Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/September
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| An archive of historical anniversaries that appeared on the Main Page 2008 day arrangement |
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September 1: First day of Ramadan (Islam, 2008); Labor Day in the United States and Labour Day in Canada (2008); Start of the Liturgical year in the Eastern Orthodox Church; Constitution Day in Slovakia; Independence Day in Uzbekistan
- 1763 – Age of Enlightenment: Catherine II of Russia endorsed educator Ivan Betskoy's plans for the Moscow Orphanage (pictured), an ambitious, state-run, experimental Russian Enlightenment project to educate orphans into ideal citizens.
- 1804 – German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding discovered Juno, one of the largest main belt asteroids, naming it after the Roman goddess.
- 1923 – The Great Kanto earthquake, measuring between about 7.9 and 8.4 on the Richter magnitude scale, struck the Kanto region of Japan, devastating Tokyo and Yokohama, and killing over an estimated 100,000 people.
- 1939 – Germany launched the Polish Campaign and attacked Poland at Wieluń and Westerplatte, starting World War II in Europe.
- 1983 – Soviet jet interceptors shot down the civilian airliner Korean Air Lines Flight 007 near Sakhalin island in the North Pacific, killing all 246 passengers and 23 crew on board.
More events: August 31 – September 1 – September 2
September 2: National Day for Vietnam (1945)
- 31 BC – Final War of the Roman Republic: Troops supporting Octavian defeated the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra in the naval Battle of Actium on the Ionian Sea near Actium in Greece.
- 1666 – Great Fire of London: A large fire began in London's Pudding Lane and burned the city for three days, destroying St Paul's Cathedral and the homes of 70,000 of the city's 80,000 inhabitants.
- 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: Prussian forces captured Napoleon III of France at the Battle of Sedan in Sedan, France; the Second French Empire collapsed within days.
- 1898 – Mahdist War: Forces led by Horatio Kitchener (pictured) defeated Sudanese tribesmen at the Battle of Omdurman in Omdurman, Khartoum, Sudan, establishing British dominance in northeastern Africa.
- 1945 – On the deck of the United States Navy battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, representatives from the Empire of Japan and several Allied Powers signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, formally ending World War II.
More events: September 1 – September 2 – September 3
September 3: Ganesh Chaturthi (Hinduism, 2008); Independence Day in Qatar; Flag Day in Australia; Armed Forces Day in Taiwan
- 301 – San Marino, one of the smallest nations in the world and the world's oldest republic still in existence, was founded by Saint Marinus.
- 1260 – Egyptian Mamluks defeated the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut in Palestine.
- 1783 – Great Britain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris, formally ending the American Revolutionary War.
- 1901 – The National Flag of Australia (pictured), a Blue Ensign defaced with the Commonwealth Star and the Southern Cross, flew for the first time atop the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne.
- 1976 – The NASA Viking 2 spacecraft landed on Mars and took the first close-up, color photos of the planet's surface.
- 1991 – The Hamlet chicken processing plant fire kills 25 people locked inside a burning chicken plant in North Carolina, USA.
More events: September 2 – September 3 – September 4
- 476 – Germanic leader Odoacer captured Ravenna and deposed Romulus Augustus, the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
- 1260 – Wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines: The Siena Ghibellines defeated the Florence Guelphs at the Battle of Montaperti outside of Siena in Italy.
- 1886 – After over 25 years of fighting against the United States Army and the armed forces of Mexico, Geronimo (pictured) of the Chiricahua Apache surrendered at Skeleton Canyon in Arizona.
- 1888 – American Inventor George Eastman registered the trademark "Kodak" after receiving a patent for his roll film camera.
- 1957 – Defying the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus deployed the Arkansas National Guard to prevent African American students from attending Little Rock's Central High School.
More events: September 3 – September 4 – September 5
September 5: Teachers' Day in India
- 1774 – In response to the British Parliament enacting the Intolerable Acts, representatives from twelve of Britain's North American colonies convened the First Continental Congress at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia.
- 1793 – French Revolution: The National Convention began "The Reign of Terror", a ten-month period of systematic repression and mass executions by guillotine of perceived enemies within the country.
- 1905 – Under the mediation of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, the Russo-Japanese War officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard near Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA.
