September 23
Activity of the day
Today is . . .
- Autumn Equinox in the northern hemisphere
- National Day in Saudi Arabia
- Traditional New Year’s Day in Constantinople
On this day . . .
- The Persians are defeated by the Greeks at the Battle of Salamis (480BC)
- German astronomer Johann Galle discovers the planet Neptune (1846)
- Chewing gum is first commercially produced in the USA (1848)
- The first Keystone Cops film is released (1912)
- Rocky Marciano defeats Jersey Joe Walcott to win world heavyweight boxing title (1952)
- Nine black students are forced to leave Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas because of a white mob outside (1957)
- Buddy Holley reaches Nº1 in the U.S. music charts with That’ll Be The Day (1957)
- The world’s first Ceefax teletext service is begun by the BBC (1974)
Births
- Augustus, 1st Roman Emperor (63BC)
- Ferdinand VI, King of Spain (1713)
- Mickey Rooney, American film actor (1920)
- John Coltrane, American saxophonist (1926)
- Ray Charles, American singer (1930)
- Julio Iglesias, Spanish singer (1943)
- Bruce Springsteen, American rock singer (1949)
- Juan Martín del Potro, Argentinian tennis player (1988)
Deaths
- Wilkie Collins, English novelist (1889)
- Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychoanalyst (1939)
- Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet (1973)
- Bob Fosse, American director (1987)