History of Today 21 September: Important Events, Births and Deaths

Welcome to History of Today 21 September. On this page, you can read important historical events, famous births, notable deaths and general knowledge facts related to 21 September. This information is useful for UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, State PSC and other competitive exams.

Last updated on 21 September 2026, 01:01 AM

Important Events on 21 September in History

• 21 Sep 2019: A 5.6 Mw earthquake shakes the Albanian port of Durrës. Forty-nine people are injured in the capital, Tirana. Read more
• 21 Sep 2018: LGBT rights activist Zak Kostopoulos is beaten to death on a busy street in Athens. Read more
• 21 Sep 2015: Adventist Health System agreed to pay $118.7 million to settle allegations of fraud. It was the largest a hospital network has ever paid. Read more
• 21 Sep 2013: Al-Shabaab Islamic militants attack the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya, killing at least 67 people. Read more
• 21 Sep 2012: Three Egyptian militants open fire on a group of Israeli soldiers in a southern Israel cross-border attack. Read more
• 21 Sep 2003: The Galileo spacecraft is terminated by sending it into Jupiter's atmosphere. Read more
• 21 Sep 2001: America: A Tribute to Heroes is broadcast by over 35 network and cable channels, raising over $200 million for the victims of the September 11 attacks. Read more
• 21 Sep 2001: Ross Parker is murdered in Peterborough, England, by a gang of ten British Pakistani youths. Read more
• 21 Sep 1999: The 7.7-magnitude Chi-Chi earthquake strikes central Taiwan, killing 2,400 people. Read more
• 21 Sep 1997: St. Olaf's Church, a stone church from the 16th century in Tyrvää, Finland, is burnt down by a burglar. Read more
• 21 Sep 1996: The Defense of Marriage Act is passed by the United States Congress. Read more
• 21 Sep 1993: Russian president Boris Yeltsin triggers a constitutional crisis when he suspends parliament and scraps the constitution. Read more
• 21 Sep 1993: A Transair Georgian Airlines Tu-134 is shot down by a missile in the Black Sea near Sokhumi, Georgia. Read more
• 21 Sep 1991: Armenia gains independence from the Soviet Union. Read more
• 21 Sep 1984: Brunei joins the United Nations. Read more
• 21 Sep 1981: Belize is granted full independence from the United Kingdom. Read more
• 21 Sep 1981: Sandra Day O'Connor is unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate as the first female Supreme Court justice. Read more
• 21 Sep 1977: Malév Flight 203 crashes near Urziceni, killing 29 people. Read more
• 21 Sep 1976: Orlando Letelier is assassinated in Washington, D.C., at the order of Augusto Pinochet. Read more
• 21 Sep 1976: Seychelles joins the United Nations. Read more
• 21 Sep 1972: Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos begins authoritarian rule by declaring martial law. Read more
• 21 Sep 1971: Bahrain, Bhutan and Qatar join the United Nations. Read more
• 21 Sep 1969: Mexicana de Aviación Flight 801, a Boeing 727-100 passenger plane, crashes during a landing attempt in Mexico City, killing 27 of the 118 occupants. Read more
• 21 Sep 1965: The Gambia, Maldives and Singapore are admitted as members of the United Nations. Read more
• 21 Sep 1964: Malta gains independence from the United Kingdom, but remains in the Commonwealth. Read more
• 21 Sep 1964: The North American XB-70 Valkyrie, the world's fastest bomber, makes its maiden flight from Palmdale, California. Read more
• 21 Sep 1957: Pamir, a four-masted barque, was shipwrecked and sank off the Azores during Hurricane Carrie. Read more
• 21 Sep 1953: Lieutenant No Kum-sok, a North Korean pilot, defects to South Korea with his jet fighter. Read more
• 21 Sep 1942: The Holocaust in Ukraine: On the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Nazis send over 1,000 Jews of Pidhaitsi to Bełżec extermination camp. Read more
• 21 Sep 1942: The Holocaust in Ukraine: In Dunaivtsi, Ukraine, Nazis murder 2,588 Jews. Read more
• 21 Sep 1942: The Holocaust in Poland: At the end of Yom Kippur, Germans order Jews to permanently move from Konstantynów to Biała Podlaska. Read more
• 21 Sep 1942: The Boeing B-29 Superfortress makes its maiden flight. Read more
• 21 Sep 1939: Romanian prime minister Armand Călinescu is assassinated by the Iron Guard. Read more
• 21 Sep 1938: The Great Hurricane of 1938 makes landfall on Long Island in New York. The death toll is estimated at 500–700 people. Read more
• 21 Sep 1937: J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is published for the first time. (September 22 is celebrated by some fans as Hobbit Day, however.) Read more
• 21 Sep 1934: A large typhoon hits western Honshū, Japan, killing more than 3,000 people. Read more
• 21 Sep 1933: Salvador Lutteroth establishes Mexican professional wrestling. Read more
• 21 Sep 1921: A storage silo in Oppau, Germany, explodes, killing 500–600 people. Read more
• 21 Sep 1898: Empress Dowager Cixi seizes power and ends the Hundred Days' Reform in China. Read more
• 21 Sep 1896: Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan: British forces under the command of Horatio Kitchener take Dongola. Read more
• 21 Sep 1862: Taiping Rebellion: The Ever Victorious Army defeats Taiping forces at the Battle of Cixi. Read more
• 21 Sep 1860: Second Opium War: An Anglo-French force defeats Chinese troops at the Battle of Palikao. Read more
• 21 Sep 1843: The crew of schooner Ancud, led by John Williams Wilson, takes possession of the Strait of Magellan on behalf of the Chilean government. Read more
• 21 Sep 1814: War of 1812: British forces abandon their unsuccessful siege of Fort Erie. Read more
• 21 Sep 1809: British Secretary of War Lord Castlereagh and Foreign Secretary George Canning meet in a duel on Putney Heath, with Castlereagh wounding Canning in the thigh. Read more

Famous Births on 21 September

• 21 Sep 2006: Alisha Palmowski, British female racing driver Alisha Palmowski is a British racing driver who competes in F1 Academy for Campos Racing as part of the Red Bull Academy Programme. Read more
• 21 Sep 1999: Wang Junkai, Chinese singer Wang Junkai, also known as Karry Wang, is a Chinese singer and actor. He debuted as the leader of TFBoys in 2013. Read more
• 21 Sep 1999: Alexander Isak, Eritrean-Swedish professional footballer Alexander Isak is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Liverpool and the Sweden national team. Read more
• 21 Sep 1998: Máscara de Bronce, Mexican wrestler Multibronce is a Mexican professional wrestler. He previously worked for Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA) as Máscara de Bronce as a tecnico. Multibronce has also previously worked for the International Wrestling League (IWL). Prior to October 2016 he worked as the masked Gotita de Plata character, first in the Mini-Estrella and then in the regular sized division. Read more
• 21 Sep 1998: Yainer Díaz, Dominican baseball player Yainer Radhames Díaz is a Dominican professional baseball catcher for the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball (MLB). Díaz signed with the Cleveland Indians as an international free agent in 2016. In 2021, he was traded to the Astros, with whom he made his MLB debut in 2022. Read more
• 21 Sep 1995: Bruno Caboclo, Brazilian basketball player Bruno Correa Fernandes Caboclo is a Brazilian professional basketball player who last played for Dubai Basketball of the ABA League and the EuroLeague. He plays at the power forward and center positions. After making his debut for Pinheiros in Brazil, Caboclo was drafted 20th overall by the Toronto Raptors in the 2014 NBA draft, and spent seven seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Read more
• 21 Sep 1994: Devin Williams, American baseball player Devin Terran Williams is an American professional baseball pitcher for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Milwaukee Brewers and New York Yankees. Internationally, Williams represents the United States. Read more
• 21 Sep 1993: Kirsty Gilmour, Scottish badminton player Kirsty Gilmour is a Scottish badminton player who represents both Scotland and Great Britain. She is the first ever European champion in badminton from Scotland. Read more
• 21 Sep 1993: Kwon Mina, South Korean singer and actress Kwon Mina, known mononymously as Mina, is a former South Korean singer and actress. She was a vocalist and rapper of the girl group AOA and bassist of the sub-unit AOA Black. Kwon has acted in television dramas, including Modern Farmer (2014) and All About My Mom (2015). Read more
• 21 Sep 1993: Ante Rebić, Croatian footballer Ante Rebić is a Croatian professional footballer who plays as a left winger. Mainly a winger, he can be deployed at any forward position. Read more
• 21 Sep 1992: Kim Jong-dae, South Korean singer-songwriter Kim Jong-dae, known professionally as Chen (첸), is a South Korean singer and songwriter. He is a member of the South Korean boy band Exo, its subgroup Exo-M and its subunit Exo-CBX, and participated in SM's projects SM the Ballad. He is predominantly known for his role as the vocalist of Exo. Apart from his group's activities, Chen has also recorded songs for various television dramas, most notably "Best Luck" for It's Okay, That's Love (2014) and "Everytime" for Descendants of the Sun (2016). Read more
• 21 Sep 1992: Rodrigo Godínez, Mexican footballer Rodrigo Godínez Orozco is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a defender. Read more
• 21 Sep 1992: Devyn Marble, American basketball player Roy Devyn Marble is an American professional basketball player for FC Porto of the Liga Portuguesa de Basquetebol (LPB). He played college basketball for the Iowa Hawkeyes, and was drafted by the Denver Nuggets in the second round of the 2014 NBA draft. Read more
• 21 Sep 1991: Anastassia Kovalenko, Estonian motorcycle racer Anastassia Kovalenko-Kõlvart is an Estonian motorcycle road racer and politician. She raced in the European Junior Cup and is the first female racer in Estonian road racing history to race on the international level. She currently holds the title of the best female motorcycle athlete of the year in Estonia. She has been a member of Tallinn city council and has been a member of the Riigikogu for the Estonian Centre Party since 2022. Read more
• 21 Sep 1991: Carlos Martínez, Dominican baseball player Carlos Ernesto Martínez, nicknamed "Tsunami", is a Dominican former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals. Originally signed by the Boston Red Sox as an international free agent in 2009, MLB voided his contract due to discrepancies over his name and date of birth after the revelation that he was also known as Carlos Matias. However, he was eventually cleared of wrongdoing, as it was found that the inconsistencies arose from poor record keeping. Read more
• 21 Sep 1990: Al-Farouq Aminu, American basketball player Al-Farouq Ajadi Aminu is a Nigerian-American former professional basketball player who played eleven seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has also represented the Nigeria national basketball team internationally. Aminu was selected by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2010 NBA draft with the eighth overall pick, and has played for the New Orleans Pelicans, Dallas Mavericks, Portland Trail Blazers, Orlando Magic, and Chicago Bulls. Read more
• 21 Sep 1990: Danny Batth, English footballer Daniel Tanveer Batth is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for EFL Championship club Millwall. Read more
• 21 Sep 1990: Rob Cross, English darts player Robert Cross is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he reached a peak ranking of world number two in 2018 and 2019. Nicknamed "Voltage", Cross won the PDC World Darts Championship in 2018 after turning professional less than a year beforehand. He has won three other PDC major titles: the 2019 World Matchplay and the European Championship in 2019 and 2021. Cross has won a total of 22 PDC titles. Read more
• 21 Sep 1990: Ivan Dorschner, American-Filipino model and actor Ivan Anthony Dorschner is a Filipino-American actor, television host and model based in the Philippines. He is best known for being a former housemate of the Philippine reality television show Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Clash 2010. He is currently under contract to GMA Network, as well as the network's talent management arm GMA Artist Center along with Mika Dela Cruz and Addy Raj. Read more
• 21 Sep 1990: Sam Kasiano, New Zealand rugby league player Sam Kasiano is a professional rugby league footballer who plays as a prop for the Souths Sharks in the Mackay & District Rugby League; he is player-coach. He is both a New Zealand and Samoan international. Read more
• 21 Sep 1990: Allison Scagliotti, American actress and musician Allison Scagliotti is an American actress, musician and director. Her television roles include appearing in Drake & Josh, Warehouse 13, and Stitchers. She performs as a musician under the name La Femme Pendu. Read more
• 21 Sep 1990: Christian Serratos, American actress Christian Marie Serratos is an American actress, who is best known for portraying Rosita Espinosa in AMC's The Walking Dead TV series, based on the comic book of the same name. She is also known for playing Suzie Crabgrass in the Nickelodeon series Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide and Angela Weber in The Twilight Saga. From 2020 to 2021, she portrayed the "Queen of Tejano" singer Selena in Netflix's Selena: The Series. Read more