- 1972 – Munich massacre: A Palestinian terrorist group called "Black September" took hostage eleven Israeli athletes and coaches at the Olympic Summer Games in Munich, West Germany; all of the hostages were killed less than 24 hours later.
- 1977 – NASA launched the robotic space probe Voyager 1 (pictured), currently the man-made object most distant from Earth.
More events: September 4 – September 5 – September 6
September 6: Independence Day in Swaziland (1968); Defence Day in Pakistan; Unification Day in Bulgaria
- 394 – Forces of the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius I defeated Eugenius, the usurper of the Western Roman Empire, at the Battle of the Frigidus near modern-day Vipava, Slovenia.
- 1522 – The Victoria returned to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain, with Basque explorer Juan Sebastián Elcano (pictured) and 17 other survivors of Ferdinand Magellan's 265-man expedition, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the globe.
- 1955 – Istanbul Pogrom: An overwhelming Turkish mob attacked ethnic Greeks in Istanbul, killing over 13 people, wounding over thirty others, and damaging over 5,000 Greek-owned homes and businesses.
- 1970 – Dawson's Field hijackings: Members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacked four jet aircraft en route from Europe to New York City, landing two of them at Dawson's Field in Zerqa, Jordan, and one plane in Beirut, Lebanon. The fourth hijacking was successfully foiled.
- 2000 – The Millennium Summit, a meeting of world leaders to discuss the role of the United Nations in the turn of the twenty-first century, opened.
More events: September 5 – September 6 – September 7
September 7: Father's Day in Australia and New Zealand (2008); National Grandparents' Day in the United States (2008); Independence Day in Brazil
- 1191 – Third Crusade: Forces under Richard I of England defeated Ayyubid troops under Saladin at the Battle of Arsuf in Arsuf, present-day Israel.
- 1901 – With Peking occupied by foreign troops from the Eight-Nation Alliance, Qing China was forced to sign the Boxer Protocol, an unequal treaty ending the Boxer Rebellion.
- 1940 – World War II: The German Luftwaffe changed their strategy in the Battle of Britain and began bombing London and other British cities and towns for over 50 consecutive nights.
- 1977 – Panamanian de facto leader Omar Torrijos and U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, agreeing that the United States would transfer control of the Panama Canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century. The transfer eventually took place on December 31, 1999.
More events: September 6 – September 7 – September 8
September 8: Independence Day in the Republic of Macedonia (1991); Victory Day in Malta; National Day in Andorra; International Literacy Day
- 1331 – Stefan Uroš IV Dušan (pictured) of the House of Nemanjić was crowned King of Serbia.
- 1888 – The inaugural season of The Football League in England, the oldest professional league competition in world football (soccer), began with twelve member clubs.
- 1900 – The Great Galveston Hurricane, one of the deadliest Atlantic hurricanes with estimated winds of 135 miles per hour (215 km/h) at landfall, struck Galveston, Texas, USA, killing at least 6,000 people.
- 1941 – World War II: German forces began the Siege of Leningrad. Over 1 million of Leningrad's civilians died from starvation before the siege ended on January 27, 1944, becoming one of the most lethal battles in world history.
- 1974 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Gerald Ford gave recently-resigned U.S. President Richard Nixon a full and unconditional, but controversial, pardon for any crimes he committed while in office.
More events: September 7 – September 8 – September 9
September 9: Republic Day in North Korea (1948); Independence Day in Tajikistan (1991)
- 1513 – War of the League of Cambrai: King James IV of Scotland (pictured) was killed at the Battle of Flodden Field in Northumberland while leading an invasion of England.
- 1850 – As part of the Compromise of 1850, California was admitted into the United States as a free state instead of a slave state where slavery was legal.
- 1971 – Prisoners rioted and seized control of the Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, New York, USA, taking thirty-three guards hostage. The uprising ended four days later after state police and guards raided the prison, leaving almost 40 hostages and inmates dead from the ensuing gunfire.
- 2001 – Ahmad Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, was assassinated in Afghanistan.
- 2004 – A car bomb exploded outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, killing at least nine people and injuring over 150 others.
More events: September 8 – September 9 – September 10
September 10: National Day in Gibraltar (1967)
- 1813 – War of 1812: An American fleet led by Oliver Hazard Perry scored a decisive victory over Great Britain’s Royal Navy at the Battle of Lake Erie in Lake Erie near Put-in-Bay, Ohio.
