Saturday 28 September 2024 Calendar with holidays, observances and special days

Holidays and observances

• A US Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children
• Ask a Stupid Question Day
• Czech Statehood Day (Czechia)
• Freedom from Hunger Day
• International Day for Universal Access to Information (Universal access to information means that everyone has the right to seek, receive and impart information. This right is an integral part of the right to freedom of expression)
• International Poke Day
• International Right to Know Day
• International Safe Abortion Day (The day was first celebrated as a day of action for decriminalization of abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean in 1990 by the Campaña 28 Septiembre)
• Microbiologist's Day in Argentina
• National Coffee Day in Switzerland
• National Day of Awareness and Unity against Child Pornography in Philippines
• National Sons Day in USA (Let’s have meaningful conversations with our boys)
• National Strawberry Cream Pie Day and National Drink a Beer Day in USA
• Remember Me Thursday (Held on the fourth Thursday in September)
• Teachers' Day in Taiwan (and Chinese-Filipino schools in the Philippines, ceremonies dedicated to Confucius are also observed)
• Thai National Flag Day
• World Marmite Day

Events

• 2008 – SpaceX launches the first private spacecraft, the Falcon 1 into orbit.
• 1986 – The Democratic Progressive Party was established under the martial law in Taiwan, becomes the first opposition party in Taiwan.
• 1951 – CBS makes the first color televisions available for sale to the general public, but the product is discontinued less than a month later.
• 1928 – Sir Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.
• 1924 – First round-the-world flight completed.
• 1912 – Corporal Frank S. Scott of the United States Army becomes the first enlisted man to die in an airplane crash. He and pilot Lt. Lewis C. Rockwell are killed in the crash of an Army Wright Model B at College Park, Maryland.
• 1901 – Philippine–American War: Filipino guerrillas kill more than forty American soldiers while losing 28 of their own, in a surprise attack in Balangiga, Eastern Samar.
• 1892 – The first night game for American football takes place in a contest between Wyoming Seminary and Mansfield State Normal.
• 1889 – The first General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) defines the length of a meter as the distance between two lines on a standard bar of an alloy of platinum with ten percent iridium, measured at the melting point of ice.
• 1871 – The Brazilian Parliament passes the Law of the Free Womb, granting freedom to all new children born to slaves, the first major step in the eradication of slavery in Brazil.
• 1791 – France becomes the first country to emancipate its Jewish population.
• 1787 – The Congress of the Confederation votes to send the newly-written United States Constitution to the state legislatures for approval.
• 1781 – American forces backed by a French fleet begin the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, during the American Revolutionary War.
• 1779 – American Revolution: Samuel Huntington is elected President of the Continental Congress, succeeding John Jay.
• 1542 – Navigator Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo of Portugal arrives at what is now San Diego, United States.

Births

• 1989 – Darius Johnson-Odom, American basketball player. As a senior, Johnson-Odom was named first-team All-Big East.
• 1987 – Hilary Duff, American singer-songwriter and actress. Thereafter, Duff appeared in numerous films, with leading roles in Agent Cody Banks (2003), Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), A Cinderella Story (2004), and Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005).
• 1986 – Dominic Waters, American basketball player. Standing at 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in), he plays at the point guard position.
• 1984 – Melody Thornton, American singer-songwriter and dancer. The youngest member of the group, Thornton assumed the second most prominent vocal role, after lead vocalist Nicole Scherzinger, and was distinguished for her melismatic vocal runs.
• 1984 – Ryan Zimmerman, American baseball player. Ryan Wallace Zimmerman (born September 28, 1984) is an American professional baseball first baseman who is currently a free agent.
• 1982 – Emeka Okafor, American basketball player. Chukwuemeka Ndubuisi "Emeka" Okafor (born September 28, 1982) is an American professional basketball player who currently plays for the Ulsan Hyundai Mobis Phoebus of the Korean Basketball League (KBL).
