On this day: September 10

Events on September 10

• 422 Election of pope Celestine I following the death of pope Boniface I earlier that month. Wikipedia
• 1509 The "Minor Judgement Day" earthquake struck in the Sea of Marmara, devastating much of Constantinople and killing more than 1,000 people. Wikipedia
• 1515 Thomas Wolsey is invested as a Cardinal. Wikipedia
• 1547 Anglo-Scottish Wars: English forces defeated the Scots at the Battle of Pinkie near Musselburgh, Lothian, Scotland. Wikipedia
• 1622 Fifty-five Christians were executed in Nagasaki during the Great Genna Martyrdom, part of persecution towards Christians in Japan by the Tokugawa shogunate. Wikipedia
• 1724 Johann Sebastian Bach led the first performance of Jesu, der du meine Seele, BWV 78, a chorale cantata based on a passion hymn by Johann Rist. Wikipedia
• 1779 American Revolutionary War: Captain William Pickles of the Continental Navy boarded and captured the British sloop HMS West Florida at the Battle of Lake Pontchartrain. Wikipedia
• 1845 John Doubleday completed a "masterly" restoration of the Portland Vase, which had been smashed into hundreds of pieces seven months prior. Wikipedia
• 1858 George Mary Searle discovered the asteroid 55 Pandora from the Dudley Observatory near Albany, New York; it was his only asteroid discovery. Wikipedia
• 1898 Empress Elisabeth of Austria is assassinated by Luigi Lucheni. Wikipedia
• 1919 The Republic of German-Austria signs the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, ceding significant territories to Italy, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia. Wikipedia
• 1937 Led by the United Kingdom and France, nine nations met at the Nyon Conference to address international piracy in the Mediterranean Sea. Wikipedia
• 1943 World War II: In the course of Operation Achse, German troops begin their occupation of Rome. Wikipedia
• 1945 Mike the Headless Chicken was decapitated on a farm in Colorado; he survived another 18 months as part of sideshows before choking to death. Wikipedia
• 1960 Running barefoot in the marathon event at the Rome Olympics, Abebe Bikila became the first athlete from sub-Saharan Africa to win an Olympic gold medal. Wikipedia
• 1961 At the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, German driver Wolfgang von Trips's car collided with another, causing it to become airborne and crash into a side barrier, killing him and 15 spectators. Wikipedia
• 1974 After centuries of Portuguese rule, the country of Guinea-Bissau was formally recognized as independent. Wikipedia
• 1983 Typhoon Ellen dissipated after destroying hundreds of homes across Hong Kong and the Philippines. Wikipedia
• 1990 Pope John Paul II consecrated the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, one of the largest churches in the world, in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast. Wikipedia
• 2000 British forces freed soldiers and civilians who had been held captive by the militant group the West Side Boys, contributing to the end of the Sierra Leone Civil War. Wikipedia
• 2007 Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif returns to Pakistan after seven years in exile, following a military coup in October 1999. Wikipedia
• 2008 The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, described as the biggest scientific experiment in history, is powered up in Geneva, Switzerland. Wikipedia
• 2009 Members of the Atlanta Police Department conducted a raid on a gay bar, with patrons later alleging that their constitutional rights had been violated and the city agreeing to pay over $1 million in settlements. Wikipedia
• 2017 Hurricane Irma made landfall on Cudjoe Key, Florida, as a Category 4, after causing catastrophic damage throughout the Caribbean. Wikipedia
• 2024 Polaris Dawn, the first private crewed spaceflight to involve a spacewalk, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Wikipedia
• 2025 American political activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at an event at Utah Valley University. Wikipedia

Born on September 10

• 1487 Pope Julius III (died 1555) Wikipedia
• 1638 Maria Theresa of Spain (died 1683) Wikipedia
• 1659 Henry Purcell, English organist and composer (died 1695) Wikipedia
• 1839 Charles Sanders Peirce, American mathematician, statistician, and philosopher (died 1914) Wikipedia
• 1887 Giovanni Gronchi, Italian soldier and politician, 3rd President of the Italian Republic (died 1978) Wikipedia
• 1890 Franz Werfel, Austrian-Bohemian author, poet, and playwright (died 1945) Wikipedia
• 1892 Arthur Compton, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1962) Wikipedia
• 1894 Alexander Dovzhenko, Soviet screenwriter/producer/director of Ukrainian origin (died 1956) Wikipedia
• 1897 Georges Bataille, French philosopher, novelist, and poet (died 1962) Wikipedia
• 1914 Robert Wise, American director and producer (died 2005) Wikipedia
• 1933 Karl Lagerfeld, German-French fashion designer and photographer (died 2019)[citation needed] Wikipedia
• 1937 Jared Diamond, American biologist, geographer, and author Wikipedia
• 1941 Stephen Jay Gould, American paleontologist, biologist, and author (died 2002) Wikipedia
• 1953 Amy Irving, American actress Wikipedia
• 1958 Chris Columbus, American director, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1960 Colin Firth, English actor and producer Wikipedia
• 1964 Jack Ma, Chinese businessman, co-founder of Alibaba Group [citation needed] Wikipedia
• 1968 Guy Ritchie, English director, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1974 Ryan Phillippe, American actor and producer Wikipedia
• 1976 Gustavo Kuerten, Brazilian tennis player Wikipedia
• 1983 Jérémy Toulalan, French footballer Wikipedia
• 1995 Jack Grealish, English footballer Wikipedia

Died on September 10

• 210 BC Qin Shi Huang, first emperor of China (born 259 BC) Wikipedia
• 1167 Matilda of England, Holy Roman Empress (born 1102) Wikipedia
• 1382 Louis I of Hungary (born 1326) Wikipedia
• 1749 Émilie du Châtelet, French mathematician and physicist (born 1706) Wikipedia
• 1797 Mary Wollstonecraft, English philosopher, historian, and novelist (born 1759) Wikipedia
• 1898 Empress Elisabeth of Austria (born 1837) Wikipedia
• 1948 Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (born 1861) Wikipedia
• 1975 George Paget Thomson, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1892) Wikipedia
• 1979 Agostinho Neto, Angolan politician, 1st President of Angola (born 1922) Wikipedia
• 1983 Felix Bloch, Swiss-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1905) Wikipedia
• 2007 Jane Wyman, American actress (born 1917) Wikipedia
• 2014 Richard Kiel, American actor (born 1939) Wikipedia
• 2020 Diana Rigg, British actress (born 1938) Wikipedia
• 2025 Charlie Kirk, American right-wing political activist (born 1993) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Amerindian Heritage Day (Guyana) Wikipedia
• Children's Day (Honduras) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Alexander Crummell (Episcopal Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Ambrose Barlow Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Aubert Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Sebastian Kimura, Charles Spinola, and Martyrs of Nagasaki Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Edmund James Peck (Anglican Church of Canada) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Nicholas of Tolentino Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Theodard of Maastricht Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: September 10 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Gibraltar National Day Wikipedia
• Saint George's Caye Day (Belize) Wikipedia
• Teachers' Day (China) Wikipedia
• World Suicide Prevention Day Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “September 10” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/September 10” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “September 10” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for September 10 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.