This day: 23.09.2025

Israel launches airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, killing more than 490 people.

Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. It borders Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east and Egypt to the southwest. Israel occupies the Palestinian territories of the West Bank in the east and the Gaza Strip in the southwest, as well as the Syrian Golan Heights in the northeast. Israel's western coast lies on the Mediterranean Sea, its southernmost point reaches the Red Sea, and its eastern border includes part of the Dead Sea. Jerusalem is the seat of government and proclaimed capital, while Tel Aviv is the country's largest urban area and economic centre.

Voting begins in the five-day sham annexation referendums in Russian-occupied Ukraine, leading to Russian annexation of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.

An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.

A grand jury in Kentucky declines to indict three police officers for the shooting death of Breonna Taylor in a drug raid gone wrong, leading to nationwide protests in the U.S.

A grand jury is a jury empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a person to testify. A grand jury is separate from the courts, which do not preside over its functioning.

Twenty people die on the first of two days of rioting in Papua and West Papua over an alleged racist incident.

The 2019 Papua protests were a series of protests by Papuans in Indonesia that began on 19 August 2019 and mainly took place across Indonesian Papua region in response to the arrests of 43 Papuan students in Surabaya, East Java for alleged disrespect of the Indonesian flag. Many of the protests involved thousands of participants, and some grew from local protests in Surabaya to demanding an independence referendum for the whole region. In several locations, the protests turned into general riots, resulting in the destruction of government buildings in Wamena, Sorong and Jayapura. Clashes between protesters and police resulted in injuries, with over 30 people killed from both the clashes and the rioting.

Twenty-five people are killed after Typhoon Usagi passes Hong Kong and China.

Typhoon Usagi, known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Odette, was a tropical cyclone which affected Taiwan, the Philippines, China, and Hong Kong in mid September 2013. Usagi , which refers to the constellation Lepus in Japanese, was the fourth typhoon and the nineteenth tropical storm in the basin. Developing into a tropical storm east of the Philippines late on September 16, Usagi began explosive intensification on September 19 and ultimately became a violent and large typhoon. Afterwards, the system weakened slowly, crossed the Bashi Channel on September 21, and made landfall over Guangdong, China on September 22.

Teresa Lewis becomes the first woman to be executed by the U.S. state of Virginia since 1912, and the first woman in the state to be executed by lethal injection.

Teresa Wilson Bean Lewis was an American murderer who was the only woman on death row in Virginia prior to her execution. She was sentenced to death by lethal injection for the murders of her husband and stepson in October 2002. Lewis sought to profit from a $250,000 life insurance policy her stepson had taken out as a U.S. Army reservist in anticipation of his deployment to Iraq.

Matti Saari kills ten people at a school in Finland before committing suicide.

The Kauhajoki school shooting occurred on 23 September 2008 at the Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences (SeAMK) in Kauhajoki, Finland. The gunman, 22-year-old student Matti Juhani Saari, shot and killed ten people with a Walther P22 Target semi-automatic pistol, before shooting himself in the head. He died a few hours later at Tampere University Hospital. One woman was injured but remained in stable condition.

Over 3,000 people die in Haiti after Hurricane Jeanne produces massive flooding and mudslides.

Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country in the Caribbean on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Haiti is the third largest country in the Caribbean, and with an estimated population of 11.4 million, is the most populous Caribbean country. The capital and largest city is Port-au-Prince.

Qantas Flight 1 overrun a runway in Bangkok during a storm, causing minor injuries to some passengers.

Qantas Flight 1 (QF1/QFA1) was a Qantas passenger flight between Sydney and London with a stop in Bangkok-Don Mueang. On 23 September 1999, the aircraft operating as Flight 1 had departed from Sydney that day, and was involved in a runway overrun accident at Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok as it was landing for a stopover.

Gulf Air Flight 771 is destroyed by a bomb, killing all 112 people on board.