• 1980 – Marlon Parmer, American basketball player. Marlon Palmer (born September 28, 1980) is an American basketball player who played for the Colorado 14ers in the NBA D-League.
• 1979 – Bam Margera, American skateboarder, actor, and stuntman. Brandon Cole "Bam" Margera (/mɑːrˈdʒɛərə/ mar-JAIR-ə; born September 28, 1979) is a former American professional skateboarder, stunt performer, filmmaker, musician and television personality.
• 1979 – Taki Tsan, American-Greek rapper and producer. Panagiotis Stravalexis (Greek: Παναγιώτης Στραβαλέξης, born 28 September 1979), better known by his stage names Waze (short for Westley) Timvorihos, Pedi Thavma and Taki Tsan, is a Greek music producer, tattoo artist and rapper.
• 1977 – Young Jeezy, American rapper. Jay Wayne Jenkins (born September 28, 1977), known professionally as Jeezy (formerly Young Jeezy), is an American rapper and actor.
• 1975 – Isamu Jordan, American journalist and academic (d. 2013), was an African American journalist, musician, and professor. When he was 15 years old, he joined the staff of The Spokesman-Review, where he wrote articles for Our Generation, the teen section of the newspaper.
• 1975 – Lenny Krayzelburg, Russian-American swimmer. Lenny Krayzelburg (born September 28, 1975, as Leonid Krayzelburg; Ukrainian: Леонід Крайзельбург, Russian: Леони́д Кра́йзельбург) is an American former backstroke swimmer, Olympic gold medalist, and former world record holder.
• 1973 – Brian Rafalski, American ice hockey player. Brian Christopher Rafalski (born September 28, 1973) is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman.
• 1972 – Dita Von Teese, American model and dancer. Dita Von Teese (born Heather Renée Sweet; September 28, 1972) is an American vedette, burlesque dancer, model, costume designer, entrepreneur, singer, and actress.
• 1971 – Joseph Arthur, American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Arthur has built his reputation over the years through critically acclaimed releases and constant touring; his unique solo live performances often incorporate the use of a number of distortion and loop pedals, and his shows are recorded live at the soundboard and made available to concertgoers immediately following the show on recordable media.
• 1970 – Mike DeJean, American baseball player. Michael Dwain DeJean (/ˈdeɪʒɒn/; born September 28, 1970) is a former right-handed relief pitcher in Major League Baseball.
• 1969 – Ben Greenman, American journalist and author. Ben Greenman (born September 28, 1969) is a novelist and magazine journalist who has written fiction and non-fiction books, as well as many collaborations with pop-music artists like Questlove, George Clinton, Brian Wilson, Gene Simmons, and others.
• 1969 – Piper Kerman, American author and memoirist, was indicted in 1998 on charges of felonious money-laundering activities and sentenced to 15 months' detention in a federal correctional facility, of which she eventually served 13. Her memoir of her prison experiences, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison, was adapted into the critically acclaimed Netflix original comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black.
• 1968 – Rob Moroso, American race car driver (d. 1990), was a NASCAR racing driver who was champion of the NASCAR Busch Series (now Xfinity Series) in 1989, and was posthumously awarded the 1990 NASCAR Winston Cup (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) Rookie of the Year award. A promising young driver, he and another driver were killed when Moroso was driving under the influence at excessive speeds on roads near his hometown of Terrell, North Carolina.
• 1968 – Sean Levert, American R&B singer-songwriter and actor (d 2008). Levert is best known as a member of the R&B vocal group LeVert.
• 1967 – Mira Sorvino, American actress. She won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite (1995).
• 1967 – Moon Zappa, American actress and author. Moon Unit Zappa (born September 28, 1967) is an American actress and author.
• 1964 – Janeane Garofalo, American comedian, actress, and screenwriter. She has been a series regular on television programs such as Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, 24, and Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce.
