On this day in History - Sep. 23

490 BC - Battle of Marathon; origin of marathon long-distance race (run by Phidippides)
480 BC - Euripides was born (d. 406 BC). Greek playwright
063 BC - Augustus Caesar was born, Roman Emperor (d. AD 14)
76 or 79 - Pope Linus dies.
1122 - Concordat of Worms
1158 - Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany was born (d. 1186)
1241 - Snorri Sturluson dies (b. 1178). Icelandic historian, poet, and politician.
1459 - Battle of Blore Heath, the first major battle of the English Wars of the Roses, is fought at Blore Heath in Staffordshire.
1529 - The Siege of Vienna begins as Suleiman II begins his attack on the city.
1535 - Catherine of Saxe-Lauenburg dies (b. 1513). Queen of Gustav I of Sweden.
1571 - John Jewel dies (b. 1522). English bishop.
1573 - Azai Hisamasa dies (b. 1524). Japanese warlord.
1598 - Eleonore Gonzaga was born (d. 1655). Wife of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor
1605 - Pontus de Tyard duies. French poet
1642 - First commencement exercises occur at Harvard University.
1647 - Joseph Dudley was born (d. 1720). Colonial Governor of Massachusetts.
1650 - Jeremy Collier was born (d. 1726). English bishop.
1675 - Valentin Conrart dies (b. 1603). Founder of the Académie Française.
1713 - King Ferdinand VI of Spain was born (d. 1759)
1728 - Christian Thomasius dies (b. 1655). German jurist.
1738 - Herman Boerhaave dies (b. 1668). Dutch humanist and physician.
1740 - Empress Go-Sakuramachi of Japan was born (d. 1813)
1771- Emperor Kokaku of Japan was born (d. 1840).
1773 - Johann Ernst Gunnerus dies (b. 1718). Norwegian bishop and botanist.
1779 - American Revolution; 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 - American Revolution; British Major John Andre arrested as a spy by American soldiers exposing Benedict Arnold's treason.
1803 - Second Anglo-Maratha War: Battle of Assaye.
1806 - Lewis and Clark return to St. Louis, after exploring the Pacific Northwest of the United States.
1818 - Border demarcation markers for Moresnet formally installed.

1819 - Hippolyte Fizeau was born (d. 1896). French physicist.
1835 - Vincenzo Bellini dies (b. 1801). Italian composer.
1838 - Victoria Woodhull was born (d. 1927). American suffragist.
1845 - The Knickerbockers Baseball Club, the first baseball team to play under the modern rule, is founded in New York.
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

1848 - First commercial production of chewing gum by John Curtis on a stove at his home in Bangor, Maine in the United States and marketed as 'The State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum'.
1850 - José Gervasio Artigas dies. Heroe of the Uruguayan Independence.

1852 - William Stewart Halsted was born (d. 1922). American surgeon.

1855 - Abel Botelho was born in Tabuaço (d. 1917). Portuguese diplomat and writer.
1861 - Robert Bosch was born (d. 1942). German inventor and industrialist.
1863 - Mary Eliza Church Terrell was born (d. 1954). American writer and social reformer.
1865 - Emmuska Orczy was born (d. 1947). British novelist.
1868 - Grito de Lares (Lares Revolt) occurs in Puerto Rico against Spanish rule.
1870 - Prosper Mérimée dies (b. 1803). French author.
1873 - Jean Chacornac dies (b. 1823). French astronomer.
1875 - William Bonney ("Billy the Kid") is arrested for the first time.
1884 - Herman Hollerith patents his mechanical tabulating machine.
1885 - José Maria do Amaral dies in Niterói (b. 14 Mar 1813). Brazilian writer and diplomat.

1889 - Nintendo Koppai (Later Nintendo Company, Limited) founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce and market the playing card game Hanafuda.

1889 - Walter Lippmann was born (d. 1974). American journalist.
1889 - Wilkie Collins dies (b. 1824). British author.
1890 - Friedrich Paulus was born (d. 1957). German general.
1895 - Johnny Mokan was born (d. 1985). Baseball player.
1897 - Walter Pidgeon was born (d. 1984). Canadian actor.
1899 - Louise Nevelson was born (d. 1988). Ukrainian-born artist.
1900 - William Marsh Rice dies (b. 1816). American philanthropist and university founder.