Gulf Air Flight 771 was an international scheduled passenger flight from Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, Pakistan, to Abu Dhabi International Airport, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. On 23 September 1983, while the Boeing 737-2P6 was on approach, a bomb, planted by the Palestinian nationalist militant group, Abu Nidal Organization, exploded in the baggage compartment, resulting in a fire. The aircraft crashed in the desert near Jebel Ali between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. All 105 passengers and 7 crew members died. To date, it is the deadliest air disaster in the history of the United Arab Emirates, along with Sterling Airways Flight 296 which also killed 112 in 1972.

Argentine general election: Juan Perón returns to power in Argentina.

The second Argentine general election of 1973 was held on 23 September.

Seven people die, 46 people are injured, and more than 150 boats capsize when a squall hit Lake Michigan during Michigan's first coho salmon sport fishing season.

The 1967 Coho Salmon Fishing Disaster refers to a squall over Lake Michigan, off the coast of Michigan in the United States, which occurred on September 23, 1967. Hundreds of small fishing boats were on the lake to take advantage of a coho salmon run. More than 150 boats capsized, seven people died, and 46 people were injured.

Typhoon Wilda, one of the strongest typhoons to ever strike Japan, makes landfall, causing at least 30 fatalities and sinking at least 64 ships.

Typhoon Wilda was an intense typhoon that was tied for lowest central pressure of any typhoon in 1964, along with Typhoon Sally. As the twenty-fourth named storm of the season, it origins can be traced back to when it was as a tropical storm east-southeast of Guam on September 16. Wilda moved northwestward for multiple days. it was identified as a tropical storm by Joint Typhoon Warning Center on September 19, strengthening into a typhoon that day. It reached its peak intensity over the Philippine Sea. Wilda slightly weakened following peak strength before curving northward and making landfall on September 24. The storm would eventually emerge into the Sea of Japan and curve northeast. Wilda made a final landfall on September 25 as a tropical storm, thereafter, departing Japan and quickly moving towards the central Aleutian Islands as a powerful extratropical cyclone, dissipating on September 27.

Flying Tiger Line Flight 923, a Lockheed L-1049H Super Constellation registered as N6923C, ditched into the Atlantic Ocean killing 28 out the 76 occupants onboard. The remaining 48 were rescued six hours later.

Flying Tiger Line Flight 923 was a chartered military transport flight that ditched in the North Atlantic Ocean on September 23, 1962. The Lockheed Constellation L-1049H was transporting 68 military personnel of the United States Army from McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey to Rhein-Main Air Base in West Germany. While flying over the North Atlantic on the Gander-Frankfurt leg, the number 3 engine fire warning sounded, and the engine was shut down. While trying to finish the engine shutdown checklist, the flight engineer accidentally turned off the oil flow to the number 1 engine, leaving the aircraft on only two engines. Approximately an hour later and after the L-1049H started to divert to Shannon, Ireland, the number 2 engine caught on fire and was forced to be at reduced thrust. The aircraft ditched in the North Atlantic Ocean, where 48 occupants survived for six hours on a life raft until the MS Celerina arrived at the scene.

U.S. President John F. Kennedy nominates African American civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, although pro-segregation Southern senators manage to delay his confirmation until September 11, 1962.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person elected president at 43 years. Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his foreign policy concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. A member of the Democratic Party, Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the United States Congress before his presidency.

Little Rock schools integration crisis: President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas, and federalizes the Arkansas National Guard, ordering both to support the integration of Little Rock Central High School.

The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. They then attended after the intervention of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

A tropical storm originating in the eastern Pacific Ocean passes into the Gulf of Mexico and is upgraded and named Hurricane Flossy just hours before striking the Gulf Coast and causing 15 deaths and an estimated USD$24.8 million in damages.

A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its location and strength, a tropical cyclone is called a hurricane, typhoon, tropical storm, cyclonic storm, tropical depression, or simply cyclone. A hurricane is a strong tropical cyclone that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean or northeastern Pacific Ocean. A typhoon is the same thing which occurs in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. In the Indian Ocean and South Pacific, comparable storms are referred to as "tropical cyclones". In modern times, on average around 80 to 90 named tropical cyclones form each year around the world, over half of which develop hurricane-force winds of 65 kn or more.