- 1897 – A peaceful labor demonstration made up of mostly Polish and Slovak anthracite coal miners in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, USA, was fired upon by a sheriff's posse comitatus in the Lattimer Massacre.
- 1898 – In an act of "propaganda of the deed", Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni fatally stabbed Empress Elisabeth of Austria (pictured) in Geneva, Switzerland.
- 1977 – Murderer Hamida Djandoubi became the last person to be guillotined in France, the official method of execution in that country. France would later abolish the death penalty in 1981.
- 1990 – Pope John Paul II consecrated the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire, one of the largest churches in the world.
More events: September 9 – September 10 – September 11
September 11: New Year's Day in the Coptic and the Ethiopian calendars; National Day of Catalonia; Teacher's Day in parts of Latin America
- 1297 – First War of Scottish Independence: The Scots defeated English troops at the Battle of Stirling Bridge on the River Forth near Stirling.
- 1857 – At Mountain Meadows, Utah Territory, USA, a local brigade of the Mormon militia led a massacre of about 120 California-bound pioneers from Arkansas.
- 1961 – The World Wide Fund for Nature, the world's largest independent conservation organisation, was founded in Morges, Switzerland.
- 1973 – A coup d'état in Chile led by General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the government of President Salvador Allende and established an anti-communist military dictatorship.
- 2001 - September 11 attacks: Three passenger airliners were hijacked to destroy the World Trade Center in New York City (pictured) and part of The Pentagon near Washington, D.C.; a fourth aircraft crashed in Pennsylvania. In total, almost 3,000 people were killed.
More events: September 10 – September 11 – September 12
September 12: National Day in Cape Verde
- 1683 – Great Turkish War: Polish troops led by John III Sobieski (pictured) joined forces with a Habsburg army to defeat the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vienna.
- 1848 – Switzerland became a federal state with the adoption of a new constitution.
- 1933 – Hungarian-American physicist Leó Szilárd conceived of the idea of the nuclear chain reaction while waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, London.
- 1974 – Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, considered to be the religious symbol for God incarnate among the Rastafari movement, was deposed in a coup d'état by the Derg, a military junta.
- 1992 – Abimael Guzmán, leader of the Peruvian Maoist guerrilla organization Shining Path, was captured in Lima.
More events: September 11 – September 12 – September 13
- 533 – Belisarius and his legions defeated Gelimer and the Vandals at the Battle of Ad Decimum near Carthage, and began the "Reconquest of the West" under Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I.
- 1814 – War of 1812: The bombardment of Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore inspired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner," which later became the national anthem of the United States.
- 1956 – IBM unveiled the 305 RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control), the first commercial computer that used magnetic disk storage.
- 1987 – Goiânia accident: A radioactive item was stolen from an abandoned hospital in Goiânia, Brazil, contaminating hundreds of people.
- 1993 – After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (pictured with U.S. President Bill Clinton) formally signed the Oslo Peace Accords.
More events: September 12 – September 13 – September 14
September 14: Mid-Autumn Festival in the Chinese lunar calendar (2008)
- 1752 – In adopting the Gregorian calendar under the terms of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, the British Empire skipped eleven days (September 2 was followed directly by September 14).
- 1812 – The French invasion of Russia: Following the Battle of Borodino seven days earlier, Napoleon and his Grande Armée captured Moscow, only to find the city deserted and burning.
- 1901 – Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States eight days after William McKinley was fatally wounded by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.
- 1959 – The Soviet spacecraft Luna 2 (pictured) crashed onto and became the first man-made object to reach the Moon.
- 1960 – Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela founded the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to help unify and coordinate their petroleum policies.
More events: September 13 – September 14 – September 15
September 15: Respect for the Aged Day in Japan (2008); Independence Day for Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador; Battle of Britain Day in the United Kingdom
- 1831 – The John Bull (pictured), currently the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world, ran for the first time in New Jersey on the Camden and Amboy Railroad.
- 1835 – Aboard the second voyage of HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin reached the Galápagos Islands, where he further developed his theories of evolution.
- 1935 – Nazi Germany enacted the Nuremberg Laws, which deprived German Jews of citizenship, and adopted a new national flag emblazoned with a swastika.
- 1950 – American troops landed at Incheon, Korea in an amphibious assault, starting the Battle of Inchon, a decisive United Nations military forces victory during the Korean War.
- 1963 – A bomb planted by members of the Ku Klux Klan exploded in the 16th Street Baptist Church, an African American Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, killing four children and injuring at least 22 others.
More events: September 14 – September 15 – September 16
September 16: Prinsjesdag in Netherlands (2008); Dieciséis de septiembre in Mexico; Malaysia Day in Malaysia; Independence Day in Papua New Guinea
- 1400 – Owain Glyndŵr was proclaimed Prince of Wales and instigated a revolt against the rule of Henry IV of England.
- 1810 – Miguel Hidalgo (statue pictured), the parish priest in Dolores, Guanajuato, delivered the Grito de Dolores to his congregation, instigating the Mexican War of Independence against Spain.
- 1963 – Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo (present-day Sabah), and Sarawak merged to form Malaysia.
- 1982 – A Lebanese militia under the direct command of Elie Hobeika carried out a massacre in the Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra and Shatila, killing at least 700 civilians.
- 1992 – The British pound was forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism on Black Wednesday, and suffered a major devaluation.
More events: September 15 – September 16 – September 17
September 17: Constitution Day and Citizenship Day in the United States
- 1862 – American Civil War: Almost 23,000 total casualties were suffered at the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, where Confederate and Union troops fought to a tactical stalemate.
- 1894 – The Imperial Japanese Navy defeated the Beiyang Fleet of Qing China in the Battle of the Yalu River at the mouth of the Yalu River in Korea Bay, the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War.
- 1939 – The Soviet Union joined Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland.
- 1978 – President Anwar Al Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel (pictured with U.S. President Jimmy Carter) signed the Camp David Accords after twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David.
- 2001 – The New York Stock Exchange opened for the first time since the September 11 attacks; the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its biggest point drop in its history, closing down 684.81 points to 8920.70.
More events: September 16 – September 17 – September 18
September 18: National Day in Chile
- 96 – Following the assassination of Roman Emperor Domitian, the Roman Senate appointed Nerva, the first of the Five Good Emperors, to succeed him.
- 323 – Constantine the Great decisively defeated Licinius in the Battle of Chrysopolis, establishing Constantine's sole control over the Roman Empire, and ultimately leading to the conversion of the whole empire to Christianity.
- 1895 – Daniel David Palmer (pictured) gave the first chiropractic adjustment to deaf janitor Harvey Lillard, reportedly resulting in a restoration of the man's hearing.
- 1931 – The Mukden Incident: A section of the Japanese-built South Manchuria Railway was destroyed, providing an excuse for the Japanese to blame the act on Chinese dissidents, and thus giving a pretext for the Japanese occupation of Manchuria.
- 1961 – En route to negotiate a ceasefire between Katanga troops and United Nations forces, the plane carrying UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld crashed under mysterious circumstances near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia, killing him and 15 others on board.
More events: September 17 – September 18 – September 19
September 19: Independence Day in Saint Kitts and Nevis (1983); Armed Forces Day in Chile; International Talk Like a Pirate Day
- 1356 – Hundred Years' War: English forces led by Edward the Black Prince (pictured) decisively won the Battle of Poitiers and captured King Jean II of France.
- 1692 – Giles Corey, who had refused to enter a plea, was pressed to his death during the Salem witch trials.
- 1893 – New Zealand became the first country to introduce universal suffrage, following the women's suffrage movement led by Kate Sheppard.
- 1985 – A magnitude 8.1 earthquake devastated Mexico City, killing at least nine thousand people and leaving up to 100,000 homeless.
- 2006 – The Royal Thai Army overthrew the elected government of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra while he was in New York City for a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.
More events: September 18 – September 19 – September 20
September 20: Oktoberfest begins in Munich (2008)
- 1378 – Papal Schism: Unhappy with Pope Urban VI (pictured), a group of cardinals started a rival papacy with the election of Antipope Clement VII, throwing the Roman Catholic Church into turmoil.
- 1854 – The Crimean War began with a Franco-British victory over Russian forces at the Battle of Alma near the River Alma in Crimea.
- 1870 – The Bersaglieri entered Rome, ending the temporal power of the Pope and completing the unification of Italy.
- 1906 – The ocean liner RMS Mauretania, the largest and fastest ship in the world at the time, was launched in Newcastle, England.
