23 September

63 BCAugustus (born), Roman emperor (died 14)

1215    Kublai Khan (born), Mongolian emperor (died 1294)

1338   The Battle of Arnemuiden was the first naval battle of the Hundred Years’ War and the first naval battle using artillery, as the English ship Christofer had three cannon and one hand gun.

1568    Spanish naval forces rout an English fleet, under the command of John Hawkins, at the Battle of San Juan de Ulúa near Veracruz.

1598    Eleonore Gonzaga (born), Italian wife of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1655)

1641    The Merchant Royal, carrying a treasure worth over a billion US dollars, is lost at sea off Land’s End.

1642    First commencement exercises occur at Harvard College.

1713    Ferdinand VI of Spain (born) (died 1759)

1738    Herman Boerhaave (died), Dutch botanist and physician (born 1668)

1779    American Revolution: John Paul Jones on board the USS Bonhomme Richard wins the Battle of Flamborough Head.

1780   American Revolution: British Major John André is arrested as a spy by American soldiers exposing Benedict Arnold’s change of sides.

1800   William Holmes McGuffey (born), American educator and author (died 1873)

1806   Lewis and Clark return to St. Louis after exploring the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

1830   Elizabeth Monroe (died), American wife of James Monroe, 5th First Lady of the United States (born 1768)

1835    Vincenzo Bellini (died), Italian composer (born 1801)

1838   Victoria Woodhull (born), American journalist and activist (died 1927)

1845    The Knickerbockers Baseball Club, the first baseball team to play under the modern rules, is founded in New York.

1846   Astronomers Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier, John Couch Adams and Johann Gottfried Galle collaborate on the discovery of Neptune.

1846   John Ainsworth Horrocks (died), English explorer (born 1818)

1852    William Stewart Halsted (born), American surgeon (died 1922)

1861    Robert Bosch (born), German engineer and businessman, founded Robert Bosch GmbH (died 1942)

1869   Typhoid Mary (born), Irish-American carrier of Typhoid fever (died 1938)

1870   Prosper Mérimée (died), French archaeologist and historian (born 1803)

1880   John Boyd Orr (born), 1st Baron Boyd-Orr, Scottish biologist, physician, and educator, Nobel Prize Laureate (died 1971)

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

1889   Walter Lippmann (born), American journalist (died 1974)

1897    Walter Pidgeon (born), Canadian-American actor and singer (died 1984)

1900   William Marsh Rice (died), American businessman, founded Rice University (born 1816)

1909   The Phantom of the Opera (original title: Le Fantôme de l’Opéra), a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux, is first published as a serialization in Le Gaulois.

1913    Roland Garros of France becomes the first to fly in an airplane across the Mediterranean (from St. Raphael France to Bizerte, Tunisia).

1916    Aldo Moro (born), Italian politician, 39th Prime Minister of Italy (died 1978)

1920   Mickey Rooney (born), American actor, singer, director, and producer (died 2014)

1923    Margaret Pellegrini (born), American actress (died 2013)

1926    André Cassagnes (born), French toy maker, created the Etch A Sketch (died 2013)

1926    John Coltrane (born), American saxophonist and composer (Miles Davis Quintet) (died 1967)

1927    Mighty Joe Young (born), American singer and guitarist (died 1999)

1928   Roger Grimsby (born), American journalist, television news anchor and actor (died 1995)

1930   Colin Blakely (born), Irish-English actor (died 1987)

1930   Ray Charles (born), American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor (died 2004)

1932    The Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd is renamed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

1936    First ascent of Siniolchu by a German team.

1939    Sigmund Freud (died), Czech-English neurologist and psychiatrist (born 1856)

1943    Julio Iglesias (born), Spanish singer-songwriter

1943    Marty Schottenheimer (born), American football player and coach

1947    Neal Smith (born), American drummer and songwriter (Plasmatics)

1948   Dan Toler (born), American guitarist (The Allman Brothers Band and Gregg Allman Band) (died 2013)

1948   Don Grolnick (born), American pianist and composer (died 1996)

1949    Bruce Springsteen (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (E Street Band and Steel Mill)

1950    Korean War: The Battle of Hill 282 the first US friendly-fire incident on British military personnel since World War II occurred.

1952    Richard Nixon makes his “Checkers speech”.

1959    Iowa farmer and corn breeder Roswell Garst hosts Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev.

1961    Chi McBride (born), American actor

1962    The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts opens in New York City.

1969    The Chicago Eight trial opens in Chicago.

1971    James Waddell Alexander II (died), American mathematician and topologist (born 1888)

1972    Ana Marie Cox (born), American author and blogger

1973    Juan Perón returns to power in Argentina.

1974    Cliff Arquette (died), American actor (born 1905)

1974    Robbie McIntosh (died), Scottish drummer (Average White Band and The Senate) (born 1950)

1983   Saint Kitts and Nevis joins the United Nations.

2002   The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox (“Phoenix 0.1”) is released.

2013   Ruth Patrick (died), American botanist and limnologist (born 1907)

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EO Smith

Interests include biological anthropology, evolution, social behavior, and human behavior. Conducted field research in the Tana River National Primate Reserve, Kenya and on Angaur, Palau, Micronesia, as well as research with captive nonhuman primates at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the Institute for Primate Research, National Museums of Kenya.
EO Smith
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