An all-white jury in Mississippi finds Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam not guilty in the torture-murder of 14-year-old African American boy Emmett Till.

Mississippi is a state in the Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the southwest, and Arkansas to the northwest. Mississippi's western boundary is largely defined by the Mississippi River, or its historical course. Mississippi is the 32nd largest by area and 35th-most populous of the 50 U.S. states and has the lowest per-capita income. Jackson is both the state's capital and largest city. Greater Jackson is the state's most populous metropolitan area, with a population of 591,978 in 2020. Other major cities include Gulfport, Southaven, Hattiesburg, Biloxi, Olive Branch, Tupelo, Meridian, and Greenville.

After being accused of financial improprieties, Senator Richard Nixon delivers his "Checkers speech" nationwide on television and radio, defending his actions and successfully salvaging his nomination as the Republican candidate for Vice President.

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he represented California in both houses of the United States Congress before serving as the 36th vice president under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961. His presidency saw the reduction of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, détente with the Soviet Union and China, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Nixon's second term ended early when he became the only U.S. president to resign from office, as a result of the Watergate scandal.

George VI, king of the United Kingdom, has his left lung removed in an operation after a malignant tumour was found.

George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of India from 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved in August 1947, and the first Head of the Commonwealth following the London Declaration of 1949.

Korean War: The Battle of Hill 282 is the first US friendly-fire incident on British military personnel since World War II.

The Korean War was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea and South Korea and their allies. North Korea was supported by China and the Soviet Union, while South Korea was supported by the United Nations Command (UNC) led by the United States. The conflict was one of the first major proxy wars of the Cold War. Fighting ended in 1953 with an armistice but no peace treaty, leading to the ongoing Korean conflict.

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake strikes South Khorasan in Iran, killing over 500 people.

The 1947 Dustabad earthquake, also known as the Charmeh earthquake, occurred in South Khorasan province of northeastern Iran on 23 September. The mainshock had a magnitude of M_w 6.9 and maximum Modified Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). It was accompanied by a M_w  6.1 aftershock on 26 September. These earthquakes killed an estimated 500 people.

World War II: The Matanikau action on Guadalcanal begins: U.S. Marines attack Japanese units along the Matanikau River.

World War II or the Second World War was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

Saudi National Day: Crown Prince (later king) Faisal of Saudi Arabia, on behalf of Ibn Saud, proclaims the unification of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the current iteration of the Third Saudi State.

Saudi National Day is a public holiday in Saudi Arabia celebrated annually on 23 September to commemorate the proclamation that renamed the Kingdom of Nejd and Hejaz as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932 through a royal decree by King Abdulaziz ibn Saud. It was founded in 1965 by King Faisal bin Abdulaziz in order to replace the Royal Seating Day, but at the same time letting it retain its predecessor's year count of 1930 instead of 1932. It was made a public holiday by King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz in 2005 and is one of the three non-religious holidays observed in the country, other being the Saudi Founding Day and Saudi Flag Day.

The Louisiana hurricane dissipated over Kansas after forcing around 4,500 people to evacuate and causing $1.45 million in damages.

The 1920 Louisiana hurricane was a strong tropical cyclone that caused significant damage in parts of Louisiana in September 1920. The second tropical storm and hurricane of the annual hurricane season, it formed from an area of disturbed weather on September 16, 1920, northwest of Colombia. The system remained a weak tropical depression as it made landfall on Nicaragua, but later intensified to tropical storm strength as it moved across the Gulf of Honduras, prior to making a second landfall on the Yucatán Peninsula. Once in the Gulf of Mexico, the storm quickly intensified as it moved towards the north-northwest, reaching its peak intensity as a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 100 mph (160 km/h) prior to making landfall near Houma, Louisiana with no change in intensity. Afterwards, it quickly weakened over land, before dissipating on September 23 over eastern Kansas.

