* 275 - Marcus Claudius Tacitus is appointed Roman emperor by the Senate.
* 303 - On a voyage preaching the gospel, Saint Fermin of Pamplona is beheaded in Amiens, France.
* 1066 - The Battle of Stamford Bridge marks the end of the Viking era.
* 1396 - Ottoman Emperor Bayezid I defeats a Christian army at the Battle of Nicopolis.
* 1513 - Spanish explorer Vasco NÃºÃ±ez de Balboa reached the Pacific Ocean.
* 1555 - The Peace of Augsburg is signed in Augsburg by Charles V and the princes of the Schmalkaldic League.
* 1690 - "Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick", the first newspaper published in the Americas, published for the first and only time.
* 1789 - The Congressional Apportionment Amendment to the United States Constitution is proposed at the U.S. Congress.
* 1804 - The Teton Sioux (a subdivison of the Lakota) demand one of the boats from the Lewis and Clark Expedition as a toll for moving further upriver.
* 1846 - U.S. forces led by Zachary Taylor captured the Mexican city of Monterrey.
* 1890 - Yosemite National Park established in California.
* 1911 - Ground is broken for Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts.
* 1912 - Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is founded in New York, New York.
* 1929 - Jimmy Doolittle performs the first blind flight from Mitchel Field proving that full Instrument Flying from take off to landing is possible.
* 1955 - The Royal Jordanian Air Force is founded.
* 1957 - Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, is integrated through the use of United States Army troops.
* 1959 - Solomon Bandaranaike, prime minister of Sri Lanka is mortally wounded by a Buddhist monk, Talduwe Somarama, and dies the next day.
* 1962 - The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria is formally proclaimed. Ferhat Abbas is elected President of the provisional government.
* 1970 - Cease-fire between Jordan and the fedayeen ends fighting triggered by four hijackings on September 6 and 9.
* 1970 - The Partridge Family debuts on ABC-TV and would run for four years.
* 1972 - In the Norwegian EC referendum, 1972, the people of Norway reject membership.
* 1976 - The Rock band U2 forms at a meeting at drummer Larry Mullen's home
* 1978 - PSA Flight 182, a Boeing 727-214, collides in mid-air with a Cessna 172 and crashes in San Diego, California, resulting in the deaths of 144 people.
* 1980 - The first congress of the Democratic Youth Organization of Afghanistan held in Kabul.
* 1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor was the 102nd Justice sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, the first woman to hold the office.
* 1988 - Monty Python member Michael Palin sets out from London's Reform Club to start his BBC documentary Around the World in 80 Days.
* 1988 - Oh My Goddess! (ã‚ã‚ã£å¥³ç¥žã•ã¾ã£, Aa! Megami-sama!) is first published
* 1996 - The last of the Magdalen Asylums closes in Ireland.
* 2002 - The Vitim event, a possible bolide impact in Siberia, Russia.
* 2003 - A magnitude-8.0 earthquake strikes just offshore of Hokkaido, Japan.
* 2005 - Spanish Formula One racing driver Fernando Alonso becomes the youngest FIA Formula One World Champion.