- 1946 – The first Cannes Film Festival opened. The Palme d'Or, then known as the Grand Prix du Festival, was shared by eleven films that year.
- 1973 – Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in straight sets before 30,492 spectators at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas in an internationally televised tennis match dubbed the "The Battle of the Sexes".
More events: September 19 – September 20 – September 21
September 21: International Day of Peace and Peace One Day; Independence Day in Malta (1964), Belize (1981) and Armenia (1991)
- 1745 – The Jacobite Risings: Jacobite troops led by Charles Edward Stuart defeated the Hanoverians at the Battle of Prestonpans in Prestonpans, East Lothian, Scotland.
- 1792 – French Revolution: The National Convention voted to abolish the monarchy, and proclaimed the First Republic.
- 1898 – The Hundred Days' Reform in China was abruptly terminated when Empress Dowager Cixi (pictured) forced the reform-minded Guangxu Emperor into seclusion and took over the government as regent.
- 1938 – The Great New England Hurricane made landfall on Long Island, New York, USA, killing at least 500 people and injuring about 700 others.
- 1942 – The prototype model of the B-29 Superfortress, a four-engine heavy bomber that became one of the largest aircraft to see service during World War II, flew for the first time.
More events: September 20 – September 21 – September 22
September 22: September Equinox (15:44 UTC, 2008); Independence Day in Bulgaria (1908) and Mali (1960); Car Free Day in Europe and Canada
- 1776 – Captain Nathan Hale, an American Revolutionary spy from the Continental Army, was hanged by British forces.
- 1792 – The epoch of the French Republican Calendar, marking the first day of the newly proclaimed French First Republic.
- 1823 – According to his own record of his early life, Latter Day Saint movement founder Joseph Smith, Jr. stated that he was directed by God through the Angel Moroni to the place where the Golden plates were stored.
- 1862 – Slavery in the United States: President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring the freedom of all slaves in Confederate territory by January 1, 1863.
- 1869 – Das Rheingold, the first of four operas in Der Ring des Nibelungen by German composer Richard Wagner (pictured), was first performed in Munich.
- 1965 – The United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for an unconditional ceasefire in the Indo-Pakistani War. The conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir ended the following day.
More events: September 21 – September 22 – September 23
- 1459 – Yorkist forces led by Richard Neville defeated Lancastrian troops at the Battle of Blore Heath in Staffordshire, England, the first major battle of the Wars of the Roses.
- 1803 – Maratha troops were beaten by British forces at the Battle of Assaye, one of the decisive battles of the Second Anglo-Maratha War.
- 1845 – American bookseller Alexander Cartwright founded the New York Knickerbockers, one of the first organized baseball teams, as well as formalizing a set of rules that became the basis for the rules of the modern game.
- 1846 – Using mathematical predictions by French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier, German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle became the first person to observe the planet Neptune (pictured).
More events: September 22 – September 23 – September 24
September 24: Independence Day in Guinea-Bissau (1973); Republic Day in Trinidad and Tobago (1976); Heritage Day in South Africa
- 622 – Muhammad and his followers completed their Hijra from Mecca to Medina to escape religious persecution.
- 1789 – The First United States Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789, establishing the U.S. federal judiciary and setting the number of Supreme Court Justices.
- 1841 – The Sultan of Brunei granted Sarawak to British adventurer James Brooke.
- 1903 – Alfred Deakin became the second Prime Minister of Australia, succeeding Edmund Barton who left office to become a founding justice of the High Court of Australia.
- 1988 – Canadian Ben Johnson finished the 100 m sprint at the Seoul Olympics in a world record time of 9.79 seconds (pictured), ahead of rivals Carl Lewis and Linford Christie, but was later disqualified for doping.
More events: September 23 – September 24 – September 25
- 1066 – Harold Godwinson of England defeated Harald Hardråde of Norway in Yorkshire at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, marking the end of Viking invasion of England.
- 1396 – Ottoman wars in Europe: Ottoman forces under Bayezid I (pictured) defeated a Christian alliance led by Sigismund of Hungary in the Battle of Nicopolis near present-day Nikopol, Bulgaria.
- 1513 – Conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa, upon a peak in present-day Darién, Panama, became the first European known to have seen the Pacific Ocean from the New World, naming it Mar del Sur, or South Sea, a few days later.