• 21 Sep 1989: Jason Derulo, American singer-songwriter Jason Joel Desrouleaux, known professionally as Jason Derulo, is an American singer, songwriter, and dancer. Since the start of his solo recording career in 2009, he has sold over 250 million singles worldwide and has achieved fourteen platinum singles in the US. Read more
• 21 Sep 1989: Sandor Earl, Australian rugby league player Sandor Earl is a former New Zealand Māori international rugby league footballer who played on the wing for the Sydney Roosters, Penrith Panthers, Canberra Raiders and the Melbourne Storm in the National Rugby League (NRL). He was banned for four years for a doping violation in 2013. Read more
• 21 Sep 1989: Manny Harris, American basketball player Corperryale Lādorable "Manny" Harris is an American former professional basketball player who last played for Al Riyadi Beirut of the Lebanese Basketball League. He has previously played for the Los Angeles Lakers, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and is a former All-Big Ten Conference guard who played three seasons for the Michigan Wolverines. Read more
• 21 Sep 1989: Emma Watkins, Australian singer and actress Emma Olivia Watkins is an Australian children's entertainer, dancer, singer, and actress. She is best known as the first female member of the children's group the Wiggles, which she was a member of from 2013 to 2021. Due to her popularity in the group, she starred in her own spinoff series as a solo Wiggles performer, titled Emma!. After departing the group, she debuted her own children's entertainment character, Emma Memma, in 2022. She released her first solo children's music album in September 2022, which received an ARIA Award for Best Children's Album in 2023. Read more
• 21 Sep 1988: Doug Baldwin, American football player Douglas Dewayne Baldwin Jr. is an American former professional football player who spent his entire eight-season career as a wide receiver with the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Stanford Cardinals and was signed by the Seahawks as an undrafted free agent in 2011. Baldwin is the Seahawks fourth all-time leader in team receptions and receiving yards, second in receiving touchdowns and was selected to the Pro Bowl twice and won Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014 with the team. Read more
• 21 Sep 1988: Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Pakistani politician Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is a Pakistani politician who served as the 37th Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2022 to 2023. He became the chairman of the Pakistan People's Party in 2007 following his mother's assassination. Read more
• 21 Sep 1987: Jimmy Clausen, American football player James Richard Clausen is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) from 2010 to 2015. He played college football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and was selected by the Carolina Panthers in the second round of the 2010 NFL draft. Read more
• 21 Sep 1987: Anthony Don, Australian rugby league player Anthony Don is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played on the wing for the Gold Coast Titans in the NRL. Read more
• 21 Sep 1987: Marcelo Estigarribia, Paraguayan footballer Marcelo Alejandro Estigarribia Balmori is a Paraguayan professional footballer who plays as a left winger for Sportivo Ameliano in the Primera División Paraguaya. Read more
• 21 Sep 1987: Ryan Guzman, American actor and model Ryan Anthony Guzman is an American actor and dancer. He is known for his lead roles as Sean Asa in Step Up Revolution and Step Up: All In, part of the Step Up film series, as Noah Sandborn in the psychological thriller The Boy Next Door and as Edmundo "Eddie" Diaz in the Fox/ABC procedural drama 9-1-1. Read more
• 21 Sep 1987: Murilo Maccari, Brazilian footballer Murilo Maccari is a Brazilian professional footballer, who plays for Naxxar Lions F.C. in Malta. Read more
• 21 Sep 1987: Ashley Paris, American basketball player Ashley Paris is an American basketball player. She is the twin sister of former WNBA center Courtney Paris, who last played for the Seattle Storm and is currently an assistant coach for the Dallas Wings. She has been nationally recognized for her basketball achievements at the University of Oklahoma. She was selected on April 9, 2009 with 22nd overall pick in the 2009 WNBA draft by the Los Angeles Sparks. Read more
• 21 Sep 1987: Courtney Paris, American basketball player Courtney Paris is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is currently an assistant coach for the New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She is best known for her accomplishments during her college career at the University of Oklahoma, where she holds career averages of 21.4 points and 15.3 rebounds per game. She holds the NCAA record for most consecutive double-doubles at 112. During her senior season in 2009, Paris received considerable media attention when she announced that she would pay back her tuition to the University of Oklahoma if the Sooners did not win the 2009 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament. She would lead Oklahoma to the Final Four before falling short to eventual national runner-up Louisville. Read more
• 21 Sep 1987: Michał Pazdan, Polish footballer Michał Pazdan is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back. Read more
• 21 Sep 1987: Ivelisse Vélez, Puerto Rican wrestler Ivelisse Milagro Vélez, better known by her mononymous ring name Ivelisse, is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler. She is best known for her time in Lucha Underground, where she twice held the Lucha Underground Trios Championship. Vélez also wrestles extensively on the independent circuit, most notably for Shine Wrestling, where she was the Shine Champion four times, and also a former Shine Tag Team Champion. Vélez has also performed for WWE, Impact Wrestling, All Elite Wrestling (AEW), Lucha Libre AAA (Mexico) and CMLL (Mexico). Read more
• 21 Sep 1986: Faris Badwan, English singer-songwriter Faris Adam Derar Badwan is an English musician, best known as the lead vocalist of the Horrors and as half of the duo Cat's Eyes. Read more
• 21 Sep 1986: Lindsey Stirling, American violinist and composer Lindsey Stirling is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and dancer. She presents choreographed violin performances, in live and music videos found on her official YouTube channel, which she created in 2007. Read more
• 21 Sep 1985: Justin Durant, American football player Justin Ryan Durant is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Hampton Pirates and was selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the second round of the 2007 NFL draft. He played in the NFL for the Jaguars, Detroit Lions, Dallas Cowboys, and Atlanta Falcons. Read more
• 21 Sep 1984: Dwayne Bowe, American football player Dwayne Lorenzo Bowe is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver for nine seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the LSU Tigers, and was selected by the Kansas City Chiefs in the first round of the 2007 NFL draft. He played for the Chiefs from 2007 to 2014. He led the NFL in receiving touchdowns with 15 in 2010, earning Pro Bowl and Second-team All-Pro honors. He also played for the Cleveland Browns in 2015. Read more
• 21 Sep 1984: Jason Citron, American businessman, co-founded Discord Jason Citron is an American businessman and entrepreneur best known as the co-founder and former chief executive officer of the social communication platform Discord. He is also the founder of OpenFeint, one of the earliest major social gaming networks for mobile devices. Read more
• 21 Sep 1984: Ahna O'Reilly, American actress Ahna O'Reilly is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in the films The Help (2011) and
  Fruitvale Station (2013). Read more
• 21 Sep 1984: Ben Wildman-Tobriner, American swimmer Benjamin Marshall Wildman-Tobriner is an American physician and former competition swimmer, Olympic gold medalist, and former world record-holder. Read more
• 21 Sep 1984: Wale, American rapper Olubowale Victor Akintimehin, known professionally as Wale, is an American rapper. He first became known for his 2006 song "Dig Dug ", which became popular in his hometown of Germantown, Maryland and led Wale to gain further local recognition as he amassed a number of follow-up releases. He signed a recording contract with English DJ-producer Mark Ronson's Allido Records in 2007, which, after a three-label bidding war, entered a joint venture with Interscope Records for US$1.3 million the following year. During this time, Wale's mixtapes and singles saw numerous attention as he appeared on MTV and various Black America-focused magazines. Read more
• 21 Sep 1983: Ndiss Kaba Badji, Senegalese athlete Ndiss Kaba Badji is a Senegalese athlete who competes in the long jump and triple jump. He is the Senegalese record holder for the triple jump, with 17.07 metres, which he achieved when he won the 2008 African Championships. He has a personal best long jump of 8.32 metres, achieved in October 2009 in Beirut, which won him the silver medal at the 2009 Jeux de la Francophonie. Read more
• 21 Sep 1983: Fernando Cavenaghi, Argentine footballer Fernando Ezequiel Cavenaghi is a retired Argentine professional footballer. He played as a striker who was efficient in front of goal with either foot and from any range. More recently, in 2021, Cavenaghi was the co-owner, along with Alejandro Domínguez, of Uruguayan football club Racing Club de Montevideo, until 2023 when the club was sold to Bayern Munich. Read more
• 21 Sep 1983: Francesco Dracone, Italian race car driver Francesco Dracone is an Italian racing driver who currently competes in the European Le Mans Series with BHK Motorsport. Read more
• 21 Sep 1983: Scott Evans, American actor Scott Andrew Evans is an American actor. He is known for playing the role of police officer Oliver Fish on the ABC daytime soap opera One Life to Live, the recurring role of Oliver on the series Grace and Frankie, and one of the Kens in Barbie. He is the younger brother of actor Chris Evans. Read more
• 21 Sep 1983: Anna Favella, Italian actress Anna Favella is an Italian stage, television and movie actress. She is best known for her role as Elena Marsili in the TV series Terra Ribelle, directed by Cinzia TH Torrini, and Terra Ribelle – Il nuovo mondo, directed by Ambrogio Lo Giudice. Read more
• 21 Sep 1983: Maggie Grace, American actress Margaret Grace Denig is an American actress. Grace earned a Young Artist Award nomination in 2002 with her portrayal of 15-year-old murder victim Martha Moxley in the television movie Murder in Greenwich. In 2004, she was cast as Shannon Rutherford in the television series Lost, on which she was a main cast member for the first two seasons, winning a Screen Actors Guild Award shared with the ensemble cast. Leaving the series, Grace was keen to work more prominently in film. She appeared in The Jane Austen Book Club (2007), and as Kim Mills in Taken in 2008. She reprised the role of Kim in Taken 2 (2012) and Taken 3 (2014). Read more
• 21 Sep 1983: Cristian Hidalgo, Spanish footballer Cristian Hidalgo González, known simply as Cristian, is a Spanish former professional footballer who played for Andorran club FC Ordino as a winger. Read more
• 21 Sep 1983: Greg Jennings, American football player Gregory Jennings Jr. is an American sports television personality and former professional football player who was a wide receiver for 10 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), primarily with the Green Bay Packers. He played college football for the Western Michigan Broncos and was selected by Green Bay in the second round of the 2006 NFL draft. Jennings was named to two Pro Bowls during his seven seasons with the Packers and was part of the team that won a Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XLV. In his final three seasons, he was a member of the Minnesota Vikings and Miami Dolphins. He was inducted into Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame in 2022. Read more
• 21 Sep 1983: Joseph Mazzello, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Joseph Francis Mazzello III is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor and played Tim Murphy in Jurassic Park and Roarke Hartman in The River Wild. As an adult, Mazzello is best known for his portrayal of real-life figures Eugene Sledge in the HBO miniseries The Pacific, Dustin Moskovitz in The Social Network, and John Deacon in the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. Read more
• 21 Sep 1983: Anna Meares, Australian track cyclist Anna Maree Devenish Meares is an Australian retired track cyclist. As of early 2023, Meares and her family moved to New Zealand. Read more
• 21 Sep 1983: Reggie Nelson, American football player Reggie Lee Nelson is an American former professional football player who was a safety in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Florida Gators, winning a national championship and earning consensus All-American honors. He was selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the first round of the 2007 NFL draft and also played for the Cincinnati Bengals and Oakland Raiders. Read more
• 21 Sep 1983: Rafael Marques Pinto, Brazilian footballer Rafael Marques Pinto, most commonly known as Rafael Marques, is a Brazilian former footballer. Read more
