September 23: Day of the year

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.

Up to 1900

• 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.

1901 – 2000

• 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.

From 2001

• 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.

Up to 1800

• 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)

1801 – 1900

• 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 – 1950

• 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

1951 – 1975

• 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

From 1976

• 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

Up to 1900

• 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)

1901 – 2000

• 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)

From 2001

• 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)