Friday 24 September 2021 Calendar with holidays, observances and special days

Holidays and observances

• Anniversary of the Failed Attack on Lomé in Togo (On this date in 1986, about 50 men attacked a military barracks that served as the home of the then-President of Togo.)
• Armed Forces Day in Peru
• Cambodia Constitution Day
• Heritage Day in South Africa
• Merce Day in Barcelona, Spain (Catalan capital festival is celebrated in honor of Mare de Déu de la Mercè, Our Lady of Grace)
• National Cherries Jubilee Day in USA
• National Microfilm Week in USA (Acknowledging the important contributions made by microfilm in the day-to-day life of America and the accomplishments of the microfilm, President to designate the week which begins on September 24, 1972, as National Microfilm Week. PROCLAMATION 4158)
• National Punctuation Day (founded by Jeff Rubin in 2004, National Punctuation Day simply promotes the correct usage of punctuation)
• New Caledonia Day (national holiday of the overseas territory of France, located on dozens of islands in the South Pacific)
• Our Lady of Mercy Day in Dominican Republic
• Republic Day in Trinidad and Tobago
• World Day Against Software Patents (Brussels, 2nd September 2008 — A global coalition of more than 80 software companies, associations and developers has declared the 24th of September to be the “World Day Against Software Patents”)
• World Retina Week

Events

• 2009 – The G20 summit begins in Pittsburgh with 30 global leaders in attendance. It marks the first use of Long-Range Acoustic Devices in U.S. history.
• 2005 – Hurricane Rita makes landfall in the United States, devastating portions of southwestern Louisiana and extreme southeastern Texas.
• 1979 – CompuServe launches the first consumer internet service, which features the first public electronic mail service.
• 1975 – Dougal Haston and Doug Scott on the Southwest Face expedition become the first persons to reach the summit of Mount Everest by any of its faces.
• 1960 – USS Enterprise, the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is launched.
• 1948 – The Honda Motor Company is founded.
• 1946 – Cathay Pacific Airways is founded in Hong Kong.
• 1946 – Clark Clifford and George Elsey, military advisers to U.S. President Harry S. Truman, present him with a top-secret report on the Soviet Union that first recommends the containment policy.
• 1935 – Earl and Weldon Bascom produce the first rodeo ever held outdoors under electric lights at Columbia, Mississippi.
• 1929 – Jimmy Doolittle performs the first blind flight from Mitchel Field proving that full instrument flying from take off to landing is possible.
• 1911 – His Majesty's Airship No. 1, Britain's first rigid airship, is wrecked by strong winds before her maiden flight at Barrow-in-Furness.
• 1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower in Wyoming as the nation's first National Monument.
• 1852 – The first airship powered by (a steam) engine, created by Henri Giffard, travels 17 miles (27 km) from Paris to Trappes.
• 1846 – Mexican–American War: General Zachary Taylor captures Monterrey.
• 1789 – The United States Congress passes the Judiciary Act which creates the office of the United States Attorney General and the federal judiciary system, and orders the composition of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Births

• 1984 – Taylor Eigsti, American pianist and composer. His working trio features bassist Harish Raghavan and drummer Eric Harland.
• 1983 – Randy Foye, American basketball player. He was selected seventh overall in the 2006 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics, but was immediately traded to the Portland Trail Blazers, and later traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves where he began his career.
• 1982 – Jeff Karstens, American baseball player. Jeffrey Wayne Karstens (born September 24, 1982) is a former right-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB).
• 1982 – Morgan Hamm, American gymnast. Morgan Carl Hamm (born September 24, 1982 in Washburn, Wisconsin) is an American artistic gymnast.
• 1982 – Paul Hamm, American gymnast. Paul Elbert Hamm (born September 24, 1982 in Washburn, Wisconsin) is a retired American artistic gymnast.
• 1981 – Drew Gooden, American basketball player. Andrew Melvin Gooden III (born September 24, 1981) is a Finnish-American former professional basketball player who is a sports broadcaster for NBC Sports Washington.
• 1977 – Casey Rabach, American football player. He played college football at Wisconsin.
• 1976 – Stephanie McMahon, American wrestler and businesswoman. Stephanie McMahon Levesque (born Stephanie Marie McMahon; September 24, 1976), is an American businesswoman and professional wrestling personality.
• 1973 – Eddie George, American football player and sportscaster. Edward Nathan George Jr. (born September 24, 1973) is a former professional American football running back in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons.
• 1973 – Rodrick Rhodes, American basketball player and coach, was selected by the Houston Rockets in the 1st round (24th overall) of the 1997 NBA Draft.
• 1971 – Kevin Millar, American baseball player and sportscaster. Kevin Charles Millar (/mɪˈlɑːr/; born September 24, 1971) is an American former professional baseball first baseman and outfielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) and current analyst for MLB Network.
• 1971 – Michael S. Engel, American paleontologist and entomologist. Engel, FLS, FRES (born September 24, 1971) is an American paleontologist and entomologist, notable for contributions to insect evolutionary biology and classification.
• 1971 – Mike Michalowicz, American businessman and author. Michael Michalowicz (born September 19, 1970) is an American author, entrepreneur, and lecturer. He is the author of five business books including Clockwork (August 2018), Profit First Revised & Expanded (February 2017), Surge (May 2016), Profit First (July 2014) , The Pumpkin Plan (July 2012) and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur (September 2008), is an advocate of a business philosophy by the same name, and is a former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal.
• 1969 – Megan Ward, American actress. Megan Marie Ward (born September 24, 1969) is an American actress best known for her numerous credits in science fiction and horror movies and television series.
• 1969 – Paul Ray Smith, American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 2003), was a United States Army soldier who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his actions in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. While serving with B Company, 11th Engineer Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division in Baghdad, Iraq, his team was attacked by a group of Iraqi fighters and after a short firefight he was killed by Iraqi fire.
• 1969 – Shawn Crahan, American drummer, songwriter, and producer. Michael Shawn Crahan (born September 24, 1969), more commonly known by his stage persona "Clown", is an American musician who is one of the two percussionists and co-founder of the Grammy Award-winning heavy metal band Slipknot.
• 1966 – Bernard Gilkey, American baseball player. Primarily a left fielder, Gilkey occasionally played right field as well.
• 1966 – Michael O. Varhola, American journalist and author. Varhola (born September 24, 1966) is an author, publisher, and lecturer.
• 1965 – Janet Weiss, American drummer. Janet Lee Weiss (born September 24, 1965) is a rock drummer, best known as a former member of Sleater-Kinney and a current member of Quasi.
• 1965 – Sean McNabb, American singer and bass player. Sean McNabb (born September 24, 1965) is an American actor, musician/bassist and singer.
• 1964 – Rafael Palmeiro, Cuban-American baseball player. He played for the Cubs (1986–1988), Texas Rangers (1989–1993, 1999–2003), and the Baltimore Orioles (1994–1998, 2004–2005).
• 1962 – Nia Vardalos, Canadian-American actress and screenwriter. Antonia Eugenia "Nia" Vardalos (born September 24, 1962; Greek: Νία Βαρντάλος) is a Canadian-American actress, screenwriter, and producer of Greek descent.
• 1961 – Christopher L. Eisgruber, American lawyer and academic. Christopher Ludwig Eisgruber (born September 24, 1961) is the 20th and current President of Princeton University.
• 1959 – Steve Whitmire, American puppeteer. As part of the Muppet cast, he has appeared in multiple feature films and television series, performing a variety of characters on The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, and Fraggle Rock and during such occupations has worked for The Jim Henson Company, Sesame Workshop, and The Muppets Studio.
• 1958 – Kevin Sorbo, American actor and producer. Sorbo is also known for acting in the Christian drama films God's Not Dead and Let There Be Light.
• 1957 – Brad Bird, American director, screenwriter, animator, producer and actor. Phillip Bradley Bird (born September 24, 1957) is an American animator, director, screenwriter, producer, and voice actor best known for his animated feature films The Iron Giant (1999), The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), and Incredibles 2 (2018).
• 1956 – Hubie Brooks, American baseball player. Hubert "Hubie" Brooks (born September 24, 1956) is an American former professional baseball right fielder, third baseman, and shortstop.
• 1953 – Peter Halley, American painter and educator. Peter Halley (born September 24, 1953) is an American artist and a central figure in the Neo-Conceptualist movement of the 1980s.
• 1952 – Mark Sandman, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 1999), was an American singer, songwriter, musical instrument inventor, multi-instrumentalist and comic writer. Sandman possessed a distinctive, deep Bass-Baritone voice and a mysterious demeanour.
• 1951 – Douglas Kmiec, American scholar and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Malta. Kmiec came to prominence during the 2008 United States presidential election when, although a Republican, he endorsed Democrat Barack Obama.
• 1950 – John Kessel, American author, poet, and playwright. John (Joseph Vincent) Kessel (born September 24, 1950 in Buffalo, New York) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy.
• 1948 – Phil Hartman, Canadian-American actor and screenwriter (d. 1998), was a Canadian–American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and graphic designer. Born in Brantford, Ontario, Hartman and his family moved to the United States in 1958.
• 1947 – Stephen Mueller, American painter (d. 2011), was an American painter whose color field and Lyrical Abstraction canvases took a turn towards pop. He earned his B.F.A. in painting from the University of Texas, Austin in 1969 and his M.F.A. at Bennington College in 1971 where the influence of Clement Greenberg and the color field school ran high; although he used that style as a stepping off point while incorporating many different spiritual symbols and motifs, so as not to remain entirely abstract.
• 1946 – Jerry Donahue, American guitarist and producer. Jerry Donahue (born September 24, 1946, Manhattan, New York City) is an American guitarist and producer primarily known for his work in the British folk rock scene as a member of Fotheringay and Fairport Convention as well as being a member of the rock guitar trio The Hellecasters.
• 1946 – Joe Greene, American football player, coach, and actor. Charles Edward Greene (born September 24, 1946), better known as "Mean" Joe Greene, is a former American football defensive tackle who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL) from 1969 to 1981.
• 1945 – Carson Van Osten, American comics creator and musician (d. 2015). Van Osten studied at the Philadelphia College of Art.
• 1945 – Lou Dobbs, American journalist and author. Louis Carl Dobbs (born September 24, 1945) is an American television commentator, author, conspiracy theorist, anti-immigration advocate, radio show host, and the anchor of Lou Dobbs Tonight on Fox Business Network.
• 1941 – Linda McCartney, American singer, photographer, and activist (d. 1998), was an American photographer, musician, animal rights activist, and entrepreneur. She was best known as the first wife of Paul McCartney of the Beatles and for her photographs of celebrities and contemporary musicians.
• 1936 – Jim Henson, American puppeteer, director, producer and screenwriter, created The Muppets (d. 1990), was an American puppeteer, animator, cartoonist, actor, inventor, filmmaker, and screenwriter who achieved worldwide notice as the creator of The Muppets (1955–present) and Fraggle Rock (1983–1987); and as the director of The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986). He was born in Greenville, Mississippi, and raised in Leland, Mississippi, and University Park, Maryland.
• 1934 – Chick Willis, American singer and guitarist (d. 2013), was an American blues singer and guitarist, who performed and recorded from the 1950s to the 2000s.
• 1934 – Donald Wrye, American director, screenwriter and producer (d. 2015). He is best known for directing the 1978 film Ice Castles.
• 1933 – Mel Taylor, American drummer (d. 1996), was an American musician, best known as the drummer for the Ventures from 1962 to 1996. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was the older brother of Canned Heat bassist Larry Taylor.
• 1931 – Cardiss Collins, American lawyer and politician (d. 2013), was an American politician from Illinois who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1973 to 1997. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the fourth African-American woman in Congress and the first to represent the Midwest.
• 1927 – Arthur Malet, English-American actor and singer (d. 2013), was an English stage, film and television actor based in the United States.
• 1923 – Fats Navarro, American trumpet player and composer (d. 1950), was an American jazz trumpet player. He was a pioneer of the bebop style of jazz improvisation in the 1940s.