1901 - Jaroslav Seifert was born. Tcheckoslovakian writer who won in 1948 The Nobel Prize in Literature.

1905 - Norway and Sweden sign the "Karlstad treaty", peacefully dissolving the Union between the two countries.

1907 - Dominique Aury was born (d. 1998). French novelist

1907 - Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza was born (d. 1976). Heir to the throne of Portugal

1911 - Frank Moss was (d. 2003). U.S. Senator from Utah.
1912 - First Mack Sennett "Keystone Comedy" is released.
1912 - Ghulam Mustafa Khan was born (d. 2005). Pakistani researcher, critic and linguist.
1912 - Tony Smith was born (d. 1980). American sculptor.
1914 - Omar Ali Saifuddin III was born (d. 1986). Sultan of Brunei.
1915 - Clifford Shull was born (d. 2001). American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
1916 - Aldo Moro was born (d. 1978). Italian politician.
1917 - Werner Voss dies (b. 1897). German World War I pilot.
1920 - Mickey Rooney was born. American actor.
1922 - Gdynia Seaport Construction Act passed by the Polish parliament.
1926 - John Coltrane was born (d. 1967). American saxophonist and composer.
1929 - Richard Adolf Zsigmondy dies (b. 1865). Austrian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate in 1925
1930 - Ray Charles was born (d. 2004). American musician and singer.
1931 - Gerald Stairs Merrithew was born (d. 2004). Canadian educator and statesman.
1932 - The Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd is renamed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

1932 - Víctor Jara was born. Chuleab singer and theatre director.
1938 - Romy Schneider was born (d. 1982). Austrian actress.
1939 - Roy Buchanan was born (d. 1988). American guitarist.
1939 - Janusz Gajos was born. Polish actor.
1939 - Sigmund Freud dies (1856). Austrian psychiatrist.
1941 - The first gas murder experiments are conducted at Auschwitz.
1941 - Simon Nolet was born. French Canadian ice hockey player
1941 - George Jackson was born. Black Panther and American revolutionary
1942 - First day of the September Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as United States Marine Corps forces attack Imperial Japanese Army units along the Matanikau River.
1942 - Sila María Calderón was born. Governor of Puerto Rico

1943 - Antonio Tabucchi was born. Italian writer.
1943 - Julio Iglesias was born. Spanish singer.
1943 - Marty Schottenheimer was born. American football coach
1943 - Elinor Glyn dies (b. 01864). English author.
1945 - Paul Petersen was born. American actor
1945 - Igor Ivanov was born. Russian politician

1946 - Franz Fischler was born. Austrian politician
1947 - Mary Kay Place was born. American actress
1947 - Jerry Corbetta was born. American singer and musician (Sugarloaf)
1947 - Neal Smith was born. American drummer for Alice Cooper
1949 - Bruce Springsteen was born. American singer and songwriter.
1950 - Sam Barry dies (d. 1892). American basketball player and coach.
1952 - Rocky Marciano knocked Jersey Joe Walcott out in the thirteenth round, becoming the new Heavyweight Champion.
1952 - Richard Nixon makes his "Checkers speech".
1954 - Charlie Barnett was born (d. 1996). American actor.
1956 - Paolo Rossi was born. Italian footballer
1956 - Peter David was born. American writer

1958 - Marvin Lewis was born. American football coach.
1959 - The M/S Princess of Tasmania Australia’s first passenger RO/RO diesel ferry makes maiden voyage across Bass Strait.
1959 - Jason Alexander was born. American actor
1959 - Elizabeth Peña was born. American actress
1961 - Willie McCool was born. Astronaut
1962 - The Jetsons aired for the first time.
1962 - Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City opens with the first building completed, Philharmonic Hall, now Avery Fisher Hall home of the New York Philharmonic.
1964 - Koshi Inaba was born. Japanese singer (B'z)