• 21 Sep 1982: Eduardo Azevedo, Brazilian race car driver Eduardo Azevedo is a race car driver. He was the 2001 Brazilian Formula Junior champion and the 2002 South American Formula Three Class-B champion. He raced in Brazilian Formula Renault in 2003. Read more
• 21 Sep 1982: Dominic Perrottet, Australian politician, 46th Premier of New South Wales Dominic Francis Perrottet is an Australian politician who served as the 46th premier of New South Wales from 2021 to 2023. He held office as leader of the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party of Australia, and assumed the position following the resignation of Gladys Berejiklian. Read more
• 21 Sep 1982: Christos Tapoutos, Greek basketball player Christos Tapoutos is a Greek former professional basketball player and current basketball executive. At a height of 2.06 m tall, he played at both the small forward and power forward positions, with power forward being his main position. During his early professional years, Tapoutos was considered to be one of the greatest scorers and talents in his age group in all of Europe. Read more
• 21 Sep 1982: Rowan Vine, English footballer Rowan Lewis Vine is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. Read more
• 21 Sep 1981: Nicole Richie, American actress, fashion designer, and author Nicole Camille Richie is an American media personality, fashion designer, and actress. She came to prominence after appearing on the reality television series The Simple Life (2003–2007), in which she starred alongside her friend and fellow socialite Paris Hilton. Richie's personal life attracted media attention during the series' five-year run and thereafter. Read more
• 21 Sep 1981: Sarah Whatmore, English singer-songwriter Sarah Louise Whatmore is an English singer-songwriter, best known for appearing in the first series of the British TV series Pop Idol. Whatmore later went on to launch her own solo career. Read more
• 21 Sep 1980: Nyree Kindred, Welsh swimmer Nyree Elise Kindred MBE is a Welsh swimmer who has competed in the Paralympic Games on four occasions winning ten medals. Read more
• 21 Sep 1980: Tomas Scheckter, South African race car driver Tomas Michael Scheckter is a South African former racing driver best known for his time in the IndyCar Series. Read more
• 21 Sep 1980: Autumn Reeser, American actress Autumn Reeser is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Taylor Townsend on the Fox series The O.C., Lizzie Grant on HBO's Entourage, Katie Andrews on ABC's No Ordinary Family, and Leslie Bellcamp on E!'s The Arrangement. She has appeared in the films The Girl Next Door (2004), So Undercover (2012), Sully (2016), and in over a dozen Hallmark Channel television films in leading roles. Read more
• 21 Sep 1980: Kareena Kapoor, Indian actress Kareena Kapoor Khan is an Indian actress. She has been known for her leading roles in Hindi cinema since 2000. Kapoor is the recipient of several awards, including six Filmfare Awards, and as of 2024, is one of Hindi cinema's highest-paid actresses. Read more
• 21 Sep 1979: James Allan, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist James Allan is a Scottish musician and former professional footballer who played as a winger. He is the lead singer and guitarist of the rock band Glasvegas. Read more
• 21 Sep 1979: Richard Dunne, Irish footballer Richard Patrick Dunne is an Irish former professional footballer, current Man City Youth Academy Coach and television pundit for TNT Sports, who played as a centre-back. He made 432 Premier League appearances, including 253 for Manchester City. Between 2005–2009 Dunne won four consecutive Man City Player of the year awards. Read more
• 21 Sep 1979: Chris Gayle, Jamaican cricketer Christopher Henry Gayle OD is a former Jamaican cricketer who played international cricket for the West Indies from 1999 to 2021. Gayle is widely regarded as the greatest Twenty20 batsman in the history of cricket. He played a crucial role in the West Indies teams that won the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy, 2012 ICC World Twenty20 and 2016 ICC World Twenty20. Read more
• 21 Sep 1979: Julian Gray, English footballer Julian Raymond Marvin Gray is an English football coach and former professional player. Read more
• 21 Sep 1979: Monika Merl, German runner Monika Merl is a German 800 metre runner and former champion in the 800 meters in Germany. Read more
• 21 Sep 1978: Paulo Costanzo, Canadian actor, director, and producer Paulo Costanzo is a Canadian actor. He is best known for playing Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill (Ax) in the TV series Animorphs, the roles of Rubin Carver in the comedy film Road Trip, Alexander Cabot in Josie and the Pussycats, Michael Tribbiani in the NBC sitcom Joey, Evan R. Lawson in the USA Network series Royal Pains, and Lyor Boone in the ABC political drama Designated Survivor. Read more
• 21 Sep 1978: Luke Godden, Australian footballer Luke Godden is a former Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League Read more
• 21 Sep 1978: Doug Howlett, New Zealand rugby player Douglas Charles Howlett is a retired New Zealand professional rugby union player. He was primarily a wing, but he also sometimes played as a fullback. Read more
• 21 Sep 1977: Kārlis Lācis, Latvian pianist and composer Kārlis Lācis is a Latvian contemporary composer. Along with the scores for theatre productions, movies, and musical arrangements, a large part of his work is dedicated to vocal and choral music, symphonic, and instrumental compositions, including "Te Deum" (2014) with the State Choir Latvija, and double concerto for flute, oboe and orchestra "42.195" (2014) with Liepaja symphony orchestra. "Rorate coeli" (2014) for soprano, saxophone and organ and the first symphony "Via Crucis" premiered on April 3, 2015 with Latvian National symphony orchestra. Kārlis was one of the jury members for 2014 World choir games while Latvian capital Riga was the European capital of culture. His creative contribution includes musicals staged in Liepāja theatre and Dailes theatre "Pūt vējiņi" (2011) and "Oņēgins" (2013), both rewarded with the highest annual theater award for the best music author. Read more
• 21 Sep 1977: Andre Pärn, Estonian basketball player Andre Pärn is an Estonian former basketball player. Read more
• 21 Sep 1977: Kohei Sato, Japanese wrestler Kohei Sato is a Japanese professional wrestler. He is currently contracted with Pro Wrestling Zero1. He also makes appearances on the Japanese independent circuit. Sato is also a former mixed martial artist. Read more
• 21 Sep 1977: Brian Tallet, American baseball player Brian Curtis Tallet is an American former professional baseball pitcher. Tallet played the majority of his career for the Toronto Blue Jays. He also played for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Cleveland Indians. He is 6' 6" in height. He pitched for the LSU Tigers and won a national championship in 2000. Read more
• 21 Sep 1976: Jonas Bjerre, Danish singer-songwriter and guitarist Jonas Bjerre Terkelsbøl is a Danish musician and visual artist from Copenhagen, best known as the lead singer of the alternative rock band Mew. Bjerre creates animated videos for Mew's live shows. He has an uncommon vocal range, above the average pitch, which has helped contribute to Mew's unique sound, and earned him a Danish Music Award for Danish Male Singer in 2006. Read more
• 21 Sep 1976: Poul Hübertz, Danish footballer and manager Poul Hübertz is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a forward. He previously played for a number of Danish clubs, including Farum BK, Herfølge BK, AaB, and FC Midtjylland in the Danish Superliga, and has also represented English football clubs Millwall and Northampton Town. With his long legs and unelegant style, he was known in Denmark as a somewhat atypical striker. Read more
• 21 Sep 1975: Doug Davis, American baseball player Douglas N. Davis is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Milwaukee Brewers, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Chicago Cubs. Read more
• 21 Sep 1975: Craig Thompson, American graphic novelist Craig Matthew Thompson is an American graphic novelist best known for his books Good-bye, Chunky Rice (1999), Blankets (2003), Carnet de Voyage (2004), Habibi (2011), Space Dumplins (2015), and Ginseng Roots (2025). Thompson has received four Harvey Awards, three Eisner Awards, and two Ignatz Awards. In 2007, his cover design for the Menomena album Friend and Foe received a Grammy nomination for Best Recording Package. Read more
• 21 Sep 1974: Özgür Özel, Turkish pharmacist and politician Özgür Özel is a Turkish pharmacist and politician who has served as leader of the New Party since 2026, and served as leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP) from 2023 before being deposed in 2026. He had previously shared the parliamentary deputy group leadership of the CHP with Engin Altay and Levent Gök between 2015 and 2023. Following a court ruling in May 2026, his leadership of the CHP was subject to absolute nullification, triggering the CHP absolute nullity crisis. In July 2026, Özel announced that he would be leaving the CHP to form the New Party. Read more
• 21 Sep 1974: Katharine Merry, English former sprinter Katharine Merry is an English former sprinter. She achieved the bronze medal in the 400 metres at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and was the fastest woman in the world over 400 m in 2001, with her career best of 49.59 seconds. She also represented Great Britain at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and won the 200 metres at the 1993 European Junior Championships. Read more
• 21 Sep 1974: Bryce Drew, American basketball player and coach Bryce Homer Drew is an American college basketball coach and former player who is the head coach at Grand Canyon University. Previously, he served as the head coach at Vanderbilt and in the same capacity at his alma mater, Valparaiso, having succeeded his father, Homer Drew. Drew has led his teams to the NCAA tournament on six occasions, including at least once at each of the three schools where he has been the head coach. Read more
• 21 Sep 1974: Andy Todd, English footballer and manager Andrew John James Todd is an English football coach and former player. Read more
• 21 Sep 1973: Vanessa Grigoriadis, American journalist and author Vanessa Maia Grigoriadis is an American journalist. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and Rolling Stone among other publications. Read more
• 21 Sep 1973: Virginia Ruano Pascual, Spanish tennis player Virginia Ruano Pascual is a Spanish former professional tennis player. She had moderate success in singles, winning three WTA Tour titles as well as reaching two major quarterfinals and a top-30 ranking, but she had been far more successful in doubles. Read more
• 21 Sep 1973: Oswaldo Sánchez, Mexican footballer Oswaldo Javier Sánchez Ibarra is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper and a sports analyst for TUDN. He is highly regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in Mexican footballing history. Read more
• 21 Sep 1972: Olivia Bonamy, French actress Olivia Bonamy is a French actress. She is best known for her appearances in the films Jefferson in Paris, Jacques Audiard's Read My Lips, the thriller Ils and Le ciel, les oiseaux et ta mère. Read more
• 21 Sep 1972: Liam Gallagher, English singer-songwriter William John Paul Gallagher is an English singer and songwriter who is the lead singer and co-founder of the rock band Oasis. Gallagher fronted Beady Eye, an offshoot of Oasis, between 2009 and 2014, before starting a solo career in 2017. One of the most recognisable figures in British rock music, he is noted for his distinctive vocal style and outspoken personality. Read more
• 21 Sep 1972: Jon Kitna, American football player and coach Jon Kelly Kitna is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for the Seattle Seahawks, Cincinnati Bengals, Detroit Lions, and Dallas Cowboys. He played college football for the Central Washington Wildcats and was signed by the Seahawks as an undrafted free agent in 1996. He is currently the head football coach at Lakota East High School in Ohio. Read more
• 21 Sep 1971: John Crawley, English cricketer and academic John Paul Crawley is a former English first-class cricketer who played at international level for England and county cricket for Hampshire and Lancashire. Crawley, one of three brothers who all played first-class cricket, was a right-handed batsman and occasional wicket-keeper. Read more
• 21 Sep 1971: James Lesure, Americana actor James Lesure is an American film and television actor, best known for roles on the NBC/The WB sitcom For Your Love (1998–2002), and NBC comedy-drama Las Vegas (2003–2008), Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce (2017–2018) and Good Girls (2018–2020). Read more
• 21 Sep 1971: Alfonso Ribeiro, American actor, director, and comedian Alfonso Lincoln Ribeiro is an American actor, comedian, dancer and television host. In a career spanning over four decades, he first gained notability for his role as Carlton Banks on the NBC television sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990–1996), as well as his performances on Silver Spoons (1984–1987) and In the House (1996–1999). Read more
• 21 Sep 1971: Luke Wilson, American actor, director, and screenwriter Luke Cunningham Wilson is an American actor. He is best known for his work with filmmaker Wes Anderson, appearing in Anderson's Bottle Rocket (1996), Rushmore (1998) and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001).
  Wilson is also known as part of the Frat Pack, with whom he has starred in comedic films Bongwater (1997), Old School (2003), Brad's Status (2017) and The Wendell Baker Story (2005), which he also co-directed. Read more
• 21 Sep 1970: Rob Benedict, American actor, screenwriter, and musician Rob Benedict is an American actor, writer and musician. His near 30-year career includes more than 90 television and movie credits. He is best known for his work on the television series Supernatural, Threshold, Felicity and the comedy film Waiting…. He is also the lead singer/songwriter of the Los Angeles-based band Louden Swain. Read more
• 21 Sep 1970: Melissa Ferrick, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Melissa Ferrick is an American singer-songwriter. She is a music professor at Northeastern University and Berklee College of Music. Read more
• 21 Sep 1970: Samantha Power, Irish-American journalist, academic, and diplomat, 28th United States Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Jane Power is an Irish-American journalist, diplomat, and government official who served as the United States ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Power served as the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development from 2021 to 2025. Read more
• 21 Sep 1969: Anne Burrell, American chef and television host (died 2025) Anne W. Burrell was an American chef, television personality, and instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education. She hosted the Food Network show Secrets of a Restaurant Chef and was co-host of Worst Cooks in America. She was also one of Mario Batali's sous chefs in the Iron Chef America series and appeared on other programs on the network such as The Best Thing I Ever Ate. Read more
• 21 Sep 1969: Jason Christiansen, American baseball player Jason Samuel Christiansen is an American former Major League Baseball left-handed relief pitcher. Read more
• 21 Sep 1969: Curtis Leschyshyn, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster Curtis Michael Leschyshyn is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. Leschyshyn played 1,033 games in the National Hockey League. He is the only NHL player to have played for two relocated franchises, both before and after relocation, the Nordiques/Avalanche and the Whalers/Hurricanes. Since he was drafted and played for the Wild in their inaugural season, he is the only NHL player to have played for three new teams in their inaugural season in the league. In addition, he also played for the two national capital city franchises in the NHL, the Capitals and the Senators. Read more
• 21 Sep 1969: Billy Porter, American actor and singer William Ellis Porter II is an American singer, actor, writer, director and businessperson. He gained notice performing on Broadway before starting a solo career as a singer and actor. For his role as Lola in Kinky Boots, he won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical. He credits the part for "cracking open" his feminine side to confront toxic masculinity. He also won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for the musical's accompanying album. Read more
• 21 Sep 1968: Kevin Buzzard, British mathematician Kevin Mark Buzzard is a British mathematician and currently a professor of pure mathematics at Imperial College London. He specialises in arithmetic geometry and the Langlands program. Read more
• 21 Sep 1968: David Jude Jolicoeur, American rapper, songwriter, and producer (died 2023) David Jude Jolicoeur, also known as Trugoy the Dove, Plug Two, and Dave, was an American rapper best known as one third of the hip-hop group De La Soul. Read more
• 21 Sep 1968: Ricki Lake, American actress, producer, and talk show host Ricki Pamela Lake is an American television host and actress. She is known for her lead role as Tracy Turnblad in the 1988 film Hairspray, for which she received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. She is also known for her talk show, Ricki Lake, which was broadcast internationally from September 1993 until May 2004. When the show debuted, Lake was 24 and credited as being the youngest person to host a syndicated talk show at the time. In late 2012, Lake began hosting a second syndicated talk show, The Ricki Lake Show. The series was canceled in 2013 after a single season, but Lake won her first Daytime Emmy Award for the project. Read more
• 21 Sep 1967: Faith Hill, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress Audrey Faith McGraw, known professionally as Faith Hill, is an American singer and actress. She is one of the most successful country music artists of all time, having sold almost 50 million albums worldwide. Read more
• 21 Sep 1967: Suman Pokhrel, Nepali poet, lyricist and playwright Suman Pokhrel is a Nepali poet, lyricist, playwright, translator and artist. Universities in Nepal and India have included his poetry in their syllabi. Read more
• 21 Sep 1967: Tyler Stewart, Canadian drummer Barenaked Ladies is a Canadian rock band formed in Scarborough, Ontario, in 1988. The group began as a duo of singer-guitarists Ed Robertson and Steven Page and expanded to a quintet with bassist Jim Creeggan, percussionist and keyboardist Andy Creeggan and drummer Tyler Stewart. Multi-instrumentalist Kevin Hearn replaced Andy Creeggan in 1995. Page left the band in 2009; Robertson, Jim Creeggan, Stewart and Hearn have continued as a quartet. Read more
• 21 Sep 1966: Kerrin Lee-Gartner, Canadian skier and journalist Kerrin Anne Lee-Gartner is a former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medallist from Canada. Read more
• 21 Sep 1965: Frédéric Beigbeder, French author and critic Frédéric Beigbeder is a French writer, literary critic and television presenter. He won the Prix Interallié in 2003 for his novel Windows on the World and the Prix Renaudot in 2009 for his book A French Novel. He is also the creator of the Flore and Sade Awards. In addition, he is the executive director of Lui, a French adult entertainment magazine. Read more
• 21 Sep 1965: Cheryl Hines, American actress Cheryl Ruth Hines is an American actress and comedian. She portrayed Cheryl David on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000–2024), earning two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. She also starred as Dallas Royce on the ABC sitcom Suburgatory (2011–2014) and made her directorial debut with the 2009 film Serious Moonlight. She is married to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the 26th and current U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Read more
• 21 Sep 1965: Johanna Vuoksenmaa, Finnish director and screenwriter Johanna Vuoksenmaa is a Finnish television and film director and screenwriter who has also worked as a photographer, installation artist and a teacher. Her films have been shown at numerous film festivals around the world and she has won many Finnish film and television awards for directing and screenwriting. As a director and screenwriter, Vuoksenmaa prefers the comedy genre because to her comedy means relief, forgiveness and defense. She does not use casting agencies but prefers to cast actors to her films herself, since she thinks that it creates a level of trust between the actor and the director. Read more
• 21 Sep 1964: Jorge Drexler, Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Abner Drexler Prada is a Uruguayan musician, actor and medical doctor. Drexler is known for winning the 2005 Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Al Otro Lado del Río" from The Motorcycle Diaries, becoming the first Uruguayan to win an Oscar and marking the first time a Spanish-language song received the award. Read more
• 21 Sep 1964: Lester Quitzau, Canadian guitarist Lester Quitzau is a Canadian folk and blues guitarist from Edmonton, Alberta. Read more
• 21 Sep 1963: Curtly Ambrose, Antiguan cricketer and bass player Sir Curtly Elconn Lynwall Ambrose KCN is an Antiguan former cricketer who played 98 Test matches for the West Indies. Widely acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time, he took 405 Test wickets at an average of 20.99 and topped the ICC Player Rankings for much of his career to be rated the best bowler in the world. His great height—he is 6 feet 7 inches (2.01 m) tall—allowed him to make the ball bounce unusually high after he delivered it; allied to his pace and accuracy, it made him a very difficult bowler for batsmen to face. A man of few words during his career, he was notoriously reluctant to speak to journalists. He was chosen as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1992; after he retired he was entered into the International Cricket Council Hall of Fame and selected as one of West Indies all-time XI by a panel of experts. Read more
• 21 Sep 1963: Cecil Fielder, American baseball player and manager Cecil Grant Fielder is an American former professional baseball designated hitter and first baseman in Major League Baseball (MLB). Fielder was a power hitter in the 1980s and 1990s. He attended college at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). He played in MLB for the Toronto Blue Jays (1985–1988), in Japan's Central League for the Hanshin Tigers (1989), and then in MLB for the Detroit Tigers (1990–1996), New York Yankees (1996–97), Anaheim Angels in 1998, and Cleveland Indians in 1998. With the Yankees, he won the 1996 World Series over the Atlanta Braves. In 1990, he became the first player to reach the 50–home run mark since George Foster hit 52 for the Cincinnati Reds in 1977 and the first American League player to do so since Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris famously hit 54 and 61 in 1961. Read more
• 21 Sep 1963: Angus Macfadyen, Scottish actor and screenwriter Angus Macfadyen is a Scottish actor. His roles include Robert the Bruce, both in Braveheart and Robert the Bruce, Komodo in Warriors of Virtue, Vice-Counsel Dupont in Equilibrium, Jeff Denlon in the Saw franchise, Robert Rogers in the AMC historical drama Turn: Washington's Spies, McCreedy in Cameron Crowe's We Bought a Zoo, and biologist James Murray in The Lost City of Z. He has made appearances on several television series such as Californication, Criminal Minds, Chuck, and Superman & Lois. Read more
• 21 Sep 1963: Mamoru Samuragochi, Japanese composer Mamoru Samuragochi is a Japanese composer from Hiroshima Prefecture who falsely stated that he was totally deaf. He said throughout his career that he was deaf which led to foreign media dubbing him a "digital-age Beethoven". He was also the name credited for the video games Resident Evil: Director's Cut Dual Shock Ver. (1998) and Onimusha: Warlords (2001). In February 2014, it was revealed that not only was Samuragochi not fully deaf, most of the work attributed to him over the previous 18 years had been written by Takashi Niigaki. Read more
• 21 Sep 1963: Trevor Steven, English footballer Trevor McGregor Steven is an English former professional footballer who played as a right-sided midfielder. He progressed through the ranks at Burnley, making his debut in 1981 regularly scoring over the next two seasons. Everton boss Howard Kendall, who was building a new team based on youth, decided to make a bid for him. He became known as a member of the successful Everton side of the 1980s and went on to be part of the Rangers '9-in-a-row' team. Steven was also successful with France's Marseille and gained 36 international caps for England. He works as a presenter for RTÉ Sport in Ireland. Read more
• 21 Sep 1963: David J. Wales, British academic and educator David John Wales is a professor of chemical physics in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge.. Read more
• 21 Sep 1962: Rob Morrow, American actor Robert Alan Morrow is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of Dr. Joel Fleischman on Northern Exposure, a role that garnered him three Golden Globe and two Emmy nominations for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series, and later for his role as FBI agent Don Eppes on Numb3rs. Read more
• 21 Sep 1961: Billy Collins, Jr., American boxer (died 1984) William Ray Collins Jr. was an American professional boxer who competed from 1981 to 1983. He was undefeated before his career was cut short after his final fight when he sustained serious injuries against Luis Resto in their ten-round bout. Aided by his trainer Panama Lewis, Resto used illegal, tampered gloves with an ounce of the gloves' cushioning removed, along with hand wraps that had been soaked in plaster of Paris. Read more
• 21 Sep 1961: Dan Borislow, American businessman and inventor (died 2014) Daniel Marc Borislow was an American entrepreneur, sports team owner, inventor, and thoroughbred horse breeder. Borislow was born and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended Widener University. In 1989, he founded Tel-Save, Inc. to resell access to AT&T long distance lines. Borislow took the company public in 1995, and two years later brokered a $100 million deal with AOL at the "Cafe L’Europe," Palm Beach. In early 1998, Tel-Save had sales of $300 million and was valued by Wall Street investors at $2 billion. However, due to the financial strain of paying off the AOL deal, Tel-Save lost $221 million in 1999, and Borislow sold his stock for approximately $300 million and retired. Read more
• 21 Sep 1961: Serena Scott Thomas, English actress and producer Serena Harriet Scott Thomas is an English actress and documentary producer. Her television roles include Diana, Princess of Wales in Diana: Her True Story in 1993. Her film appearances include The World Is Not Enough (1999), Hostage (2005), Brothel (2008), and Inherent Vice (2014). Read more
• 21 Sep 1961: Nancy Travis, American actress and producer Nancy Travis is an American actress. She began her career on Off-Broadway theater, before her first leading screen role in the ABC television miniseries Harem opposite Omar Sharif. Her breakthrough came in 1987, playing Sylvia Bennington in the comedy film Three Men and a Baby. She later starred in its sequel, Three Men and a Little Lady (1990). Read more
• 21 Sep 1960: David James Elliott, Canadian-American actor and director David William Smith, known professionally as David James Elliott, is a Canadian actor. He was the star of the series JAG, playing lead character Harmon Rabb Jr. from 1995 to 2005. Read more
• 21 Sep 1960: Masoumeh Ebtekar, Iranian journalist, politician and scientist, first woman Vice President of Iran Masoumeh Ebtekar is an Iranian politician. A Reformist, she headed the country's Department of Environment from 1997 to 2005 and again from 2013 to 2017, after which she served as the Vice President for Women and Family Affairs from 2017 to 2021. Her appointment to the Cabinet of Iran in 1997 marked her as the institution's third female member overall and the first female member since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. She is currently a full-time professor in the Immunology Department of the School of Medical Sciences at Tarbiat Modares University in the city of Tehran. Read more
• 21 Sep 1960: Kelley Eskridge, American author and screenwriter Kelley Eskridge is an American writer of fiction, non-fiction and screenplays. Her work is generally regarded as speculative fiction and is associated with the more literary edge of the category, as well as with the category of slipstream fiction. Read more
• 21 Sep 1960: Musalia Mudavadi, Kenyan politician and Former Deputy Prime Minister Wycliffe Musalia Mudavadi is a Kenyan politician and land economist who is currently serving as Prime Cabinet Secretary of Kenya, and since 2023, in an expanded role of Foreign & Diaspora Affairs cabinet secretary of Kenya. As of 1 November 2024, he is also serving as the cabinet secretary in the ministry of interior, albeit in an acting capacity, succeeding Prof. Kithure Kindiki who was appointed Deputy president following the impeachment of Rigathi Gachagua. He is a former party leader of the Amani National Congress (ANC), one of the founding political parties, of the Kenya Kwanza alliance. Read more
• 21 Sep 1960: Graham Southern, English art dealer and gallery owner Blain|Southern was a contemporary art gallery with branches in London, Berlin and New York. It was started in September 2010 by Harry Blain and Graham Southern, who had sold their previous gallery, Haunch of Venison, to Christie's. The gallery was originally at 21 Dering Street, but moved to 4 Hanover Square, London W1, in October 2012. Read more
• 21 Sep 1960: Maurizio Cattelan, Italian sculptor Maurizio Cattelan is an Italian visual artist. Known primarily for his hyperrealistic sculptures and installations, Cattelan's practice also includes curating and publishing. His satirical approach to art has resulted in him being frequently labelled as a joker or prankster of the art world. Self-taught as an artist, Cattelan has exhibited internationally in museums and Biennials. Maurizio Cattelan created his most important works of art at Viale Bligny 42 in Milan, where he lived for many years. Read more
• 21 Sep 1959: Crin Antonescu, Romanian educator and politician, former interim president of Romania George Crin Laurențiu Antonescu is a Romanian politician and history teacher who served as Acting President of Romania in 2012. He was also candidate in the 2009 and 2025 presidential elections, finishing both in third place. Read more
• 21 Sep 1959: Andrzej Buncol, Polish footballer Andrzej Bernard Buncol is a Polish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Read more
• 21 Sep 1959: Dave Coulier, American actor, comedian, producer, and screenwriter David Alan Coulier is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his roles as Joey Gladstone on the ABC sitcom Full House, Peter Venkman on The Real Ghostbusters, and Animal and Bunsen Honeydew on Muppet Babies. He was also in the 2007 Christmas movie The Family Holiday. Read more
• 21 Sep 1959: Danny Cox, English-American baseball player and coach Daniel Bradford Cox is an English born American former professional baseball pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals (1983–1988), the Philadelphia Phillies (1991–1992), the Pittsburgh Pirates (1992), and the Toronto Blue Jays (1993–1995), after which he retired from active play. Read more
• 21 Sep 1959: Corinne Drewery, English singer-songwriter and fashion designer Corinne Drewery is an English singer-songwriter and fashion designer, best known for being the lead vocalist of the band Swing Out Sister. Read more
• 21 Sep 1958: Rick Mahorn, American basketball player and coach Derrick Allen Mahorn is an American former professional basketball player who played power forward and center for the Washington Bullets, Detroit Pistons, Philadelphia 76ers, and the New Jersey Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is currently a radio analyst for the Detroit Pistons, works as a co-host/analyst on SiriusXM NBA Radio, and during the summer is the head coach of the Detroit Amps of the BIG3. Read more
• 21 Sep 1958: Simon Mayo, English radio host Simon Andrew Hicks Mayo is an English radio presenter and author who worked for BBC Radio from 1982 until 2022. Mayo has presented across three BBC stations for extended periods. From 1986 to 2001 he worked for Radio 1, including five years on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show. From 2001 he presented on BBC Radio 5 Live: from his debut until 2009 on a daily afternoon programme, and from 2009 until 2022 with Kermode and Mayo's Film Review on Fridays. Between January 2010 and December 2018 he was the presenter of Simon Mayo Drivetime on BBC Radio 2, for the final six months with co-host Jo Whiley. In addition to his programme on 5 Live, Mayo originally joined Radio 2 between October 2001 and April 2008 to host a weekly Album Chart Show, followed by the station's Music Club Weekly. Since March 2021, Simon Mayo Drivetime has returned on Greatest Hits Radio. Read more
• 21 Sep 1957: Ethan Coen, American director, producer, and screenwriter Ethan Jesse Coen is an American filmmaker. Working alongside his brother Joel, he has directed, written, edited and produced many feature films, the most acclaimed of which include Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1987), Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), The Ladykillers (2004), No Country for Old Men (2007), Burn After Reading (2008), A Serious Man (2009), True Grit (2010), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), Hail, Caesar! (2016) and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018). Read more
• 21 Sep 1957: Mark Levin, American lawyer, radio host, and author Mark Reed Levin is an American conservative broadcast news analyst, columnist, lawyer, political commentator, radio personality, and writer. He is the host of syndicated radio show The Mark Levin Show, as well as Life, Liberty & Levin on Fox News. Previously, Levin worked in the administration of President Ronald Reagan and was chief of staff for Attorney General Edwin Meese. He is the former president of the Landmark Legal Foundation, an author of seven books, and contributor to media outlets such as National Review Online. Since 2015, Levin has been editor-in-chief of the Conservative Review. Read more
• 21 Sep 1957: Sidney Moncrief, American basketball player and coach Sidney Alvin Moncrief is an American former professional basketball player. As an NCAA college basketball player from 1975 to 1979, Moncrief played for the University of Arkansas Razorbacks, leading them to the 1978 Final Four and a win in the NCAA Consolation Game versus #6 Notre Dame. Nicknamed Sid the Squid, Sir Sid, and El Sid, Moncrief went on to play 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association, including ten seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks. He was a five-time NBA All-Star and won the first two NBA Defensive Player of the Year awards in 1983 and 1984. He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019. Read more
• 21 Sep 1957: Kevin Rudd, Australian politician and diplomat, 26th Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian diplomat and former politician who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and from June to September 2013, holding office as the leader of the Labor Party. From 2023 to 2026, Rudd was the ambassador of Australia to the United States. Read more
• 21 Sep 1956: Jack Givens, American basketball player and sportscaster Jack "Goose" Givens is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats, earning consensus second-team All-American honors. He led the team to the 1978 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship and was named that year's Final Four Most Outstanding Player due in most part to his 41-point performance in Kentucky's 94–88 victory over Duke in the championship game. He was a 6-foot-5-inch (1.96 m), 205-pound (93 kg) forward. Givens played professionally for the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He also played overseas in Japan. Read more
• 21 Sep 1956: Marta Kauffman, American screenwriter and producer Marta Fran Kauffman is an American television writer and producer. She is best known for co-creating the NBC sitcom Friends with her longtime friend, David Crane; Crane and Kauffman similarly were in a friend group with four other people. Crane and Kauffman were also executive producers of the show, along with Kevin S. Bright; and produced Veronica's Closet and Jesse. From 2005 to 2006 she was an executive producer on Related. Both writers were the creators of the HBO series Dream On. Without Crane, she co-created the Netflix series Grace and Frankie. Read more
• 21 Sep 1956: Ricky Morton, American wrestler Richard Wendell Morton is an American professional wrestler who currently performs on the independent circuit. For most of his career, Morton has teamed with Robert Gibson as part of the Rock 'n' Roll Express, widely regarded as "the consummate babyface tag team". Morton has known for his time with numerous promotions in the United States including the Continental Wrestling Association, Mid-South Wrestling, Jim Crockett Promotions/World Championship Wrestling, Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). He also known for his time in the Japanese promotions All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and Wrestle Association R (WAR). Read more
• 21 Sep 1955: Richard Hieb, American engineer and astronaut Richard James Hieb is a former NASA astronaut and a veteran of three Space Shuttle missions. He was a mission specialist on STS-39 and STS-49, and was a payload commander on STS-65. After leaving NASA he worked at AlliedSignal and Orbital before spending 14 years as an executive at Lockheed Martin. He is currently a faculty member in the University of Colorado Boulder Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department. Read more
• 21 Sep 1955: Israel Katz, Israeli politician Israel Katz is an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset for Likud currently serving as Minister of Defense and a member of the Security Cabinet of Israel. Katz has been recognized for his role in modernizing Israel's transportation infrastructure, including the expansion of highways, the development of high-speed rail, and reforms to Israel's ports that increased competition and reduced shipping costs. Katz has previously served as Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Transport, Minister of Intelligence, Minister of Energy, Minister of Finance, and twice as Minister of Foreign Affairs. On 5 November 2024, it was announced that he would be nominated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Defense Minister after Yoav Gallant was dismissed. Read more
• 21 Sep 1955: Mika Kaurismäki, Finnish director, producer, and screenwriter Mika Juhani Kaurismäki is a Finnish film director. Read more
• 21 Sep 1954: Shinzo Abe, Japanese lawyer and politician, 90th Prime Minister of Japan (died 2022) Shinzo Abe was a Japanese statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. He was the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history, serving for nearly nine years. Read more
• 21 Sep 1954: Julia Grant, British transgender activist (died 2019) Julia Grant was the first transgender person to have her transition chronicled on a mainstream UK television documentary in A Change of Sex. Read more
• 21 Sep 1954: Thomas S. Ray, American ecologist and academic Thomas S. Ray is an ecologist who created and developed the Tierra project, a computer simulation of artificial life. Read more
• 21 Sep 1954: Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor, English rock drummer (died 2015) Philip John Taylor, better known as "Philthy Animal", was an English drummer. He was a member of the rock band Motörhead from 1975 to 1984 and 1987 to 1992, recording eleven studio albums and four live albums with the band. The Motörhead line-up consisting of Taylor, Lemmy and "Fast" Eddie Clarke is generally regarded as the 'classic' line-up of the band. Read more
• 21 Sep 1953: Arie Luyendyk, Dutch race car driver and sportscaster Arie Luijendijk, nicknamed "The Flying Dutchman," is a Dutch former auto racing driver, and winner of the 1990 and 1997 Indianapolis 500 races. He was inducted into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame in 2009, and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2014. Read more
• 21 Sep 1953: Reinhard Marx, German cardinal Reinhard Marx is a German Catholic prelate who has served as Archbishop of Munich and Freising since 2008. Pope Benedict XVI made him a cardinal in 2010. He is a former member of the Council of Cardinals established by Pope Francis, serving from 2013 to 2023 and is a former president of the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union. Marx is the Grand Prior of the German Lieutenancy of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. Read more
• 21 Sep 1952: Dave Gregory, English guitarist and keyboard player David Charles Gregory is an English guitarist from Swindon, best known for his work with the rock band XTC. He was a member of the group between the single "Life Begins at the Hop" (1979) and early sessions for the album Apple Venus Volume 1 (1999), contributing guitar, keyboards, and occasional string arrangements. Read more
• 21 Sep 1952: John Taylor, Baron Taylor of Warwick, English lawyer and politician John David Beckett Taylor, Baron Taylor of Warwick is a member of the House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. In 1996, at the age of 44, he became one of the youngest people in the upper house. Read more
• 21 Sep 1951: Bruce Arena, American soccer player and manager Bruce Arena is an American soccer coach who currently serves as the head coach and sporting director of the San Jose Earthquakes. Read more
• 21 Sep 1951: Aslan Maskhadov, Chechen general and politician, 3rd President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (died 2005) Aslan Aliyevich Maskhadov was a Soviet and Chechen politician and military commander who also served as the third president of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Read more
• 21 Sep 1950: Charles Clarke, English economist and politician, Secretary of State for Education Charles Rodway Clarke is a British Labour Party politician who held various Cabinet positions under Prime Minister Tony Blair from 2001 to 2006, lastly as Home Secretary from December 2004 to May 2006. Clarke was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Norwich South from 1997 to 2010. Read more
• 21 Sep 1950: Bill Murray, American actor, comedian, producer, and screenwriter William James Murray is an American actor and comedian, known for his deadpan delivery in roles ranging from studio comedies to independent dramas. He has received several accolades including a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and two Primetime Emmy Awards as well as a nomination for an Academy Award. Murray was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2016. Read more
• 21 Sep 1949: Henry Butler, American pianist and photographer (died 2018) Henry Butler was an American jazz and blues pianist. He learned piano, drums, and saxophone in school. He completed a BA and MA, and taught at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. He worked as a soloist and in groups in Los Angeles and New York City. Despite his blindness, he spent time as a photographer and had his work exhibited in galleries. Read more
• 21 Sep 1949: Artis Gilmore, American basketball player and radio host Artis Gilmore Sr. is an American former professional basketball player who played in the American Basketball Association (ABA) and National Basketball Association (NBA). Gilmore was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011. Read more
• 21 Sep 1949: Odilo Scherer, Brazilian cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer is a Brazilian cardinal of the Catholic Church. Since 2007 he has been the Archbishop of São Paulo, where he was auxiliary bishop from 2001 to 2007. From 1994 to 2001 he worked in the Roman Curia at the Congregation for Bishops. Read more
• 21 Sep 1948: Jack Dromey, English union leader and politician (died 2022) John Eugene Joseph Dromey was a British politician and trade unionist who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Erdington from 2010 to 2022. A member of the Labour Party, he served as Deputy General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union and later Unite from 2003 to 2010. Read more
• 21 Sep 1948: Mitsuo Momota, Japanese wrestler Mitsuo Momota is a semi-retired Japanese professional wrestler and executive, known for his work in the Japanese promotions All Japan Pro Wrestling and later in Pro Wrestling NOAH. He is the son of wrestler Rikidōzan. Read more
• 21 Sep 1948: John B. O'Reilly Jr., American politician (died 2025) John Bernard "Jack" O'Reilly Jr. was an American politician who served as the 6th mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, from 2007 to 2022. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served on the Dearborn City Council from 1990 to 2007. Read more
• 21 Sep 1947: Don Felder, American musician and songwriter Donald William Felder is an American musician who was the lead guitarist of the rock band Eagles from 1974 to 2001. He is known for co-writing several of the band's songs, most notably "Hotel California". Felder was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 with Eagles and was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2016. Read more
• 21 Sep 1947: Keith Harris, English ventriloquist and singer (died 2015) Keith Shenton Harris was an English ventriloquist, best known for his television show The Keith Harris Show (1982–86), audio recordings, and club appearances with his puppets Orville the Duck and Cuddles the Monkey. He had a UK Top 10 hit single in 1982 with "Orville's Song" which reached number 4 in the charts. Read more
• 21 Sep 1947: Rupert Hine, English musician, songwriter, and record producer (died 2020) Rupert Neville Hine was an English record producer and musician. He produced albums for artists including Rush, Kevin Ayers, Tina Turner, Howard Jones, Saga, the Fixx, Bob Geldof, Thompson Twins, Stevie Nicks, Chris de Burgh, Suzanne Vega, Underworld, Duncan Sheik, Formula and Eleanor McEvoy. Additionally, Hine recorded eleven albums, including those billed under his own name, the pseudo-band name Thinkman, and as a member of the band Quantum Jump; with the latter, he achieved a number 5 hit on the UK Singles Chart in 1979, "The Lone Ranger". Additionally, he composed for film and television soundtracks, including the 1989 Ian Fleming biopic Goldeneye and the black comedy Better Off Dead. Read more
• 21 Sep 1947: Stephen King, American author and screenwriter Stephen Edwin King is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror fiction and has also explored other genres, among them suspense, crime, science-fiction, fantasy, and mystery. He has written approximately 200 short stories, most of which have been published in collections. Read more
• 21 Sep 1947: Ed Nimmervoll, Austrian-Australian journalist, historian, and author (died 2014) Edward Charles Nimmervoll né Eduard Nimmervoll was an Australian music journalist, author and historian. He worked on rock and pop magazines Go-Set (1966–1974) and Juke Magazine (1975–1992) both as a journalist and as an editor. From 2000, Nimmervoll was editor of HowlSpace, a website detailing Australian rock/pop music history, providing artist profiles, news and video interviews. He was an author of books on the same subject and co-authored books with musicians including Brian Cadd and Renée Geyer. Read more
• 21 Sep 1947: Marsha Norman, American playwright and author Marsha Norman is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. She received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play 'night, Mother. She wrote the book and lyrics for such Broadway musicals as The Secret Garden, for which she won a Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for Best Book, and The Red Shoes, as well as the libretto for the musical The Color Purple and the book for the musical The Bridges of Madison County. She was co-chair of the playwriting program at The Juilliard School until stepping down in 2020. Read more
• 21 Sep 1946: Rose Garrard, English sculptor and author Rose Garrard is an installation, video and performance artist, sculptor and author. Garrard's works have been exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate Gallery, the British Council maintained Great Britain pavilion at the 1984 Venice Biennale, and national galleries in Austria and Canada. Read more
• 21 Sep 1946: Moritz Leuenberger, Swiss lawyer and politician, 87th President of the Swiss Confederation Moritz Leuenberger is a Swiss politician and lawyer who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 1995 to 2010. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SP/PS), he was President of the Swiss Confederation in 2001 and 2006. Leuenberger headed the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications for the whole of his tenure as a Federal Councillor. Read more
• 21 Sep 1946: Mart Siimann, Estonian psychologist and politician, 12th Prime Minister of Estonia Mart Siimann is an Estonian politician. He was Prime Minister of Estonia from 1997 to 1999 as a member of the Estonian Coalition Party, and President of the Estonian Olympic Committee from 2001 to 2012. Read more
• 21 Sep 1945: Richard Childress, American race car driver and businessman Richard Reed Childress is an American former race car driver in NASCAR. Childress is the owner of Richard Childress Racing (RCR). In 2004, he opened a vineyard in the Yadkin Valley AVA near Lexington, North Carolina. Childress sat on the board of directors at the National Rifle Association until 2019. Childress has been a co-owner of the Professional Bull Riders' Carolina Cowboys team since 2022. Read more
• 21 Sep 1945: Shaw Clifton, Northern Irish 18th General of The Salvation Army (died 2023) Shaw Clifton was a Salvation Army Officer born to Salvation Army officer parents stationed in Northern Ireland, who served as the 18th General of the Salvation Army. He succeeded John Larsson on 2 April 2006. Read more
• 21 Sep 1945: Kay Ryan, American poet and educator Kay Ryan is an American poet and educator. She has published seven volumes of poetry and an anthology of selected and new poems. From 2008 to 2010 she was the sixteenth United States Poet Laureate. In 2011 she was named a MacArthur Fellow and she won the Pulitzer Prize. Read more
• 21 Sep 1944: Steve Beshear, American lawyer and politician, 61st Governor of Kentucky Steven Lynn Beshear is an American attorney and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 61st governor of Kentucky from 2007 to 2015. He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1974 to 1980, was the state's 44th attorney general from 1980 to 1983, and was the 49th lieutenant governor from 1983 to 1987. Read more
• 21 Sep 1944: Marcus Binney, English historian and author Marcus Hugh Crofton Binney is a British architectural historian and author. He is best known for his conservation work regarding Britain's heritage. Read more
• 21 Sep 1944: Fannie Flagg, American actress, comedian, and author Fannie Flagg is an American actress, comedian, and author. She is most notable as a frequent panelist on the 1973–1982 versions of the game show Match Game and for her 1987 novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, which she adapted into the script for the 1991 motion picture Fried Green Tomatoes. She was nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay adaptation. Flagg lives in California and Alabama. Read more
• 21 Sep 1944: Hamilton Jordan, American politician, 8th White House Chief of Staff (died 2008) William Hamilton McWhorter Jordan was an American politician who served as Chief of Staff to President of the United States Jimmy Carter. Read more
• 21 Sep 1944: Bobby Tench, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2024) Robert Tench was a British singer, guitarist, sideman, songwriter and arranger. Read more
• 21 Sep 1943: David Hood, American session bassist and trombone player David Hood is an American musician, hailing from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, He is known for playing the bass guitar and trombone, and is a member of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. Read more
• 21 Sep 1943: Jerry Bruckheimer, American film and television producer Jerome Leonard Bruckheimer is an American film and television producer. He has been active in the genres of action, drama, comedy, fantasy, horror and science fiction. After working in advertising out of college, Bruckheimer moved into film production in the 1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s, he partnered with fellow producer Don Simpson. Bruckheimer and Simpson's partnership continued until Simpson's death in 1996. Bruckheimer has produced films including Flashdance, Days of Thunder, The Rock, Crimson Tide, Dangerous Minds, Con Air, Armageddon, Enemy of the State, Pearl Harbor, Black Hawk Down, as well as the Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun, Bad Boys, Pirates of the Caribbean and National Treasure franchises. Read more
• 21 Sep 1942: Sam McDowell, American baseball player Samuel Edward Thomas McDowell is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a starting pitcher from 1961 to 1975, most notably for the Cleveland Indians. A six-time All-Star, McDowell led the American League in strikeouts five times. Tall and powerful, his left-handed fastball was delivered with an unusually calm pitching motion which led to his memorable nickname, "Sudden Sam". Read more
• 21 Sep 1941: Jack Brisco, American wrestler and manager (died 2010) Freddie Joe "Jack" Brisco was an American amateur wrestler and professional wrestler. As an amateur for Oklahoma State, Brisco was two-time All-American and won the NCAA Division I national championship. He turned pro shortly after and performed for various territories of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), becoming a two-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, and multi-time NWA World Tag Team Champion with his brother Gerald Brisco. Read more
• 21 Sep 1941: R. James Woolsey, Jr., American scholar and diplomat, 16th Director of Central Intelligence Robert James Woolsey Jr. was an American lawyer who served in various senior government positions. He headed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as Director of Central Intelligence from February 5, 1993, until January 10, 1995. He held a variety of government positions in the 1970s and 1980s, including as United States Under Secretary of the Navy from 1977 to 1979, and was involved in treaty negotiations with the Soviet Union for five years in the 1980s. His career also included time as a professional lawyer, venture capitalist, and investor in the private sector. Read more
• 21 Sep 1940: Ron Fenton, English footballer, coach, and manager (died 2013) Ronald Fenton was an English football player, coach and manager. He played as an inside forward and made nearly 200 appearances in the Football League. Read more
• 21 Sep 1940: Hermann Knoflacher, Austrian engineer and academic Hermann Knoflacher is an Austrian civil engineer. He was the head of the Institute for Transport Planning and Technology at the Vienna University of Technology. Read more
• 21 Sep 1940: Bill Kurtis, American journalist and producer Bill Kurtis is a retired American television journalist, television producer, narrator, and news anchor. Read more
• 21 Sep 1939: Agnivesh, Indian philosopher, academic, and politician (died 2020) Swami Agnivesh, was an Indian social activist and the founder of Arya Sabha, a political party based on the principles of Arya Samaj. He also served as a cabinet minister in the state of Haryana. He is best known for his work against bonded labour through the Bonded Labour Liberation Front, which he founded in 1981. Read more
• 21 Sep 1938: Doug Moe, American basketball player and coach (died 2026) Douglas Edwin Moe was an American professional basketball player and coach. A star small forward playing college basketball for the North Carolina Tar Heels, Moe was a two-time All-American but was accused of point shaving. He was cleared of fixing games, but was kicked out of school and blackballed from the National Basketball Association (NBA). Moe played professionally in the Italian league Lega Basket Serie A in 1965 before signing on with the upstart American Basketball Association (ABA) with the New Orleans Buccaneers in 1967, where he played with his former college teammate Larry Brown. Moe played five seasons for four teams while being named an ABA All-Star three times and winning the ABA championship in 1969 with the Oakland Oaks. Read more
• 21 Sep 1938: Olu Falae, Nigerian politician and government official Chief Samuel Oluyemisi Falae, is a Nigerian banker, administrator and politician who was secretary to the military government of Ibrahim Babangida from January 1986 to December 1990, and briefly the Finance Minister in 1990. He ran for president in Nigeria's Third and Fourth Republics. Read more
• 21 Sep 1937: John D'Amico, Canadian ice hockey player and referee (died 2005) John David D'Amico was a Canadian National Hockey League (NHL) linesman and later supervisor of officials. Read more
• 21 Sep 1936: Ian Albery, English manager and producer Ian Bronson Albery is an English theatre consultant, manager, and producer. He is a former chief executive of Sadler's Wells Theatre (1994-2002), and was in charge of the Donmar Warehouse from 1961 to 1989. Read more
• 21 Sep 1936: Dickey Lee, American pop-country singer-songwriter and guitarist Royden Dickey Lipscomb, known professionally as Dickey Lee, is an American pop/country singer and songwriter, best known for the 1960s teenage tragedy songs "Patches" and "Laurie ". He also has a number of hit songs on the country charts in the 1970s, including "Rocky" and "9,999,999 Tears", and has written or co-written songs recorded by other singers, such as "She Thinks I Still Care", "The Door Is Always Open" and "The Keeper of the Stars". Read more
• 21 Sep 1936: Yury Luzhkov, Russian soldier and politician, 2nd Mayor of Moscow (died 2019) Yury Mikhailovich Luzhkov was a Russian politician who served as mayor of Moscow from 1992 to 2010. Before the election of Gavriil Popov as the first mayor of Moscow, he also headed the capital in 1990–1991 as chairman of the Mosgorispolkom. He was the vice-chairman and one of the founders of the ruling United Russia party. During Luzhkov's time, Moscow's economy expanded and he presided over large construction projects in the city, including the building of a new financial district. At the same time, he was accused of corruption, bulldozing historic buildings, and poor handling of traffic, as well as the city's smog crisis during the 2010 Russian wildfires. On 28 September 2010, Luzhkov was fired from his post by a decree issued by then-President Dmitry Medvedev. Read more
• 21 Sep 1936: Diane Rehm, American journalist and radio host Diane Rehm is an American journalist. She is best known as the former host of The Diane Rehm Show, a public radio talk show produced from 1979 to 2016 by WAMU in Washington, D.C. An advocate for the right to die, Rehm has written a book and co-produced a PBS documentary about end-of-life care and the right-to-die movement titled When My Time Comes. Read more
• 21 Sep 1935: Jimmy Armfield, English footballer and manager (died 2018) James Christopher Armfield was an English professional football player and manager. He played the whole of his Football League career at Blackpool, usually at right-back. Between 1954 and 1971, he played 627 games in all competitions, scored six goals, and spent a decade as the club's captain. He also represented the England national team 43 times between 1959 and 1966, and captained them in fifteen games. He was a member of England's 1966 World Cup-winning squad. After retiring from playing, Armfield managed Bolton Wanderers and Leeds United, leading the latter to the 1975 European Cup final. Read more
• 21 Sep 1935: Henry Gibson, American actor (died 2009) James Bateman, known professionally as Henry Gibson, was an American actor, comedian and poet. He played roles in the television sketch-comedy series Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In from 1968 to 1971, was the voice of the protagonist Wilbur in the animated feature Charlotte's Web (1973), portrayed country star Haven Hamilton in Robert Altman's film Nashville (1975), the Illinois Nazi leader in The Blues Brothers (1980), and appeared in The 'Burbs (1989). His later film roles included starring in The Luck of the Irish (2001) and smaller parts as Thurston Howell in Magnolia (1999) and as Father O'Neil in Wedding Crashers (2005). His final major acting role was as Judge Clark Brown on the television show Boston Legal, from 2004 to 2008. Read more
• 21 Sep 1934: Leonard Cohen, Canadian singer-songwriter and poet (died 2016) Leonard Norman Cohen was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, social and political conflict, sexual and romantic love, desire, regret, and loss. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour. In 2011, he received one of the Prince of Asturias Awards for literature and the ninth Glenn Gould Prize. In 2023, Rolling Stone magazine named Cohen the 103rd-greatest singer of all time. Read more
• 21 Sep 1934: María Rubio, Mexican actress (died 2018) María Rubio was a Mexican actress. She worked with Televisa on many telenovelas. She appeared as the villain Catalina Creel in the 1986–87 telenovela, Cuna de lobos. Read more
• 21 Sep 1933: Allan Jeans, Australian footballer and coach (died 2011) Allan Lindsay Jeans was an Australian rules footballer and coach. He was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame at its inception in 1996. Jeans was known for his oratory and motivation skills as a coach and led St Kilda and Hawthorn to a total of four premierships. Read more
• 21 Sep 1933: Dick Simon, American race car driver Richard Raymond Simon is an American former auto racing driver and racing team owner. Simon drove Indy cars in USAC and CART, and made 17 starts at the Indianapolis 500. At the 1988 Indianapolis 500, Simon set a record as the oldest driver in Indy 500 history, a record that was later broken by A. J. Foyt. Read more
• 21 Sep 1932: Shirley Conran, English journalist and author (died 2024) Dame Shirley Ida Conran was an English author, designer, journalist, and social entrepreneur. Read more
• 21 Sep 1932: Marjorie Fletcher, English Director of the Women's Royal Naval Service (died 2008) Commandant Marjorie Fletcher CBE served as Director of the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) between 1986 and 1988. Read more
• 21 Sep 1932: Don Preston, American keyboard player and composer Donald Ward Preston is an American jazz and rock keyboardist. He is best known for being a member of the original version of Frank Zappa's band The Mothers of Invention during the late 1960s. He continued to work with Zappa during the early 1970s following the band's split. Read more
• 21 Sep 1931: Larry Hagman, American actor, director, and producer (died 2012) Larry Martin Hagman was an American actor, best known for playing ruthless oil baron J. R. Ewing in the 1978–1991 primetime television soap opera Dallas, and the handsome astronaut Major Anthony Nelson in the 1965–1970 sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. Hagman had supporting roles in numerous films, including Fail-Safe, Harry and Tonto, S.O.B., Nixon, and Primary Colors. His television appearances also included guest roles on dozens of shows spanning from the late 1950s until his death, and a reprise of his signature role on the 2012 revival of Dallas. Hagman also worked as a television producer and director. He was the son of actress Mary Martin. Hagman underwent a life-saving liver transplant in 1995. He died in 2012 from complications of acute myeloid leukemia. Read more
• 21 Sep 1930: John Morgan, Welsh-Canadian actor and screenwriter (died 2004) John Morgan was a Welsh-born Canadian comedian. Read more
• 21 Sep 1930: Bob Stokoe, English footballer and manager (died 2004) Robert Stokoe was an English footballer and manager who was able, almost uniquely, to transcend the traditional north-east animosity between the region's footballing rivals, Newcastle United and Sunderland. As a player, he won an FA Cup winner's medal with Newcastle in 1955. As a manager, he guided Blackpool to victory in the 1971 Anglo-Italian Cup final. Two years later, he led Sunderland to success in the 1973 FA Cup final, and followed it up with promotion from the Second Division in 1975–76. Read more
• 21 Sep 1929: Sándor Kocsis, Hungarian footballer and manager (died 1979) Sándor Péter Kocsis was a Hungarian footballer who played for Ferencvárosi TC, Budapest Honvéd, Young Fellows Zürich, FC Barcelona and Hungary as a striker. During the 1950s, along with Ferenc Puskás, Zoltán Czibor, József Bozsik and Nándor Hidegkuti, he was a member of the Mighty Magyars. After the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, he moved to Spain where he became a member of the FC Barcelona team of the late 1950s. Read more
• 21 Sep 1929: Edgar Valter, Estonian author and illustrator (died 2006) Edgar Valter was an Estonian graphic artist, caricaturist, writer and illustrator of children's books, with over 250 books to his name, through 55 years of activity (1950–2005). His most famous work is Pokuraamat. Read more
• 21 Sep 1929: Bernard Williams, English-Italian philosopher and academic (died 2003) Sir Bernard Arthur Owen Williams was an English philosopher. His publications include Problems of the Self (1973), Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy (1985), Shame and Necessity (1993), and Truth and Truthfulness (2002). He was knighted in 1999. Read more
• 21 Sep 1926: Don Dunstan, Fijian-Australian lawyer and politician, 35th Premier of South Australia (died 1999) Donald Allan Dunstan was an Australian politician who served as the 35th premier of South Australia from 1967 to 1968, and again from 1970 to 1979. He was a member of the House of Assembly (MHA) for the division of Norwood from 1953 to 1979, and leader of the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party from 1967 to 1979. Before becoming premier, Dunstan served as the 38th attorney-general of South Australia and the treasurer of South Australia. He is the fourth longest serving premier in South Australian history. Read more
• 21 Sep 1926: Donald A. Glaser, American physicist and neurobiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2013) Donald Arthur Glaser was an American physicist and biologist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1960 for his invention of the bubble chamber. Read more
• 21 Sep 1926: Fereydoon Moshiri, Iranian poet and critic (died 2000) Fereydoon Moshiri was one of the prominent contemporary Persian poets who wrote poems in both modern and classic styles of the Persian poem. Read more