* 1358 - Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, Japanese shogun (d. 1408)
* 1525 - Steven Borough, English explorer (d. 1584)
* 1599 - Francesco Borromini, Italian architect (d. 1667)
* 1644 - Ole RÃ¸mer, Danish astronomer (d. 1710)
* 1683 - Jean-Philippe Rameau, French composer (d. 1764)
* 1694 - Henry Pelham, Prime Minister of Great Britain (d. 1754)
* 1711 - Qianlong Emperor of China (d. 1799)
* 1725 - Nicolas Joseph Cugnot, French automobile pioneer (d. 1804)
* 1738 - Nicholas Van Dyke, American lawyer and President of Delaware (d. 1789)
* 1764 - Fletcher Christian, English Bounty mutineer (d. 1793)
* 1766 - Armand-Emmanuel du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu, French-Russian statesman (d. 1822)
* 1773 - Agostino Bassi, Italian entomologist (d. 1856)
* 1780 - Jason Fairbanks, American murderer (d. 1801)
* 1782 - Charles Robert Maturin, Irish playwright and novelist (d. 1824)
* 1796 - Antoine-Louis Barye, French sculptor (d. 1875)
* 1798 - Jean-Baptiste Ã‰lie de Beaumont, French geologist (d. 1874)
* 1839 - Karl Alfred von Zittel, German palaeontologist (d. 1904)
* 1862 - Billy Hughes, seventh Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1952)
* 1866 - Thomas Morgan, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1945)
* 1881 - Lu Xun, Chinese writer (d. 1936)
* 1896 - Sandro Pertini, President of the Italian Republic (d. 1990)
* 1897 - William Faulkner, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1962)
* 1898 - Robert Brackman American artist (d. 1980)
* 1901 - Robert Bresson, French film director (d. 1999)
* 1903 - Mark Rothko, Latvian-born painter (d. 1970)
* 1906 - Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian composer (d. 1975)
* 1916 - Phil Rizzuto, baseball player and announcer
* 1917 - Johnny Sain, baseball player
* 1920 - Sergei Bondarchuk, Ukrainian-born actor (d. 1994)
* 1921 - Sir Robert Muldoon, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1992)
* 1922 - Hammer DeRoburt, first President of Nauru (d. 1992)
* 1926 - Aldo Ray, American actor (d. 1991)
* 1927 - Sir Colin Davis, English conductor
* 1929 - Ronnie Barker, British comedian and actor (d. 2005)
* 1929 - Barbara Walters, American broadcaster
* 1930 - Shel Silverstein, American humorist and author (d. 1999)
* 1932 - Glenn Gould, Canadian pianist and composer (d. 1982)
* 1932 - Adolfo SuÃ¡rez, Prime Minister of Spain
* 1933 - Hubie Brown, American basketball coach and broadcaster
* 1936 - Juliet Prowse, British actress and dancer (d. 1996)
* 1938 - Jonathan Motzfeldt, first Prime Minister of Greenland
* 1943 - Robert Gates, American director of the Central Intelligence Agency
* 1944 - Michael Douglas, American actor and producer
* 1944 - Doris Matsui, U.S. Congresswoman from California
* 1945 - Carol Vadnais, Canadian ice hockey player
* 1946 - Felicity Kendal, British actress
* 1947 - Cheryl Tiegs, American model
* 1947 - Russ Abbott, British actor and singer
* 1951 - Mark Hamill, American actor
* 1952 - Christopher Reeve, American actor and activist (d. 2004)
* 1952 - Anson Williams, American actor and director
* 1958 - Michael Madsen, American actor
* 1960 - Igor Belanov, Ukrainian footballer
* 1960 - Sonia Benezra, Canadian television host
* 1961 - Heather Locklear, American actress and model
* 1962 - Aida Turturro, American actress
* 1964 - Kikuko Inoue, Japanese singer and voice actresses (seiyÅ«)
* 1964 - Joey Saputo, Canadian businessman (Saputo) and sports executive (Montreal Impact)
* 1965 - Scottie Pippen, American basketball player
* 1968 - Will Smith, American actor and rapper
* 1969 - Hansie Cronje, South African cricketer (d. 2002)
* 1969 - Catherine Zeta-Jones, Welsh actress
* 1969 - Heather Stewart-Whyte, British supermodel
* 1970 - Dean Ween, American musician (Ween)
* 1971 - John Lynch, American football player
* 1971 - Hal Sparks, American actor
* 1973 - Tijani Babangida, Nigerian footballer
* 1975 - Declan Donnelly, English television presenter
* 1975 - Matt Hasselbeck, American football player
* 1976 - Chauncey Billups, American basketball player
* 1978 - Ricardo Gardner, Jamaican footballer
* 1978 - Jodie Kidd, English model
* 1978 - Roudolphe Douala, Cameroonian footballer
