September 23

Historic Events

2024

Israel launches airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, killing more than 490 people. ›

2022

Voting begins in the five-day sham annexation referendums in Russian-occupied Ukraine, leading to Russian annexation of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. ›

2020

A grand jury in Kentucky declines to indict three police officers for the shooting death of Breonna Taylor in a drug raid gone wrong, leading to nationwide protests in the U.S. ›

2019

Twenty people die on the first of two days of rioting in Papua and West Papua over an alleged racist incident. ›

2013

Twenty-five people are killed after Typhoon Usagi passes Hong Kong and China. ›

2010

Teresa Lewis becomes the first woman to be executed by the U.S. state of Virginia since 1912, and the first woman in the state to be executed by lethal injection. ›

2008

Matti Saari kills ten people at a school in Finland before committing suicide. ›

2004

Over 3,000 people die in Haiti after Hurricane Jeanne produces massive flooding and mudslides. ›

1999

Qantas Flight 1 overruns a runway in Bangkok during a storm, causing minor injuries to some passengers. ›

1983

Gulf Air Flight 771 is destroyed by a bomb, killing all 112 people on board. ›

1973

Argentine general election: Juan Perón returns to power in Argentina. ›

1967

Seven people die, 46 people are injured, and more than 150 boats capsize when a squall hits Lake Michigan during Michigan's first coho salmon sport fishing season. ›

1964

Typhoon Wilda, one of the strongest typhoons to ever strike Japan, makes landfall, causing at least 30 fatalities and sinking at least 64 ships. ›

1962

Flying Tiger Line Flight 923, a Lockheed L-1049H Super Constellation registered as N6923C, ditches into the Atlantic Ocean killing 28 out the 76 occupants onboard. The remaining 48 were rescued six hours later. ›

1961

U.S. President John F. Kennedy nominates African American civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, although pro-segregation Southern senators manage to delay his confirmation until September 11, 1962. ›

1957

Little Rock schools integration crisis: President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas, and federalizes the Arkansas National Guard, ordering both to support the integration of Little Rock Central High School. ›

1956

A tropical storm originating in the eastern Pacific Ocean passes into the Gulf of Mexico and is upgraded and named Hurricane Flossy just hours before striking the Gulf Coast and causing 15 deaths and an estimated US$24.8 million in damages. ›

1955

An all-white jury in Mississippi finds Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam not guilty in the torture-murder of 14-year-old African American boy Emmett Till. ›

1952

After being accused of financial improprieties, Senator Richard Nixon delivers his "Checkers speech" nationwide on television and radio, defending his actions and successfully salvaging his nomination as the Republican candidate for Vice President. ›

1951

George VI, king of the United Kingdom, has his left lung removed in an operation after a malignant tumour was found. ›

1950

Korean War: The Battle of Hill 282 is the first US friendly-fire incident on British military personnel since World War II. ›

1947

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake strikes South Khorasan in Iran, killing over 500 people. ›

1942

World War II: The Matanikau action on Guadalcanal begins: U.S. Marines attack Japanese units along the Matanikau River. ›

1932

Saudi National Day: Crown Prince (later king) Faisal of Saudi Arabia, on behalf of Ibn Saud, proclaims the unification of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the current iteration of the Third Saudi State. ›

1920

The Louisiana hurricane dissipates over Kansas after forcing around 4,500 people to evacuate and causing $1.45 million in damages. ›

1918

World War I: The Battle of Haifa takes place in present-day Israel, part of the Ottoman Empire at that time. ›

1913

The United Mine Workers of America launch a strike which eventually escalated into the Colorado Coalfield War. ›

1905

Norway and Sweden sign the Karlstad Treaty, peacefully dissolving the Union between the two countries. ›

1899

Philippine-American War: the American Asiatic Squadron destroys a Filipino battery at the Battle of Olongapo. ›

1884

On the night of 23–24 September, the steamship Arctique runs aground near Cape Virgenes leading to the discovery of nearby placer gold, beginning the Tierra del Fuego gold rush. ›

1879

The Macedo-Romanian Cultural Society is founded. ›

1868

The Grito de Lares occurs in Puerto Rico against Spanish rule. ›

1846

Astronomers Urbain Le Verrier, John Couch Adams and Johann Gottfried Galle collaborate on the discovery of Neptune. ›

1821

Tripolitsa, Greece, is captured by Greek rebels during the Greek War of Independence. ›

1803

Second Anglo-Maratha War: The Battle of Assaye is fought between the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India. ›

1779

American Revolutionary War: John Paul Jones, naval commander of the United States, on board the USS Bonhomme Richard, wins the Battle of Flamborough Head. ›

1642

First English Civil War: The Battle of Powick Bridge, the first engagement between the primary field armies of the Royalists and the Parliamentarians, ends in a Royalist victory. ›

1561

King Philip II of Spain issues cedula, ordering a halt to colonizing efforts in Florida. ›

1459

The Battle of Blore Heath, the first major battle of the English Wars of the Roses, is won by the Yorkists. ›

1409

The Battle of Kherlen is the second significant victory over Ming dynasty China by the Mongols since 1368. ›

1338

The Battle of Arnemuiden, in which a French force defeats the English, is the first naval battle of the Hundred Years' War and the first naval battle in which gunpowder artillery is used. ›

1122

Pope Callixtus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V agree to the Concordat of Worms to put an end to the Investiture Controversy. ›

38

Drusilla, Caligula's sister who died in June, with whom the emperor is said to have an incestuous relationship, is deified. ›