• 1963 – Greg Weisman, American voice actor, producer, and screenwriter. Greg Weisman (born September 28, 1963) is an American writer of comic books, animation and novels and a producer of television shows, as well as a voice actor.
• 1963 – Steve Blackman, American wrestler and martial artist. He held the WWF Hardcore Championship six times and holds the record for most combined days as champion.
• 1962 – Laurie Rinker, American golfer. Laurie Anne Rinker (born September 28, 1962) is an American professional golfer who played on the LPGA Tour in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s.
• 1961 – Gregory Jbara, American actor and singer. Gregory Jbara (/dʒəˈbɑːrə/; born September 28, 1961) is an American film, television and stage actor, and singer.
• 1961 – Quentin Kawānanakoa, American lawyer and politician. He is part of the House of Kawānanakoa.
• 1960 – Jennifer Rush, American singer-songwriter. With over 5 Millions Albums Sales in Germany is she one of the best female Artist in Germany.
• 1960 – Tom Byrum, American golfer. Thomas Elliott Byrum (born September 28, 1960) is an American professional golfer.
• 1955 – Kenny Kirkland, American pianist (d. 1998), was an American pianist/keyboardist.
• 1954 – Steve Largent, American football player and politician. Stephen Michael Largent (born September 28, 1954) is an American former football player, enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and a former Republican politician, having served in the U.S.
• 1950 – Christina Hoff Sommers, American author and philosopher. Sommers is known for her critique of contemporary feminism.
• 1950 – John Sayles, American novelist, director, and screenwriter. His film Men with Guns (1997) was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.
• 1947 – Rhonda Hughes, American mathematician and academic. Rhonda Jo Hughes (born Rhonda Weisberg September 28, 1947) is an American mathematician, the Helen Herrmann Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Bryn Mawr College.
• 1945 – Fusako Shigenobu, Japanese activist, founded the Japanese Red Army. Fusako Shigenobu (重信 房子, Shigenobu Fusako, born 28 September 1945) is a Japanese communist and the former leader and founder of the now disbanded Japanese Red Army (JRA).
• 1944 – Marcia Muller, American journalist and author. Marcia Muller (born September 28, 1944) is an American author of fictional mystery and thriller novels.
• 1944 – Richie Karl, American golfer. Richard Karl (born September 28, 1944) is an American professional golfer who is best known as the last golf club professional to win an official PGA Tour event.
• 1943 – George W. S. Trow, American novelist, playwright, and critic (d. 2006), was an American essayist, novelist, playwright, and media critic. He worked for The New Yorker for almost 30 years, and wrote numerous essays and several books.
• 1943 – Warren Lieberfarb, American businessman. Lieberfarb (born September 28, 1943) is Chairman of Warren N.
• 1942 – Edward "Little Buster" Forehand, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2006), was an American soul and blues musician. He was born sighted, but developed glaucoma at the age of three.
• 1939 – Stuart Kauffman, American biologist and academic. Stuart Alan Kauffman (born September 28, 1939) is an American medical doctor, theoretical biologist, and complex systems researcher who studies the origin of life on Earth.
• 1938 – Ben E. King, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2015), was an American soul and R&B singer and record producer. He is best known as the singer and co-composer of "Stand by Me" — a U.S.
• 1937 – Glenn Sutton, American country music songwriter and record producer (d. 2007), was an American country music songwriter, record producer, and architect of the countrypolitan sound.
• 1936 – Emmett Chapman, American guitarist, invented the Chapman Stick. Emmett Chapman (born September 28, 1936) is an American jazz musician best known as the inventor of the Chapman Stick and maker of the Chapman Stick family of instruments.
• 1933 – Johnny "Country" Mathis, American singer-songwriter (d. 2011), was an American country music singer and songwriter. He is credited with penning more than 500 tunes over the course of his long career.
• 1930 – Immanuel Wallerstein, American sociologist, author, and academic, was an American sociologist and economic historian. He is perhaps best known for his development of the general approach in sociology which led to the emergence of his world-systems approach.