• 1923 – Louis Edmonds, American actor (d. 2001), was an American actor from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was best known for his roles in Dark Shadows and All My Children.
• 1923 – Raoul Bott, Hungarian-American mathematician (d. 2005), was a Hungarian-American mathematician known for numerous basic contributions to geometry in its broad sense. He is best known for his Bott periodicity theorem, the Morse–Bott functions which he used in this context, and the Borel–Bott–Weil theorem.
• 1922 – Bert I. Gordon, American director, producer, and screenwriter. Bert Ira Gordon (born September 24, 1922) is an American film director most famous for such science fiction and horror B-movies as The Amazing Colossal Man and Village of the Giants.
• 1922 – Theresa Merritt, American actress and singer (d. 1998), was an American stage, film, and television actress and singer.
• 1921 – Jim McKay, American sportscaster and journalist (d. 2008), was an American television sports journalist.
• 1921 – Sheila MacRae, English-American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 2014), was an English-born American actress, singer, and dancer.
• 1920 – Jan Carew, Guyanese-American author, poet, and playwright (d. 2012), was a Guyana-born novelist, playwright, poet and educator, who lived at various times in The Netherlands, Mexico, England, France, Spain, Ghana, Jamaica, Canada and the United States. His works, diverse in form and multifaceted, make Jan Carew an important intellectual of the Caribbean world.
• 1920 – Richard Bong, American soldier and pilot, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1945), was a United States Army Air Forces major and Medal of Honor recipient in World War II. He was one of the most decorated American fighter pilots and the country's top flying ace in the war, credited with shooting down 40 Japanese aircraft, all with the Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter.
• 1918 – Audra Lindley, American actress (d. 1997), was an American actress, most famous for her role as landlady Helen Roper on the sitcom Three's Company and its spin-off The Ropers.
• 1918 – Michael J. S. Dewar, Indian-born American theoretical chemist who developed the Dewar-Chatt-Duncanson model (d. 1997). Dewar was the son of Scottish parents, Annie Balfour (Keith) and Francis Dewar.
• 1916 – Ruth Leach Amonette, American businesswoman and author (d. 2004), was an American businesswoman, author, and educator. She was appointed as the first female executive and vice president at IBM in 1943, at age 27, becoming one of only a few women in high-ranking corporate positions in the US at the time.
• 1913 – Herb Jeffries, American singer (d. 2014), was an American actor of film and television and popular music and jazz singer-songwriter, known for his baritone voice.
• 1912 – Robert Lewis Taylor, American soldier and author (d. 1998), was an American writer and winner of the 1959 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
• 1907 – Ben Oakland, American pianist, composer, and songwriter (d. 1979), was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist, most active from the 1920s through the 1940s. He composed mainly for Broadway and vaudeville, though he also worked on several Hollywood scores including for the film My Little Chickadee.
• 1905 – Severo Ochoa, Spanish–American physician and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1993), was a Spanish-American physician and biochemist, and joint winner of the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Arthur Kornberg.
• 1900 – Ham Fisher, American cartoonist (d. 1955), was an American comic strip writer and cartoonist who signed his work Ham Fisher. He is best known for his popular long-run on Joe Palooka, which was launched in 1930 and ranked as one of the top five newspaper comics strips for several years.
• 1898 – Charlotte Moore Sitterly, American astronomer (d. 1990). She is known for her extensive spectroscopic studies of the Sun and chemical elements.
• 1896 – F. Scott Fitzgerald, American novelist and short story writer (d. 1940), was an American fiction writer, whose works helped to illustrate the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age. While he achieved popular success, fame, and fortune in his lifetime, he did not receive much critical acclaim until after his death.
• 1894 – Billy Bletcher, American actor, singer, and screenwriter (d. 1979), was an American actor and voice actor. He is mostly well known for his role as the voice of Pete in the Mickey Mouse short films from 1932 to 1954.
• 1894 – Tommy Armour, Scottish-American golfer and sportscaster (d. 1968), was a Scottish-American professional golfer. He was nicknamed The Silver Scot.
• 1893 – Blind Lemon Jefferson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1929), was an American blues and gospel singer-songwriter and musician. He was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s and has been called the "Father of the Texas Blues".