1967 - Morre, em Lisboa, Augusto Casimiro dos Santos (n. 11 Mai 1889). Poeta e memorialista português. Director da revista "Seara Nova" desde 1961 até à sua morte.
1969 - The Chicago 8 trial opens in Chicago, Illinois
1970 - Ani DiFranco was born. American musician
1972 - Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos announces over television and radio the implementation of martial law and signs General Order No. 1 which orders the arrest of opposition leaders, media censorship, banning travel to other countries except for diplomatic missions, abolishing the Philippine Congress, establishing dictatorial government, take-over or sequestering of public and private corporations and suspension of classes for one week in the Philippines.
1973 - Juan Perón returns to power in Argentina.
1973 - Pablo Neruda dies (b. 1904). Chilean poet, Nobel Prize laureate.
1974 - Matt Hardy was born. American professional wrestler

1974 - Harumi Inoue was born. Japanese actress and model
1974 - Cliff Arquette dies (b. 1905). American comedian and actor.
1975 - Jaime Bergman was born. American model and actress
1975 - Chris Hawkins was born. British radio personality and disk jockey.
1975 - Layzie Bone was born. American rapper (Bone Thugs-N-Harmony)

1978 - Lyman Bostock dies murdered (b. 1950). American baseball player.
1980 - Bob Marley's last concert.
1980 - The premiere of Brian Friel's play Translations in Derry, Northern Ireland.
1981 - Jack Henry Abbott, best-selling author, is arrested for murder.
1981 - Chief Dan George dies (b. 1899). Canadian actor.

1983 - Saint Kitts and Nevis joins the United Nations.
1983 - Gerrie Coetzee of South Africa becomes the first Africam boxing world heavyweight champion.
1984 - Anneliese van der Pol was born. Dutch actress.
1987 - Bob Fosse dies (b. 1927). American dancer, choreographer and actor.

1987 - Pablo Neruda dies in Santiago (b. 1904). Chilean poet. 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature.
1988 - Jose Canseco of the Oakland Athletics becomes the first member of the 40-40 club.
1988 - Tibor Sekelj dies (b. 1912). Croatian explorer.

1992 - James Van Fleet dies (b. 1892). U.S. Army general.
1993 - Sydney is chosen to be the place for 2000 Olimpic Games

1993 - Sonic the Hedgehog CD is released for the Sega Mega-CD in Japan.
1994 - Robert Bloch dies (b. 1917). American author.

1994 - Jerry Barber dies (b. 1916). American golfer.
1994 - Madeleine Renaud dies (b. 1900). French theater and film actress.

1995 - Fernando de Melo Frazão. Portuguese illustrator and figurinist.
1996 - Dorita Castel-Branco dies. Portuguese sculptor.
1998 - Mary Frann dies (b. 1943). American actress.
1999 - NASA announces that it lost contact with the Mars Climate Orbiter.
1999 - Qantas Flight 1 overruns the runway in Bangkok during a storm. While some passengers only received minor injuries, it is still the worst crash in Qantas's history to date.
2000 - Aurelio Rodríguez dies (b. 1947). Mexican Major League Baseball player.
2000 - Carl Rowan dies (b. 1925). American journalist.

2002 - The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox ("Phoenix 0.1") is released.
2002 - Vernon Corea dies (b. 1927). Sri Lankan broadcaster.
2003 - Yuri Senkevich dies (b. 1937). Russian TV anchorman.

2004 - At least 1,070 in Haiti reported killed by floods due to Hurricane Jeanne
2004 - André Hazes dies (b. 1951). Dutch singer.
2004 - Billy Reay dies (b. 1918). Canadian ice hockey player and coach

2005 - Filiberto Ojeda dies (b. 1933). Puerto Rican revolutionary

2005 - Roger Brierley dies (b. 1935). English actor.
2006 - Sir Malcolm Arnold dies (b. 1921). English composer and professional trumpeter.
2006 - Etta Baker dies (b. 1913). American blues guitarist.

In ancient Latvia, the second day of Mikeli
Japanese Autumnal equinox Day (Shūbun no hi)
Astrology: Usually the first day of sun sign Libra in the tropical zodiac.
RC Saints - Feast day of Saint Adomnan of Iona, Saint Thecla.
Traditional New Year's Day in Constantinople and Eastern Orthodox Churches — because of the birthday of Augustus, not because of the equinox.
Saudi Arabia - National Day (unification 1932).
French Republican Calendar - Safran (Saffron) Day, second day in the Month of Vendémiaire.
Celebrate Bisexuality Day was first recognized in 1999 and is observed mainly in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia.