On this day: September 21

Events on September 21

• 455 Emperor Avitus enters Italy with a Gallic army and consolidates his power. Wikipedia
• 1776 Part of New York City is burned shortly after being occupied by British forces. Wikipedia
• 1792 French Revolution: The National Convention abolishes the monarchy. Wikipedia
• 1898 Empress Dowager Cixi seizes power and ends the Hundred Days' Reform in China. Wikipedia
• 1918 World War I: The Battle of Nazareth ended with the British Empire victorious over the Ottomans. Wikipedia
• 1934 A large typhoon hits western Honshū, Japan, killing more than 3,000 people. Wikipedia
• 1937 J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is published for the first time. (September 22 is celebrated by some fans as Hobbit Day, however.) Wikipedia
• 1937 J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy children's novel The Hobbit, which later served as a prelude to The Lord of the Rings, was first published. Wikipedia
• 1938 The Great New England Hurricane made landfall on Long Island, New York, killing an estimated 682 people and injuring 1,754 others. Wikipedia
• 1938 The Great Hurricane of 1938 makes landfall on Long Island in New York. The death toll is estimated at 500–700 people. Wikipedia
• 1953 Lieutenant No Kum-sok, a North Korean pilot, defects to South Korea with his jet fighter. Wikipedia
• 1957 Pamir, a four-masted barque, was shipwrecked and sank off the Azores during Hurricane Carrie. Wikipedia
• 1964 Malta gains independence from the United Kingdom, but remains in the Commonwealth. Wikipedia
• 1965 The Gambia, Maldives and Singapore are admitted as members of the United Nations. Wikipedia
• 1971 Bahrain, Bhutan and Qatar join the United Nations. Wikipedia
• 1976 Orlando Letelier is assassinated in Washington, D.C. by Michael Townley, linked to the National Intelligence Directorate of Chile. Wikipedia
• 1976 Seychelles joins the United Nations. Wikipedia
• 1977 Malév Flight 203 crashes near Urziceni, Romania, killing 29 people. Wikipedia
• 1981 Belize is granted full independence from the United Kingdom. Wikipedia
• 1984 Brunei joins the United Nations. Wikipedia
• 1991 Armenia gains independence from the Soviet Union. Wikipedia
• 1993 A Transair Georgian Airlines Tu-134 is shot down by a missile in the Black Sea near Sokhumi, Georgia. Wikipedia
• 1993 Russian president Boris Yeltsin triggers a constitutional crisis when he suspends parliament and scraps the constitution. Wikipedia
• 2013 Al-Shabaab Islamic militants attack the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya, killing at least 67 people. Wikipedia
• 2013 Unidentified gunmen began a three-day attack on the upmarket Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, resulting in the deaths of 67 people with at least another 175 wounded. Wikipedia
• 2019 A 5.6 Mw earthquake shakes the Albanian port of Durrës. Forty-nine people are injured in the capital, Tirana. Wikipedia

Born on September 21

• 580 Pope Vitalian (died 672) Wikipedia
• 1415 Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1493) Wikipedia
• 1452 Girolamo Savonarola, Italian priest and philosopher (died 1498) Wikipedia
• 1840 Murad V, Ottoman sultan (died 1904) Wikipedia
• 1842 Abdul Hamid II, 34th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (died 1918) Wikipedia
• 1853 Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1926) Wikipedia
• 1866 H. G. Wells, English novelist, historian, and critic (died 1946) Wikipedia
• 1866 Charles Nicolle, French-Tunisian microbiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1936) Wikipedia
• 1867 Henry L. Stimson, American colonel, lawyer, and politician, 46th United States Secretary of State (died 1950) Wikipedia
• 1872 Henry Tingle Wilde, English chief officer on the RMS Titanic (died 1912) Wikipedia
• 1909 Kwame Nkrumah, Ghanaian educator and politician, 1st President of Ghana (died 1972) Wikipedia
• 1926 Donald A. Glaser, American physicist and neurobiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2013) Wikipedia
• 1934 Leonard Cohen, Canadian singer-songwriter and poet (died 2016) Wikipedia
• 1936 Yury Luzhkov, Russian soldier and politician, 2nd Mayor of Moscow (died 2019) Wikipedia
• 1947 Stephen King, American author and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1950 Bill Murray, American actor, comedian, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1951 Aslan Maskhadov, Chechen general and politician, 3rd President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (died 2005) Wikipedia
• 1954 Shinzo Abe, Japanese lawyer and politician, 90th Prime Minister of Japan (died 2022) Wikipedia
• 1957 Kevin Rudd, Australian politician and diplomat, 26th Prime Minister of Australia Wikipedia
• 1960 Masoumeh Ebtekar, Iranian journalist, politician and scientist, first woman Vice President of Iran Wikipedia
• 1980 Kareena Kapoor, Indian actress Wikipedia
• 1984 Jason Citron, American businessman, co-founded Discord Wikipedia

Died on September 21

• 19 BC Virgil, Roman poet (born 70 BC) Wikipedia
• 687 Pope Conon (born 630) Wikipedia
• 1327 Edward II of England (born 1284) Wikipedia
• 1558 Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1500) Wikipedia
• 1576 Gerolamo Cardano, Italian mathematician, physician, and astrologer (born 1501) Wikipedia
• 1629 Jan Pieterszoon Coen, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (born 1587) Wikipedia
• 1709 Ivan Mazepa, Ukrainian statesman, Hetman of Zaporizhian Host (born 1639) Wikipedia
• 1832 Walter Scott, Scottish novelist, playwright, and poet (born 1771) Wikipedia
• 1860 Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher and author (born 1788) Wikipedia
• 1957 Haakon VII of Norway (born 1872) Wikipedia
• 1971 Bernardo Houssay, Argentinian physiologist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1887) Wikipedia
• 1983 Xavier Zubiri, Basque philosopher (born 1898) Wikipedia
• 2018 Trần Đại Quang, President of Vietnam (born 1956) Wikipedia
• 2020 Arthur Ashkin, American scientist and Nobel laureate (born 1922) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Autumnal equinox observances in the Northern Hemisphere, vernal equinox observances in the Southern Hemisphere (see September 22): Spring Day (Argentina) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Cadoc Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Ephigenia of Ethiopia Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert (one of the Korean Martyrs) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Matthew the Evangelist (Western Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Maura of Troyes Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Nativity of the Theotokos (Eastern Orthodox Church, Julian calendar) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: September 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Arbor Day (Brazil) Wikipedia
• Commemoration of the Declaration of Martial Law (Philippines) Wikipedia
• Customs Service Day (Poland) Wikipedia
• Founder's Day and National Volunteer Day (Ghana) Wikipedia
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Armenia from the Soviet Union in 1991. Wikipedia
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Belize from the United Kingdom in 1981. Wikipedia
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Malta from the United Kingdom in 1964. Wikipedia
• International Day of Peace (International) Wikipedia
• Student's Day (Bolivia) Wikipedia
• Victory over the Golden Horde in the Battle of Kulikovo (Russia) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “September 21” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.