward, American animated cartoonist (d. 1989)

1922 - William Kapell, American pianist (d. 1953)

1923 - Geraldine Clinton Little, Irish-born poet (d. 1997)

1924 - Gogi Grant, American singer

1925 - Ananda Mahidol, King of Thailand (d. 1946)

1926 - Donald Hall, American poet and US Poet Laureate

1927 - Johnny Dankworth, English musician and composer

1927 - Rachel Roberts, English actress (d. 1980)

1928 - Joyce Brothers, American psychologist and advice columnist

1928 - Kirsten Rolffes, Danish actress (d. 2000)

1929 - Anne Meara, American comic and actress

1934 - Sophia Loren, Italian actress

1935 - Jim Taylor, National Football League player

1937 - Monica Zetterlund, Swedish actress and singer (d. 2005)

1939 - Robert L. Gerry III, American businessman

1941 - Dale Chihuly, American glass artist

1942 - Gérald Tremblay, Québec politician

1947 - Mia Martini, Italian singer (d. 1995)

1947 - Bruce Pasternack, American CEO

1948 - George R. R. Martin, American writer

1948 - Chuck Panozzo and John Panozzo (d. 1996), American musicians Styx

1951 - Guy Lafleur, Canadian hockey player

1951 - Javier Marías, Spanish novelist

1954 - Henry Samueli, American NHL team owner

1956 - Gary Cole, American actor

1958 - Charlie Kaufman, American screenwriter

1959 - Danny Devos, Belgian artist

1964 - Maggie Cheung, Hong Kong actress

1965 - Robert Rusler, American actor

1966 - Nuno Bettencourt, Portuguese-born rock musician

1967 - Kristen Johnston, American actress

1967 - Gunnar and Matthew Nelson, Americans musicians (Nelson)

1968 - Leah Pinsent, Canadian actress

1968 - Darrell Russell, American race car driver (d. 2004)

1971 - Henrik Larsson, Swedish footballer

1975 - Asia Argento, Italian actress

1975 - Juan Pablo Montoya, Colombian race car driver

1976 - Reuben Singh, British entrepreneur

1977 - Namie Amuro, Japanese pop singer

1978 - Jason Bay, Canadian Major League Baseball player

1978 - Sarit Hadad, Israeli singer

1978 - T.J. Tucker, Professional baseball player

1979 - Phil Waugh, Australian Rugby Union player

1980 - Mariacarla Boscono, Italian fashion model

1981 - Joanie Dodds, ANTM contestant

1981 - Feliciano López, Spanish tennis player

1981 - Dimitrios Papadopoulos, Greek football player

1991 - Spencer Locke, American actress

top

1246 - Mikhail of Chernigov, ruler of Kiev

1384 - King Louis I of Naples (b. 1339)

1460 - Gilles Binchois, Flemish composer

1586 - Chidiock Tichborne, English conspirator and poet (executed) (b. 1558)

1590 - Lodovico Agostini, Italian composer (b. 1534)

1625 - Heinrich Meibom, German historian and critic (b. 1555)

1627 - Jan Gruter, Dutch critic (b. 1560)

1630 - Claudio Saracini, Italian composer (b. 1586)

1639 - Johannes Meursius, Dutch classical scholar (b. 1579)

1643 - Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland, English politician and writer

1721 - Thomas Doggett, Irish actor

1803 - Robert Emmet, Irish patriot (b. 1780)

1815 - Nicolas Desmarest, French geologist (b. 1725)

1852 - Philander Chase, American university founder (b. 1775)

1863 - Jacob Grimm, German folklorist (b. 1785)

1884 - Leopold Fitzinger, Austrian zoologist (b.1802)

1898 - Theodor Fontane, German writer (b. 1819)

1906 - Robert R. Hitt, American politician (b. 1834)

1908 - Pablo de Sarasate, Spanish violinist and composer (b. 1844)

1932 - Wovoka, Paiute visionary

1946 - Raimu, French actor (b. 1883)

1947 - Fiorello LaGuardia, Mayor of New York City (b. 1882)

1957 - Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer (b. 1865)

1971 - Giorgos Seferis, Greek writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)

1973 - Jim Croce, American singer and songwriter (b. 1943)

1975 - Saint-John Perse, French diplomat and writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)

1979 - Ludvík Svoboda, President of Czechoslovakia (b. 1895)

1989 - Richie Ginther, American racing driver (b. 1930)

1993 - Erich Hartmann, German pilot (b. 1922)

1994 - Jules Styne, American songwriter (b. 1905)

1996 - Paul Erdős, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1913)

2000 - Gherman Titov, cosmonaut (b. 1935)

2003 - Lord Williams of Mostyn, British politician (b. 1941)

2003 - Simon Muzenda, Zimbabwe politician (b. 1922)

2004 - Brian Clough, English footballer and football manager (b. 1935)

2004 - Townsend Hoopes, American politician (b. 1922)

2005 - Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian-Polish Nazi hunter (b. 1908)

2006 - Armin Jordan, Swiss conductor (b. 1932)

2006 - John W. Peterson, American songwriter (b. 1921)

top

In ancient Greece, the seventh day of the Eleusinian Mysteries, when the secret rites in the Telesterion began.

Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:

The Korean Martyrs

Eustace

Vincent Madelgaire

Yves Mayeuc

Francis de Posadas

Thomas Johnson, John Davy, and companions (martyrs).

Feast day of the following saint(s) in the Anglican Church:

John Coleridge Patteson.

Also see September 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics).