What happened today
1806
Famous birthdays
1863
Get history's greatest tales
Subscribe to our HistoryNet Now! newsletter for a blast from the past each week in your inbox.
more events on September 23
-
2004
Hurricane Jeanne causes severe flooding in Haiti; over 1,000 reported dead.
-
2002
The first public version of Mozilla Firefox browser released; originally called Phoenix 0.1 its name was changed due to trademark issues with Phoenix Technologies.
-
1992
Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonates 3,700-lb. bomb in Belfast, completely destroying the Northern Ireland forensic laboratory, injuring 20 people and damaging 700 houses.
-
1983
Gulf Air Flight 771 from Karachi, Pakistan, to Abu Dhabi, UAE, bombed; all 117 aboard die.
-
Gerrie Coetzee (Gerhardus Coetzee), boxer from South Africa; becomes the first boxer from the African continent to win a world heavyweight tittle (World Boxing Association).
-
1973
Juan Peron is re-elected president of Argentina after being overthrown in 1955.
-
1967
Soviets sign a pact to send more aid to Hanoi.
-
1961
William “Willie” McCool, American astronaut; among those killed when Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates while reentering Earth’s atmosphere (2003).
-
1954
East German police arrest 400 citizens as U.S. spies.
-
1952
Richard Nixon responds to charges of a secret slush fund during his ‘Checkers Speech.’
-
1949
Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen, singer, songwriter, musician (“Born to Run,” “Born in the U.S.A”); his multiple awards include 20 Grammys, two Golden Globes, and an Oscar, the latter for “Streets of Philadelphia” (1994).
-
1947
Mary Kay Place, Emmy-winning actress (Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman), singer.
-
1945
The first American dies in Vietnam during the fall of Saigon to French forces.
-
1943
Julio Iglesia, singer, songwriter with more than 2,600 certified gold and platinum records (“To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before,” “Summer Wind”).
-
1936
Valentin Corazao, Interim President of Peru (2000-01) after Pres. Alberto Fujimori was removed from office by Congress.