September 21

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

1 Events 2 Births 3 Deaths 4 Holidays and observances 5 External links

[edit] Events

1217 - The Estonian tribal leader Lembitu of Lehola was killed in a battle against Teutonic Knights. 1745 - Battle of Prestonpans: A Hanoverian army under the command of Sir John Cope is defeated, in ten minutes, by the Jacobite forces of Prince Charles Edward Stuart 1765 - Antoine de Beauterne announces he had killed the Beast of GÃ©vaudan, but was later proved wrong by more attacks. 1780 - American Revolutionary War: Benedict Arnold gives the British the plans to West Point. 1792 - The French National Convention votes to abolish the monarchy. 1827 - According to Joseph Smith, Jr., the angel Moroni gave him a record of gold plates, one-third of which Joseph translated into The Book of Mormon. 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 and ends the Hundred Days' Reform in China. 1921 - Oppau explosion, a storage silo at a fertilizer producing plant exploded in Oppau, Germany, 500â€”600 killed. 1934 - A large typhoon hits western HonshÅ«, Japan. The Japanese government confirms 3,036 killed. Osaka is hardest hit with great property damage. 1937 - J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is published. 1938 - The Great Hurricane of 1938 makes landfall on Long Island in New York. The death toll is estimated at 500-700 people. 1939 - Romanian Prime Minister Armand Calinescu is assassinated by ultranationalist members of the Iron Guard. 1942 - On Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Nazis sent over 1.000 Jews of Pidhaytsi (west Ukraine) to Belzec extermination camp. 1942 - On the end of Yom Kippur, the Germans ordered KonstantynÃ³w Jews (Poland) to permanently evacuate KonstantynÃ³w and move to the Ghetto - established in BiaÅ‚a Podlaska, meant to assemble Jews from nearby 7 towns among them: KonstantynÃ³w, JanÃ³w Podlaski, Rossosz, Terespol, and 3 more. 1942 - In Dunaivtsi, Ukraine, Nazis murder 2588 Jews. 1942 - The B-29 Superfortress makes its maiden flight. 1950 - George Marshall sworn in as the 3rd Secretary of Defense of United States. 1961 - Maiden flight of the CH-47 Chinook transportation helicopter. 1964 - Malta becomes independent from the United Kingdom. 1964 - The North American XB-70 Valkyrie, the world's first Mach 3 bomber, made its maiden flight from Palmdale, California. 1965 - Singapore admitted as a part of the United Nations. 1970 - New York Times starts first modern op-ed page. 1972 - Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos signs Proclamation No. 1081 placing the entire country under martial law. 1976 - Orlando Letelier is assassinated in Washington, D.C. He was a member of the Chilean socialist government of Salvador Allende, overthrown in 1973 by Augusto Pinochet. 1979 - Two RAF Hawker Siddeley Harrier jump-jets from RAF Wittering collide over the UK. Both pilots ejected safely. One of the jets broke up in midair and fell harmlessly into a field but the other dropped onto the centre of Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, destroying two houses and a bungalow. Several people were injured in the accident and three people were killed. 1980 - Kerry GAA beat Roscommon GAA in Croke Park during the All-Ireland Football Final by 1-9 to 1-6 thus winning the championship and a three-in-a-row. 1981 - Belize is granted full independence from the United Kingdom. 1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor is unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate as the first female supreme court justice. 1986 - Kerry GAA beat Tyrone GAA in Croke Park during the All-Ireland Football Final by 2-15 to 1-10 thus winning the championship and a three-in-a-row. 1989 - Hurricane Hugo makes landfall in the U.S. state of South Carolina. 1991 - Armenia is granted independence from Soviet Union. 1993 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin suspends parliament and scraps the then-functioning constitution, thus triggering the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993. 1995 - The Hindu milk miracle occurs, in which statues of the Hindu God Ganesh began drinking milk when spoonfuls were placed near their mouths. 1999 - Chi-Chi earthquake occurs in central Taiwan, leaving about 2,400 people dead. 2001 - Deep Space 1 flies within 2,200 km of Comet Borrelly. 2001 - AZF chemical plant explodes in Toulouse, France, killing 29 people 2001 - University of Roorkee, becomes India's 7th Indian Institute of Technology, rechristened as IIT Roorkee 2003 - Galileo mission terminated by sending the probe into Jupiter's atmosphere, where it is crushed by the pressure at the lower altitudes. 2004 - The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War and the Maoist Communist Centre of India merge to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist). 2004 - Construction of the Burj Dubai starts. 2008 - Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the two last remaining independent investment banks on Wall Street, become bank holding companies as a result of the subprime mortgage crisis. 2008 - President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa resigns from office, effective September 25. 2008 - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel formally resigns from office, effective as soon as his successor Tzipi Livni has successfully assembled a new government. 2008 - Final baseball game played at Yankee Stadium