September 21

September 21 is the 264th day of the year (265th in leap years). There are 101 days remaining.

Events

• 1745 - Battle of Prestonpans[?] - Hanoverian army under the command of John Cope[?] is defeated, in ten minutes, by the Jacobite forces of Prince Charles Edward Stuart
• 1780 - Benedict Arnold gives the British the plans to West Point
• 1792 - French National Convention votes to abolish the monarchy
• 1860 - In the Second Opium War, an Anglo-French force defeats Chinese troops at the Battle of Baliqiao[?]
• 1896 - British force under Horatio Kitchener takes Dongola[?] in the Sudan
• 1897 - The "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" letter is published in the New York Sun
• 1898 - Empress Dowager Cixi[?] seizes power in China
• 1937 - J. R. R. Tolkien publishes The Hobbit
• 1942 - B-29 Superfortress makes its debut
• 1949 - People's Republic of China officially declared
• 1950 - George Marshall was sworn in as the 3rd Secretary of Defense of United States
• 1964 - Malta becomes independent from the United Kingdom
• 1970 - Monday Night Football premieres
• 1981 - Belize granted full independence from the United Kingdom
• 1984 - Brunei gains its independence from the United Kingdom
• 2001 - Deep Space 1 flies within 2,200 km of Comet Borrelly[?]'s nucleus

Births

• 1756 - John MacAdam, road builder
• 1840 - Murat V, future Ottoman sultan
• 1842 - Abd-ul-Hamid II, future Ottoman sultan
• 1866 - H. G. Wells, science fiction author (+ 1946)
• 1874 - Gustav Holst, composer
• 1912 - Chuck Jones, animator (+ 2002)
• 1920 - Jay Ward, animator (+ 1988)
• 1931 - Larry Hagman[?], actor
• 1934 - Leonard Cohen, singer-songwriter
• 1935 - Henry Gibson[?], actor
• 1944 - Fannie Flagg[?], actress, novelist
• 1945 - Jerry Bruckheimer[?], film and television producer
• 1947 - Stephen King, author
• 1947 - Marsha Norman[?], playwright
• 1947 - Donald Felder[?], musician
• 1949 - Artis Gilmore[?], basketball star
• 1950 - Bill Murray, actor
• 1953 - Arie Luyendyk, Indianapolis 500 winner
• 1957 - Ethan Coen, film director
• 1960 - David James Elliott[?], actor
• 1961 - Nancy Travis[?], actress
• 1962 - Rob Morrow[?], actor
• 1963 - King Mohamed VI of Morocco[?]
• 1968 - Ricki Lake, actress, talk show hostess
• 1971 - Luke Wilson[?], actor

Deaths

• 1558 - Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
• 1832 - Sir Walter Scott, historical novelist and poet
• 1904 - Chief Joseph, Nez Perce leader
• 1954 - Kokichi Mikimoto, inventor of the cultured pearl
• 1957 - King Haakon VII of Norway
• 1974 - Jacqueline Susann[?], novelist
• 1974 - Walter Brennan[?], Academy Award winning actor
• 1998 - Florence Griffith Joyner, Olympic Games track-and-field star
• 2002 - Robert L. Forward, physicist, writer

Holidays and observances

• In ancient Greece, the eighth day of the Eleusinian mysteries, when the secret rites in the Telesterion finish and the feast, Pannychis, begins.
• National Day in Belize

See Also: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December - more historical anniversaries