• 1883 – Franklin Clarence Mars, American businessman, founded Mars, Incorporated (d. 1934). Franklin Clarence Mars (/ˈmɑːrz/; September 24, 1882 – April 8, 1934), sometimes known as Frank C.
• 1883 – Lawson Robertson, Scottish-American high jumper and coach (d. 1951). Robertson (September 23, 1883 – January 22, 1951) was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, and died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• 1880 – Sarah Knauss, American super-centenarian (d. 1999), was an American supercentenarian. Knauss is the oldest person ever from the United States, and widely reported as the second-oldest fully documented person ever.
• 1870 – Georges Claude, French chemist and engineer, invented Neon lighting (d. 1960), was a French engineer and inventor. He is noted for his early work on the industrial liquefaction of air, for the invention and commercialization of neon lighting, and for a large experiment on generating energy by pumping cold seawater up from the depths.
• 1858 – Eugene Foss, American businessman and politician, 45th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1939), was an American politician and businessman from Massachusetts. Foss controlled a Boston-based industrial ventilation equipment manufacturer, and was active in both the Republican and Democratic parties.
• 1829 – Charles S. West, American jurist and politician, Secretary of State of Texas (d. 1885), was an American jurist and politician in the state of Texas, serving as a state representative, the Texas Secretary of State, and an Associate Justice of the Texas Supreme Court.
• 1755 – John Marshall, American captain, jurist, and politician, 4th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (d. 1835), was an American politician and lawyer who served as the fourth Chief Justice of the United States from 1801 to 1835. Marshall remains the longest-serving chief justice and fourth-longest serving justice in Supreme Court history, and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential justices to ever sit on the Supreme Court.

Deaths

• 2016 – Bill Nunn, American actor (b. 1953)
• 2016 – Buckwheat Zydeco, American accordionist and bandleader (b. 1947)
• 2014 – Christopher Hogwood, English harpsichord player and conductor, founded the Academy of Ancient Music (b. 1941)
• 2013 – Paul Dietzel, American football player and coach (b. 1924)
• 2013 – Paul Oliver, American football player (b. 1984)
• 2011 – Stephen Mueller, American painter (b. 1947)
• 2008 – Irene Dailey, American actress (b. 1920)
• 2008 – Mickey Vernon, American baseball player and coach (b. 1918)
• 2008 – Oliver Crawford, American screenwriter and author (b. 1917)
• 2003 – Lyle Bettger, American actor (b. 1915)
• 2003 – Rosalie Allen, American singer and radio host (b. 1924)
• 2002 – Mike Webster, American football player (b. 1952)
• 1998 – Jeff Moss, American composer and screenwriter (b. 1942)
• 1991 – Dr. Seuss, American children's book writer, poet, and illustrator (b. 1904)
• 1984 – Neil Hamilton, American actor (b. 1899)
• 1981 – Patsy Kelly, American actress and dancer (b. 1910)
• 1978 – James Bassett, American journalist and author (b. 1912)
• 1975 – Earle Cabell, American businessman and politician, Mayor of Dallas (b. 1906)
• 1962 – Charles Reisner, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1887)
• 1948 – Warren William, American actor (b. 1894)
• 1947 – Andrew C. McLaughlin, American historian and author (b. 1861)
• 1945 – Hans Geiger, German physicist and academic, co-invented the Geiger counter (b. 1882)
• 1939 – Carl Laemmle, German-American film producer, founded Universal Studios (b. 1867)
• 1933 – Mike Donlin, American baseball player and actor (b. 1878)
• 1930 – William A. MacCorkle, American lawyer and politician, 9th Governor of West Virginia (b. 1857)
• 1892 – Patrick Gilmore, Irish-American soldier and composer (b. 1829)
• 1889 – Charles Leroux, American balloonist and skydiver (b. 1856)
• 1889 – D. H. Hill, American general and academic (b. 1821)
• 1863 – William Debenham, English businessman, founded Debenhams (b. 1794)
• 1228 – Stefan the First-Crowned, Serbian king (b. 1165)