September 21Birthdays & History

On this day: September 21 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 454Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III murders his general Flavius Aetius on instigation of eunuch Heraclius and senator Petronius Maximus.Europe
2. 455Emperor Avitus enters Italy with a Gallic army and consolidates his power.Europe
3. 1170Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland: The Kingdom of Dublin falls to Anglo-Norman invaders.Europe
4. 1217Livonian Crusade: The Estonian leader Lembitu and Livonian leader Caupo of Turaida are killed in the Battle of St. Matthew's Day.Europe
5. 1435The Treaty of Arras is promulgated, causing Burgundy to switch sides in the Hundred Years' War.Europe
6. 1745A British government army led by Sir John Cope is defeated in less than 15 minutes by the Jacobite forces of Prince Charles Edward Stuart.Europe
7. 1776Part of New York City is burned shortly after being occupied by British forces.North AmericaEurope
8. 1780American Revolutionary War: Benedict Arnold gives the British the plans to West Point.North AmericaEurope
9. 1792French Revolution: The National Convention abolishes the monarchy.Europe
10. 1809British Secretary of War Lord Castlereagh and Foreign Secretary George Canning meet in a duel on Putney Heath, with Castlereagh wounding Canning in the thigh.Europe
11. 1814War of 1812: British forces abandon their unsuccessful siege of Fort Erie.Europe
12. 1843The crew of schooner Ancud, led by John Williams Wilson, takes possession of the Strait of Magellan on behalf of the Chilean government.Latin America
13. 1860Second Opium War: An Anglo-French force defeats Chinese troops at the Battle of Palikao.EuropeAsia
14. 1862Taiping Rebellion: The Ever Victorious Army defeats Taiping forces at the Battle of Cixi.Asia
15. 1896Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan: British forces under the command of Horatio Kitchener take Dongola.Middle EastAfricaEurope
16. 1898Empress Dowager Cixi seizes power and ends the Hundred Days' Reform in China.Asia
17. 1921A storage silo in Oppau, Germany, explodes, killing 500–600 people.Europe
18. 1933Salvador Lutteroth establishes Mexican professional wrestling.Latin America
19. 1934A large typhoon hits western Honshū, Japan, killing more than 3,000 people.Asia
20. 1937J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is published for the first time. (September 22 is celebrated by some fans as Hobbit Day, however.)Europe
21. 1938The Great Hurricane of 1938 makes landfall on Long Island in New York. The death toll is estimated at 500–700 people.North America
22. 1939Romanian prime minister Armand Călinescu is assassinated by the Iron Guard.Europe
23. 1942The Holocaust in Ukraine: On the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Nazis send over 1,000 Jews from Pidhaitsi to Bełżec extermination camp.Europe
24. 1942The Holocaust in Ukraine: In Dunaivtsi, Ukraine, Nazis murder 2,588 Jews.Europe
25. 1942The Holocaust in Poland: At the end of Yom Kippur, Germans order Jews to permanently move from Konstantynów to Biała Podlaska.Europe
26. 1942The Boeing B-29 Superfortress makes its maiden flight.North America
27. 1953Lieutenant No Kum-sok, a North Korean pilot, defects to South Korea with his jet fighter.Asia
28. 1957Pamir, a four-masted barque, was shipwrecked and sank off the Azores during Hurricane Carrie.Europe
29. 1964Malta gains independence from the United Kingdom, but remains in the Commonwealth.Europe
30. 1964The North American XB-70 Valkyrie, the world's fastest bomber, makes its maiden flight from Palmdale, California.North America
31. 1965The Gambia, Maldives and Singapore are admitted as members of the United Nations.AfricaAsia
32. 1969Mexicana de Aviación Flight 801, a Boeing 727-100 passenger plane, crashes during a landing attempt in Mexico City, killing 27 of the 118 occupants.Latin America
33. 1971Bahrain, Bhutan and Qatar join the United Nations.Middle EastAsia
34. 1972Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos begins authoritarian rule by declaring martial law.Asia
35. 1976Orlando Letelier is assassinated in Washington, D.C. by Michael Townley, linked to the National Intelligence Directorate of Chile.North AmericaLatin America
36. 1976Seychelles joins the United Nations.Africa
37. 1977Malév Flight 203 crashes near Urziceni, Romania, killing 29 people.Europe
38. 1981Sandra Day O'Connor is unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate as the first female Supreme Court justice.North America
39. 1981Belize is granted full independence from the United Kingdom.Latin AmericaEurope
40. 1984Brunei joins the United Nations.Asia
41. 1991Armenia gains independence from the Soviet Union.Europe
42. 1993Russian president Boris Yeltsin triggers a constitutional crisis when he suspends parliament and scraps the constitution.Europe
43. 1993A Transair Georgian Airlines Tu-134 is shot down by a missile in the Black Sea near Sokhumi, Georgia.Europe
44. 1995MIAT Flight 557 crashes near Mörön, Mongolia, killing 41 people.Asia
45. 1996The Defense of Marriage Act is passed by the United States Congress.North America
46. 1997St. Olaf's Church, a stone church from the 16th century in Tyrvää, Finland, is burnt down by a burglar.Europe
47. 1999The 7.7-magnitude Chi-Chi earthquake strikes central Taiwan, killing 2,400 people.Asia
48. 2001Ross Parker is murdered in Peterborough, England, by a gang of ten British Pakistani youths.EuropeAsia
49. 2001America: A Tribute to Heroes is broadcast by over 35 network and cable channels, raising over $200 million for the victims of the September 11 attacks.North America
50. 2003The Galileo spacecraft is terminated by sending it into Jupiter's atmosphere.World
51. 2012Three Egyptian militants open fire on a group of Israeli soldiers in a southern Israel cross-border attack.Middle East
52. 2013Al-Shabaab Islamic militants attack the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya, killing at least 67 people.Africa
53. 2015Adventist Health System agreed to pay $118.7 million to settle allegations of fraud. It was the largest a hospital network has ever paid.North America
54. 2018LGBT rights activist Zak Kostopoulos is beaten to death on a busy street in Athens.Europe
55. 2019A 5.6 Mw earthquake shakes the Albanian port of Durrës. Forty-nine people are injured in the capital, Tirana.Europe

Source: Wikipedia "September 21" / CC BY-SA 4.0