World War I: The Battle of Haifa takes place in present-day Israel, part of the Ottoman Empire at that time.

World War I or the First World War, also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Main areas of conflict included Europe and the Middle East, as well as parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific. There were important developments in weaponry including tanks, aircraft, artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, it resulted in an estimated 30 million military casualties, plus another 8 million civilian deaths from war-related causes and genocide. The movement of large numbers of people was a major factor in the deadly Spanish flu pandemic.

The United Mine Workers of America launch a strike which eventually escalated into the Colorado Coalfield War.

The United Mine Workers of America is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the United States and Canada. Although its main focus has always been on workers and their rights, the UMW of today also advocates for better roads, schools, and universal health care. By 2014, coal mining had largely shifted to open pit mines in Wyoming, and there were only 60,000 active coal miners. The UMW was left with 35,000 members, of whom 20,000 were coal miners, chiefly in underground mines in Kentucky and West Virginia. However it was responsible for pensions and medical benefits for 40,000 retired miners, and for 50,000 spouses and dependents.

Norway and Sweden sign the Karlstad Treaty, peacefully dissolving the Union between the two countries.

The dissolution of the union between the kingdoms of Norway and Sweden under the House of Bernadotte, was set in motion by a resolution of the Storting on 7 June 1905. Following some months of tension and fear of an outbreak of war between the neighbouring kingdoms – and a Norwegian plebiscite held on 13 August which overwhelmingly backed dissolution – negotiations between the two governments led to Sweden's recognition of Norway as an independent constitutional monarchy on 26 October 1905. On that date, King Oscar II renounced his claim to the Norwegian throne, effectively dissolving the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, and this event was swiftly followed, on 18 November, by the accession to the Norwegian throne of Prince Carl of Denmark, taking the name of Haakon VII.

The American Asiatic Squadron destroys a Filipino battery at the Battle of Olongapo.

The Battle of Olongapo was fought September 18–23, 1899, during the Philippine–American War. The battle featured both land and sea fighting, of which the objective was the destruction of the single Filipino artillery gun in Olongapo, a menace to American ships crossing the nearby sea.

On the night of 23–24 September, the steamship Arctique runs aground near Cape Virgenes leading to the discovery of nearby placer gold, beginning the Tierra del Fuego gold rush.

Cape Virgenes is the southeastern promontory of continental Argentina in South America. A little to the south-west, the southernmost point of land is Punta Dúngeness. Ferdinand Magellan reached it on 21 October 1520 during the Spanish expedition to East Asia and discovered a strait, now called the Strait of Magellan in his honor. As 21 October was the feast day of Saint Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins, he named the cape in their honor.

The Macedo-Romanian Cultural Society is founded.

The Macedo-Romanian Cultural Society is an Aromanian cultural organization in Romania. It was founded on 23 September 1879, succeeding the Macedo-Romanian Committee established in 1860. The SCMR has the aim of preserving and developing the Aromanian language and culture, and it has had a highly relevant impact on the history of the Aromanians. The society regards the Aromanians as ethnic Romanians with specific characteristics that are to be preserved.

The Grito de Lares occurs in Puerto Rico against Spanish rule.

Grito de Lares, also referred to as the Lares revolt, or the Lares revolution, was the first short revolt against Spanish rule in Puerto Rico, staged by the Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico on September 23, 1868. Three decades after its uprising in Lares, the committee carried out a second unsuccessful revolt in the neighboring southwestern municipality of Yauco, known as the Intentona de Yauco. The Grito de Lares flag is recognized as the first flag of Puerto Rico.

Astronomers Urbain Le Verrier, John Couch Adams and Johann Gottfried Galle collaborate on the discovery of Neptune.

Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier was a French astronomer and mathematician who specialized in celestial mechanics and is best known for predicting the existence and position of Neptune using only mathematics.

Tripolitsa, Greece, is captured by Greek rebels during the Greek War of Independence.