* 1980 - T.I., rapper
* 1981 - Jason Bergmann, baseball pitcher
* 1981 - Emmy Clarke, American actress
* 1066 - Killed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge:
o Tostig Godwinson, Earl of Northumbria
o Harald III of Norway (b. 1015)
* 1086 - William VIII, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 1025)
* 1333 - Prince Morikuni, Japanese shogun (b. 1301)
* 1496 - Piero Capponi, Italian soldier and statesman (b. 1447)
* 1506 - King Philip I of Castile (b. 1478)
* 1534 - Pope Clement VII (b. 1478)
* 1536 - Johannes Secundus, Dutch poet (b. 1511)
* 1602 - Caspar Peucer, German reformer (b. 1525)
* 1617 - Francisco Suarez, Spanish Jesuit, philosopher/theologian (b. 1548)
* 1617 - Emperor Go-Yozei of Japan, (b. 1617)
* 1626 - Lancelot Andrewes, English scholar and Bishop of the Church of England (b. 1555)
* 1630 - Ambrosio Spinola, marquÃ©s de los Balbases, Spanish general (b. 1569)
* 1665 - Maria Anna of Austria (b. 1610)
* 1703 - Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll, Scottish privy councillor (b. 1658)
* 1774 - John Bradstreet, Canadian-born soldier (b. 1714)
* 1777 - Johann Heinrich Lambert, German scientist (b. 1728)
* 1791 - William Bradford, American printer (b. 1719)
* 1792 - Adam Gottlob Moltke, Danish statesman (b. 1710)
* 1794 - Paul Rabaut, French Huguenot pastor (b. 1718)
* 1825 - Joachim Heer, Swiss politician (b. 1879)
* 1849 - Johann Strauss, Senior, Austrian composer (b. 1804)
* 1867 - Oliver Loving, American pioneer rancher (b. 1812)
* 1867 - Evgenii Miller, Russian counter-revolutionary (d. 1938)
* 1900 - FÃ©lix-Gabriel Marchand, premier of QuÃ©bec (b. 1832)
* 1905 - Jacques Marie EugÃ¨ne Godefroy Cavaignac, French politician (b. 1853)
* 1918 - Mikhail Alekseev, Russian general (b. 1857)
* 1926 - Herbert Booth, the third son of William and Catherine Booth (b. 1862)
* 1929 - Miller Huggins, baseball player and manager (b. 1879)
* 1933 - Ring Lardner, American writer (b. 1885)
* 1946 - Hans Eppinger, Austrian physician and war criminal (b. 1879)
* 1960 - Emily Post , American author & etiquette expert (b. 1873)
* 1961 - Frank Fay American actor first husband of Barbara Stanwyck (b. 1897)
* 1970 - Erich Maria Remarque, German author (b. 1898)
* 1979 - Tapio Rautavaara, Finnish athlete, actor, and singer (b. 1915)
* 1980 - John Bonham, British drummer (Led Zeppelin) (b. 1948)
* 1980 - Lewis Milestone, Moldovan film director (b. 1895)
* 1980 - Marie Under, Estonian author and poet (b. 1883)
* 1983 - King LÃ©opold III of Belgium (b. 1901)
* 1984 - Walter Pidgeon, Canadian actor (b. 1897)
* 1986 - Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov, Russian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1896)
* 1987 - Mary Astor, American actress (b. 1906)
* 1987 - Emlyn Williams, Welsh actor (b. 1905)
* 1991 - Klaus Barbie, Nazi war criminal
* 1991 - Viviane Romance, French actress (b. 1912)
* 1995 - Bessie Delany, African-American physician and author (b. 1891)
* 1996 - Nicu CeauÅŸescu, Romanian politician (b. 1951)
* 1997 - Jean FranÃ§aix, French composer (b. 1912)
* 1999 - Marion Zimmer Bradley, American writer (b. 1930)
* 2000 - R. S. Thomas, Welsh poet (b. 1913)
* 2003 - Aquila al-Hashimi, Iraqi politician
* 2003 - Herb Gardner, American playwright (b. 1934)
* 2003 - Franco Modigliani, Italian-born economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
* 2003 - George Plimpton, American writer and actor (b. 1927)
* 2005 - Don Adams, American actor and comedian (b. 1923)
* 2005 - George Archer, American golfer (b. 1939)
* 2005 - Urie Bronfenbrenner, American psychologist, founder of Head Start program (b. 1917)
* 2005 - M. Scott Peck, American psychiatrist and writer (b. 1936)
* 2005 - Friedrich Peter, Austrian politician (b. 1921)
Holidays and observances
* R.C. Saints - Virgin of Fuencisla; Saint Finbarr
* Also see September 25 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
* Mozambique - Armed Forces Day
* French Republican Calendar - Colchique (Crocus) Day, fourth day in the Month of VendÃ©miaire
A century of Shostakovich
The world is marking the centenary of the birth of Dmitri Shostakovich, the Russian composer described by many critics as the greatest of the 20th Century.