September 20 is the 263rd day of the year (264th in leap years). There are 102 days remaining.

Events

• 1596 - Diego de Montemayor founded the city of Mexico.
• 1854 - Battle of Alma - British and French troops defeat Russians in the Crimea
• 1860 - The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII of the United Kingdom) visits the United States
• 1863 - Battle of Chickamauga ends
• 1870 - Bersaglieri corps enters Rome at Porta Pia and completes the unification of Italy
• 1881 - Chester A. Arthur is inaugurated as the 21st President of the United States.
• 1891 - The first gasoline-powered car debuts in Springfield, Massachusetts.
• 1946 - First Cannes Film Festival
• 1954 - First program compiled from FORTRAN runs
• 1954 - New Zealand's Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents reports just ten days after concluding hearings.
• 1962 - James Meredith, an African-American, is barred from entering the University of Mississippi
• 1973 - Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in battle-of-sexes tennis match
• 1979 - Lee Iacocca elected president of the Chrysler Corporation
• 1979 - Coup in Central African Empire overthrows Emperor Bokasa I
• 1981 - Coup in Central African Republic overthrows President David Dacko
• 1984 - Suicide bomber in a car attacks the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing twelve people
• 1998 - After playing 2,632 consecutive games for the Baltimore Orioles, baseball player Cal Ripken, Jr takes a day off.
• 2003 - Referendum in Latvia over the joining of the European Union

Births

• 356 BC - Alexander the Great (d. 323 BC)
• AD 1842 - Sir James Dewar, chemist (d. 1923)
• 1853 - Chulalongkorn (Rama V), king of Thailand (d. 1910)
• 1861 - Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress (d. 1955)
• 1873 - Sidney Olcott, pioneer film director (d. 1949)
• 1878 - Upton Sinclair, writer, politician (d. 1968)
• 1889 - Charles Reidpath, American athlete
• 1890 - Jelly Roll Morton, composer (d. 1941)
• 1899 - Elliott Nugent, actor, director
• 1917 - Red Auerbach, National Basketball Association coach and executive
• 1918 - Peg Phillips, actress
• 1922 - William Kapell, pianist (d. 1953)
• 1924 - Gogi Grant (Audrey Brown), singer
• 1925 - James Galanos, fashion designer
• 1927 - Johnny Dankworth, musician, composer
• 1927 - Rachel Roberts, actress (d. 1980)
• 1928 - Doctor Joyce Brothers, psychologist, advice columnist
• 1928 - Donald A. Hall, author
• 1929 - Anne Meara, comic, actress
• 1931 - Peter Palmer, actor
• 1934 - Sophia Loren, actress
• 1938 - Pia Lindstrom, journalist
• 1947 - Chuck Panozzo, musician
• 1948 - George R. R. Martin, science fiction writer
• 1951 - Guy Lafleur, National Hockey League star
• 1954 - Peter White, jazz musician
• 1956 - Gary Cole, actor
• 1967 - Kristen Johnston, actress
• 1967 - Gunnar Nelson and Matthew Nelson, singers
• 1968 - Leah Pinsent, Canadian actress
• 1968 - Darrell Russell, NHRA drag racer (d. 2004)
• 1971 - Henrik Larsson, Swedish football star
• 1975 - Asia Argento, actress
• 1975 - Juan Pablo Montoya, Formula One racer
• 1976 - Michael Ballack, German football star
• 1978 - Jason Bay, Canadian baseball player
• 1978 - Sarit Hadad, Israeli singer

Deaths

• 1460 - Gilles Binchois, composer
• 1586 - Chidiock Tichborne, English conspirator and poet, executed
• 1803 - Robert Emmet, Irish patriot.
• 1863 - Jacob Grimm, folklorist
• 1908 - Pablo de Sarasate, violinist
• 1947 - Fiorello LaGuardia, former mayor of New York City
• 1949 - Nikolaos Skalkottas, composer
• 1957 - Jean Sibelius, composer
• 1973 - Jim Croce, singer-songwriter
• 1974 - José Mojica, Mexican singer and film actor (b. 1899)
• 1996 - Paul Erdös, mathematician
• 1999 - Raisa Gorbachev, First Lady of the Soviet Union
• 2000 - Gherman Titov, cosmonaut
• 2003 - Lord Williams of Mostyn, British Cabinet minister, Leader of the House of Lords
• 2003 - Simon Muzenda, vice president of Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe
• 2004 - Townsend Hoopes, United States Under Secretary of Defense for the Air Force

Holidays

• In ancient Greece, the seventh day of the Eleusinian Mysteries, when the secret rites in the Telesterion began.

September 19 · September 21 · August 20 · October 20 · more historical anniversaries