The siege of Tripolitsa or fall of Tripolitsa, also known as the Tripolitsa massacre, was an early victory of the revolutionary Greek forces in the summer of 1821 during the Greek War of Independence, which had begun earlier that year, against the Ottoman Empire. Tripolitsa was an important target, because it was the administrative center of the Ottomans in the Peloponnese.

Second Anglo-Maratha War: The Battle of Assaye is fought between the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India.

Second Anglo-Maratha War was a large conflict within the Maratha Empire involving the British East India Company. It resulted in major loss of territory for the Marathas, including regions around Delhi and in present-day Gujarat falling into direct Company rule.

American Revolution: John Paul Jones, naval commander of the United States, on board the USS Bonhomme Richard, wins the Battle of Flamborough Head.

The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British rule to form the United States of America. The revolutionary era reached its zenith with the American Revolutionary War, which commenced on April 19, 1775, with the Battles of Lexington and Concord. The leaders of the American Revolution were colonial separatists who, as British subjects, initially sought greater autonomy. However, they came to embrace the cause of full independence and the necessity of prevailing in the Revolutionary War to obtain it. The Second Continental Congress established the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander-in-chief in June 1775. The following year, the Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence. Throughout the majority of the eight-year war, the outcome appeared to be uncertain. However, in 1781, a decisive victory by Washington and the Continental Army in the Siege of Yorktown led King George III and the British to negotiate the cessation of colonial rule and the acknowledgment of American independence. This was formalized in the Treaty of Paris in 1783, resulting in the establishment of the United States as a sovereign nation.

First English Civil War: The Battle of Powick Bridge, the first engagement between the primary field armies of the Royalists and the Parliamentarians, ended in a Royalist victory.

The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. An estimated 15% to 20% of adult males in England and Wales served in the military at some point between 1639 and 1653, while around 4% of the total population died from war-related causes. These figures illustrate the widespread impact of the conflict on society, and the bitterness it engendered as a result.

King Philip II of Spain issues cedula, ordering a halt to colonizing efforts in Florida.

Philip II, sometimes known in Spain as Philip the Prudent, was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from 1580, and King of Naples and Sicily from 1554 until his death in 1598. He was also jure uxoris King of England and Ireland from his marriage to Queen Mary I in 1554 until her death in 1558. Further, he was Duke of Milan from 1540. From 1555, he was Lord of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands.

The Battle of Blore Heath, the first major battle of the English Wars of the Roses, is won by the Yorkists.

The Battle of Blore Heath took place during the English Wars of the Roses on 23 September 1459, at Blore Heath, Staffordshire. Blore Heath is a sparsely populated area of farmland two miles east of the town of Market Drayton in Shropshire, and close to the village of Loggerheads, Staffordshire.

The Battle of Kherlen is the second significant victory over Ming dynasty China by the Mongols since 1368.

The Battle of Kherlen was fought between the Eastern Mongols and the Ming dynasty at the banks of Kherlen River on the Mongolian Plateau on 23 September 1409.

The Battle of Arnemuiden, in which a French force defeats the English, is the first naval battle of the Hundred Years' War and the first naval battle in which gunpowder artillery is used.

The Battle of Arnemuiden was a naval battle fought on 23 September 1338 at the start of the Hundred Years' War between England and France. It was the first naval battle of the Hundred Years' War and the first recorded European naval battle using artillery, as the English ship Christopher had three cannons and one handgun.

Pope Callixtus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V agree to the Concordat of Worms to put an end to the Investiture Controversy.

Pope Callixtus II or Callistus II, born Guy of Burgundy, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from February 1119 to his death in 1124. His pontificate was shaped by the Investiture Controversy, which he was able to settle through the Concordat of Worms in 1122.

Drusilla, Caligula's sister who died in June, with whom the emperor is said to have an incestuous relationship, is deified.

AD 38 (XXXVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Iulianus and Asprenas. The denomination AD 38 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.