- 1962 – The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria was formally proclaimed. Ferhat Abbas was elected President of the provisional government, with Ahmed Ben Bella as Prime Minister.
- 1996 – The last Magdalene Asylum, an institution to rehabilitate so-called "fallen" women, in Ireland was closed.
More events: September 24 – September 25 – September 26
September 26: International Day of Quds (Iran, 2008); Dominion Day in New Zealand; European Day of Languages
- 1580 – The Golden Hind sailed into Plymouth, England, as Francis Drake completed his circumnavigation of the globe.
- 1687 – The Parthenon in Athens (pictured) was partially destroyed during an armed conflict between the Venetians under Francesco Morosini and Ottoman forces.
- 1907 – Newfoundland and New Zealand became dominions within the British Empire.
- 1957 – West Side Story, a musical based loosely on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet that was written by Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, and produced and directed by Jerome Robbins, made its debut on Broadway.
- 1983 – Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov of the Soviet Union averted a possible worldwide nuclear war by deliberately certifying what otherwise appeared to be an impending attack by the United States as a false alarm.
More events: September 25 – September 26 – September 27
September 27: Meskel in Ethiopia and Eritrea; World Tourism Day
- 1540 – Pope Paul III issued the papal bull Regimini militantis, approving the formation of the Society of Jesus, a Christian religious order of the Roman Catholic Church, by St. Ignatius of Loyola.
- 1825 – Locomotion No. 1 (pictured) hauled the first train on opening day of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the first railway to use steam locomotives and carry passengers.
- 1905 – The physics journal Annalen der Physik published Albert Einstein's paper "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", introducing the equation E=mc².
- 1937 – The Bali Tiger, a small subspecies of tiger found solely on the small Indonesian island of Bali, was officially declared extinct.
- 1988 – Led by pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy, a political party, was founded in Burma.
More events: September 26 – September 27 – September 28
September 28: St. Wenceslas Day in the Czech Republic; Teacher's Day in Taiwan
- 48 BC – Pompey the Great was assassinated on orders of King Ptolemy of Egypt after landing in Egypt following a decisive defeat by Julius Caesar at the Battle of Pharsalus.
- 1066 – William the Conqueror and his fleet of around 600 ships landed at Pevensey, Sussex, beginning the Norman conquest of England.
- 1542 – Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, the first European to travel along the coast of California, landed on what is now the City of San Diego.
- 1972 – Paul Henderson scored the game-winning goal against Vladislav Tretiak, securing a Canadian victory in the Summit Series over the Soviet ice hockey team.
- 1994 – The ferry MS Estonia (pictured) sank while commuting between Tallinn, Estonia, and Stockholm, Sweden, claiming 852 lives in one of the worst maritime accidents in the Baltic Sea.
More events: September 27 – September 28 – September 29
September 29: Rosh Hashanah begins at sunset (Judaism, 2008); Michaelmas
- 1364 – English forces defeated the French at the Battle of Auray in the French town of Auray, the decisive confrontation of the Breton War of Succession, a part of the Hundred Years' War
- 1829 – British Home Secretary Robert Peel (pictured) founded the Metropolitan Police of Greater London, also known as the Met.
- 1938 – Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, and French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier signed the Munich Agreement, stipulating that Czechoslovakia must cede the Sudetenland to Germany.
- 1941 – German Nazis aided by their collaborators began the Babi Yar massacre in Kiev, Ukraine, killing over 30,000 Jewish civilians in two days and thousands more in the months that followed.
- 1954 – Twelve countries signed a convention establishing the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), currently the world's largest particle physics laboratory.
More events: September 28 – September 29 – September 30
September 30: First day of Rosh Hashanah (Judaism, 2008); Independence Day in Botswana
- 1399 – The Duke of Lancaster deposed Richard II to become Henry IV of England, merging the Duchy of Lancaster with the crown.
- 1791 – The Magic Flute, the last opera composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, premiered at Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Austria.
- 1939 – World War II: General Władysław Sikorski (pictured) became Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile.
- 1966 – Seretse Khama became the first President of Botswana when the Bechuanaland Protectorate gained independence from the United Kingdom.
- 1980 – Xerox, Intel and Digital Equipment Corporation published the first Ethernet specifications, currently the most widespread wired local area network (LAN) technology.
More events: September 29 – September 30 – October 1
Selected anniversaries/On this day archive
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