• 1928 – Koko Taylor, American singer (d. 2009), was an American singer whose style encompassed Chicago blues, electric blues, rhythm and blues and soul blues. Sometimes called "The Queen of the Blues", she was known for her rough, powerful vocals.
• 1926 – Jerry Clower, American soldier, comedian, and author (d. 1998), was an American stand-up comedian. Born and raised in the Southern United States, Clower was best known for his stories of the rural South and was given the nickname "The Mouth of Mississippi".
• 1925 – Martin David Kruskal, American physicist and mathematician (d. 2006), was an American mathematician and physicist. He made fundamental contributions in many areas of mathematics and science, ranging from plasma physics to general relativity and from nonlinear analysis to asymptotic analysis.
• 1925 – Seymour Cray, American computer scientist, founded the CRAY Computer Company (d. 1996), was an American electrical engineer and supercomputer architect who designed a series of computers that were the fastest in the world for decades, and founded Cray Research which built many of these machines. Called "the father of supercomputing", Cray has been credited with creating the supercomputer industry.
• 1923 – Tuli Kupferberg, American singer, poet, and writer (d. 2010), was an American counterculture poet, author, singer, cartoonist, pacifist anarchist, publisher, and co-founder of the band The Fugs.
• 1923 – William Windom, American actor (d. 2012), was an American politician from Minnesota. He served as U.S.
• 1919 – Doris Singleton, American actress (d. 2012), was an American actress, perhaps best remembered as Lucy Ricardo's nemesis/frenemy, Carolyn Appleby, in I Love Lucy.
• 1918 – Arnold Stang, American actor (d. 2009), was an American comic actor and voice actor, whose comic persona was a small and bespectacled, yet brash and knowing big-city type.
• 1915 – Ethel Rosenberg, American spy (d. 1953). Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were American citizens who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union.
• 1914 – Maria Franziska von Trapp, Austrian-American refugee and singer (d. 2014), was the second-oldest daughter of Georg von Trapp and his first wife, Agatha Whitehead von Trapp. She was a member of the Trapp Family Singers, whose lives inspired the musical and film The Sound of Music.
• 1913 – Alice Marble, American tennis player (d. 1990), was an American tennis player who won 18 Grand Slam championships (1936–40): five in singles, six in women's doubles, and seven in mixed doubles.
• 1909 – Al Capp, American author and illustrator (d. 1979), was an American cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip Li'l Abner, which he created in 1934 and continued writing and (with help from assistants) drawing until 1977. He also wrote the comic strips Abbie an' Slats (in the years 1937–45) and Long Sam (1954).
• 1903 – Haywood S. Hansell, American general (d. 1988), was a general officer in the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) during World War II, and later the United States Air Force. He became an advocate of the doctrine of strategic bombardment, and was one of the chief architects of the concept of daylight precision bombing that governed the use of airpower by the USAAF in the war.
• 1901 – Ed Sullivan, American television host (d. 1974), was an American television personality, impresario, sports and entertainment reporter, and syndicated columnist for the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate. He is principally remembered as the creator and host of the television variety program The Toast of the Town, later popularly—and, eventually, officially—renamed The Ed Sullivan Show.
• 1901 – William S. Paley, American broadcaster, founded CBS (d. 1990), was the chief executive who built the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) from a small radio network into one of the foremost radio and television network operations in the United States.
• 1892 – Elmer Rice, American playwright (d. 1967). He is best known for his plays The Adding Machine (1923) and his Pulitzer Prize-winning drama of New York tenement life, Street Scene (1929).
• 1889 – Jack Fournier, American baseball player and coach (d. 1973), was an American professional baseball first baseman and outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, St.
• 1887 – Avery Brundage, American businessman, 5th President of the International Olympic Committee (d. 1975), was the fifth President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), serving from 1952 to 1972. The only American to attain that position, Brundage is remembered as a zealous advocate of amateurism and for his involvement with the 1936 and 1972 Summer Olympics, both held in Germany.
• 1881 – Pedro de Cordoba, American actor (d. 1950). De Cordoba was born in New York City to parents who were French and Cuban in origin.
• 1878 – Joseph Ruddy, American swimmer and water polo player (d. 1962), was an American competition swimmer and water polo player who represented the United States at the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri.
• 1856 – Kate Douglas Wiggin, American author and educator (d. 1923), was an American educator and author of children's stories, most notably the classic children's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. She started the first free kindergarten in San Francisco in 1878 (the Silver Street Free Kindergarten).
• 1836 – Thomas Crapper, English plumber, invented the ballcock (d. 1910), was an English businessman and plumber. He founded Thomas Crapper & Co in London, a sanitary equipment company.
• 1821 – Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs, American minister and politician (d. 1874), was a Presbyterian minister and a prominent African-American officeholder during Reconstruction. He served as the first and only black Secretary of State and Superintendent of Public Instruction of Florida, and along with Josiah Thomas Walls, U.S.
• 1809 – Alvan Wentworth Chapman, American physician and botanist (d. 1899), was an American physician and pioneering botanist in the study of flora of the American south east.:50 He wrote Flora of the Southern United States, the first comprehensive description of US plants in any region beyond the northeastern states. Chapman is a leader in the fields of hierarchy theory, systems theory, and complexity.

Deaths

• 2016 – Agnes Nixon, American television writer and director (b. 1922)
• 2016 – Gary Glasberg, American television writer and producer (b. 1966)
• 2016 – Gloria Naylor, American novelist (b. 1950)
• 2015 – Walter Dale Miller, American rancher and politician, 29th Governor of South Dakota (b. 1925)
• 2014 – Joseph H. Alexander, American colonel and historian (b. 1938)
• 2013 – George Amon Webster, American singer and pianist (b. 1945)
• 2013 – James Emanuel, American-French poet and scholar (b. 1921)
• 2012 – Chris Economaki, American journalist and sportscaster (b. 1920)
• 2010 – Arthur Penn, American director and producer (b. 1922)
• 2010 – Dolores Wilson, American soprano and actress (b. 1928)
• 2007 – Wally Parks, American businessman, founded the National Hot Rod Association (b. 1913)
• 2005 – Constance Baker Motley, American lawyer, judge, and politician (b. 1921)
• 2004 – Geoffrey Beene, American fashion designer (b. 1924)
• 2003 – Althea Gibson, American tennis player and golfer (b. 1927)
• 2003 – Elia Kazan, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1909)
• 2002 – Patsy Mink, American lawyer and politician (b. 1927)
• 1993 – Alexander A. Drabik, American sergeant (b. 1910)
• 1993 – Peter De Vries, American editor and novelist (b. 1910)
• 1991 – Miles Davis, American trumpet player, composer, and bandleader (b. 1926)
• 1990 – Larry O'Brien, American businessman and politician, 57th United States Postmaster General (b. 1917)
• 1982 – Mabel Albertson, American actress (b. 1901)
• 1970 – John Dos Passos, American novelist, poet, essayist, and playwright (b. 1896)
• 1964 – Harpo Marx, American comedian, actor, and singer (b. 1888)
• 1956 – William Boeing, American businessman, founded the Boeing Company (b. 1881)
• 1953 – Edwin Hubble, American astronomer and scholar (b. 1889)
• 1943 – Sam Ruben, American chemist and academic (b. 1913)
• 1938 – Charles Duryea, American engineer and businessman, founded the Duryea Motor Wagon Company (b. 1861)
• 1935 – William Kennedy Dickson, French-Scottish actor, director, and producer, invented the Kinetoscope (b. 1860)
• 1918 – Freddie Stowers, American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1896)
• 1914 – Richard Warren Sears, American businessman, co-founded Sears (b. 1863)
• 1891 – Herman Melville, American author and poet (b. 1819)