• 21 Sep 1924: Hermann Buhl, Austrian mountaineer (died 1957) Hermann Buhl was an Austrian mountaineer. His accomplishments include the first ascents of Nanga Parbat in 1953 and Broad Peak in 1957. He was one of the pioneers of the alpine style. Buhl was the father of Austrian–German writer, publisher, and freelance journalist, Kriemhild "Krimi" Buhl. Read more
• 21 Sep 1923: Fred Hunt, British jazz pianist (died 1986) Herbert Frederick Hunt was an English jazz pianist. Read more
• 21 Sep 1921: John McHale, American baseball player and manager (died 2008) John Joseph McHale was an American professional baseball player and executive. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a first baseman for the Detroit Tigers during the 1940s, and later served as the general manager of the Tigers, Milwaukee / Atlanta Braves, and Montreal Expos. He was the first president and executive director of the Expos during their maiden years in the National League, and owned ten percent of the team. His son John McHale Jr. became an MLB executive vice president. Read more
• 21 Sep 1920: Kenneth McAlpine, British race car driver (died 2023) Kenneth McAlpine was a British racing driver from England. Read more
• 21 Sep 1919: Mario Bunge, Argentinian-Canadian physicist and philosopher (died 2020) Mario Augusto Bunge was an Argentine-Canadian philosopher and physicist. His philosophical writings combined scientific realism, systemism, materialism, emergentism, and other principles. Read more
• 21 Sep 1919: Herman Fowlkes, Jr., American trumpet player and educator (died 1993) Herman Fowlkes Jr. was an American jazz musician and educator from Chicago, Illinois. Read more
• 21 Sep 1919: Fazlur Rahman Malik, Pakistani philosopher and scholar (died 1988) Fazlur Rahman Malik, commonly known as Fazlur Rahman, was a modernist scholar and Islamic philosopher from present-day Pakistan. Recognized as a leading liberal reformer within Islam, he focused on educational reform and promoting independent reasoning (ijtihad). His work has attracted both significant interest and criticism in Muslim-majority countries. His reformist ideas led to protests by over a thousand clerics, faqihs, muftis, and teachers in Pakistan, ultimately resulting in him leaving Pakistan. Read more
• 21 Sep 1918: John Gofman, American physicist, chemist, and biologist (died 2007) John William Gofman was an American scientist and advocate. He was professor emeritus of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California at Berkeley. Read more
• 21 Sep 1918: Karl Slover, American actor (died 2011) Karl Slover was a Slovak-born American actor best known as one of the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz (1939). Only three other adult Munchkin performers remained alive at the time of Slover's death. Read more
• 21 Sep 1918: Juan José Arreola, Mexican writer and academic (died 2001) Juan José Arreola Zúñiga was a Mexican writer, academic, and actor. He is considered Mexico's premier experimental short story writer of the 20th century. Arreola is recognized as one of the first Latin American writers to abandon realism; he used elements of fantasy to underscore existentialist and absurdist ideas in his work. Although he is little known outside Mexico, Arreola has served as the literary inspiration for a legion of Mexican writers who have sought to transform their country's realistic literary tradition by introducing elements of magical realism, satire, and allegory. Alongside Jorge Luis Borges, he is considered one of the masters of the hybrid subgenre of the essay-story. Arreola is primarily known for his short stories and he only published one novel, La feria. Read more
• 21 Sep 1917: Phyllis Nicolson, English mathematician and academic (died 1968) Phyllis Nicolson was a British mathematician and physicist best known for her work on the Crank–Nicolson method together with John Crank. Read more
• 21 Sep 1916: Françoise Giroud, Swiss-French journalist and politician, French Minister of Culture (died 2003) Françoise Giroud was a French journalist, screenwriter, writer, and politician. Read more
• 21 Sep 1912: Chuck Jones, American animator, producer, and screenwriter (died 2002) Charles Martin Jones was an American animator, filmmaker, painter, and voice actor, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of shorts. He wrote, produced, and/or directed many classic animated cartoon shorts starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, Pepé Le Pew, Marvin the Martian, and Porky Pig, among others. Read more
• 21 Sep 1912: György Sándor, Hungarian pianist and composer (died 2005) György Sándor was a Hungarian pianist and writer. Read more
• 21 Sep 1910: Meinrad Schütter, Swiss composer (died 2006) Meinrad Schütter was a Swiss composer. Read more
• 21 Sep 1909: Kwame Nkrumah, Ghanaian educator and politician, 1st President of Ghana (died 1972) Kwame Nkrumah was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He served as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast from 1952 until 1957, when it gained independence from the United Kingdom. He was then the first prime minister and then the president of Ghana, from 1957 until 1966. An influential advocate of Pan-Africanism, Nkrumah was a founding member of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and winner of the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union in 1962. Read more
• 21 Sep 1906: Henry Beachell, American biologist and botanist (died 2006) Henry Monroe "Hank" Beachell was an American plant breeder. His research led to the development of hybrid rice cultivars that saved millions of people around the world from starvation. Read more
• 21 Sep 1905: Robert Lebel, Canadian businessman and politician (died 1999) Robert Lebel or LeBel was a Canadian ice hockey administrator, who served as president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA), and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). Lebel founded a senior ice hockey league during World War II, and then became president of the Quebec Amateur Hockey Association (QAHA). He was a mayor of Chambly, Quebec, before joining the CAHA as an executive member and later its president. He was president of the IIHF during the early Cold War era, the last Canadian to lead the federation. He later founded the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League for junior ice hockey players. He received the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal, was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, the IIHF Hall of Fame, three halls of fame in his native Quebec, and is the namesake of the Robert Lebel Trophy. Read more
• 21 Sep 1904: Hans Hartung, German-French painter (died 1989) Hans Hartung was a German-French painter, known for his gestural abstract style. He was also a decorated World War II veteran of the Legion d'honneur. Read more
• 21 Sep 1903: Preston Tucker, American engineer and businessman, designed the Tucker Sedan (died 1956) Preston Thomas Tucker was an American automobile entrepreneur who developed the innovative Tucker 48 sedan, initially nicknamed the "Tucker Torpedo", an automobile which introduced many features that have since become widely used in modern cars. Read more
• 21 Sep 1902: Luis Cernuda, Spanish poet and critic (died 1963) Luis Cernuda Bidón was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27. During the Spanish Civil War, in early 1938, he went to the UK to deliver some lectures and this became the start of an exile that lasted till the end of his life. He taught in the universities of Glasgow and Cambridge before moving in 1947 to the US. In the 1950s he moved to Mexico. While he continued to write poetry, he also published wide-ranging books of critical essays, covering French, English and German as well as Spanish literature. He was frank about his homosexuality at a time when this was problematic and became something of a role model for this in Spain. His collected poems were published under the title La realidad y el deseo. Read more
• 21 Sep 1902: Allen Lane, English publisher, founded Penguin Books (died 1970) Sir Allen Lane was a British publisher who together with his brothers Richard and John Lane founded Penguin Books in 1935, bringing high-quality paperback fiction and non-fiction to the mass market. Read more
• 21 Sep 1902: Howie Morenz, Canadian ice hockey player (died 1937) Howard William Morenz was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Beginning in 1923, he played centre for three National Hockey League (NHL) teams: the Montreal Canadiens, the Chicago Black Hawks, and the New York Rangers. Before joining the NHL, Morenz excelled in the junior Ontario Hockey Association, where his team played for the Memorial Cup, the championship for junior ice hockey in Canada. In the NHL, he was one of the most dominant players in the league and set several league scoring records. A strong skater, Morenz was referred to as the "Stratford Streak" and "Mitchell Meteor" in reference to his speed on the ice. Read more
• 21 Sep 1899: Frederick Coutts, Scottish 8th General of The Salvation Army (died 1986) Frederick Coutts, CBE was the eighth General of The Salvation Army (1963–1969). Read more
• 21 Sep 1898: Frances Mary Albrier, American civil rights activist (died 1987) Frances Mary Albrier was an American civil rights activist and community leader. Read more
• 21 Sep 1894: Anton Piëch, Austrian lawyer and businessman (died 1952) Anton Piëch was an Austrian-German lawyer and the son-in-law of Ferdinand Porsche. He headed Volkswagenwerk GmbH between 1941 and 1945, which produced the Volkswagen vehicles (KdF-Wagen) at the factory in Wolfsburg, Germany. Read more
• 21 Sep 1893: Erna Scheffler, German lawyer and justice of the Federal Constitutional Court (died 1983) Erna Scheffler was a German senior judge. Read more
• 21 Sep 1890: Max Immelmann, German lieutenant and pilot (died 1916) Max Immelmann PLM was a German World War I flying ace. He was a pioneer in fighter aviation and is often mistakenly credited with the first aerial victory using a synchronized gun, which was in fact achieved on 1 July 1915 by the German ace Kurt Wintgens. Immelmann was the first aviator to receive the Pour le Mérite, colloquially known as the "Blue Max" in his honour, being awarded it at the same time as Oswald Boelcke. His name has become attached to a common flying tactic, the Immelmann turn, and remains a byword in aviation. He is credited with 15 aerial victories. Read more
• 21 Sep 1890: Charles William Train, English sergeant, Victoria Cross recipient (died 1965) Sergeant Charles William Train VC was a British Army soldier and an English-born recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest British honour awarded for gallantry in the presence of the enemy. It was awarded in the First World War to British and Dominion forces and the Indian Army. Read more
• 21 Sep 1884: Dénes Kőnig, Hungarian mathematician and theorist (died 1944) Dénes Kőnig was a Hungarian mathematician of Hungarian Jewish heritage who worked in and wrote the first textbook on the field of graph theory. Read more
• 21 Sep 1882: Geevarghese Ivanios, Indian metropolitan (died 1953) Panikkervettil Thomas Panicker Geevarghese, known formally as Geevarghese Mar Ivanios, was the first metropolitan archbishop and founder of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. He was a key figure in the Malankara Reunion Movement, which sought to reunite the Malankara Church with the Catholic Church, culminating in his joining the Catholic Church in 1930 along with a group of followers. Read more
• 21 Sep 1878: Peter McWilliam, Scottish-English footballer and manager (died 1951) Peter McWilliam was a Scottish footballer who played at left-half for Inverness Thistle, Newcastle United and Scotland. He won every domestic trophy during his nine years with Newcastle United. Read more
• 21 Sep 1874: Gustav Holst, English composer and educator (died 1934) Gustav Holst was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite The Planets, he composed many other works across a range of genres, although none achieved comparable success. His distinctive compositional style was the product of many influences, Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss being most crucial early in his development. The subsequent inspiration of the English folksong revival of the early 20th century, and the example of such rising modern composers as Maurice Ravel, led Holst to develop and refine an individual style. Read more
• 21 Sep 1873: Papa Jack Laine, American drummer and bandleader (died 1966) George Vitelle "Papa Jack" Laine was an American musician and a pioneering band leader in New Orleans in the years from the Spanish–American War to World War I. He was often credited for training many musicians who would later become successful in jazz music. Read more
• 21 Sep 1872: Henry Tingle Wilde, English chief officer on the RMS Titanic (died 1912) Lieutenant Henry Tingle Wilde was a British Merchant Navy officer who was the chief officer of the RMS Titanic during her ill-fated maiden voyage. Wilde died during the sinking, alongside 1,500 others. Read more
• 21 Sep 1867: Charles Bathurst, 1st Viscount Bledisloe, English politician, 4th Governor-General of New Zealand (died 1958) Charles Bathurst, 1st Viscount Bledisloe, was a British landowner, barrister, Conservative politician and government minister, and colonial governor. He was Governor-General of New Zealand from 1930 to 1935. Read more
• 21 Sep 1867: Henry L. Stimson, American colonel, lawyer, and politician, 46th United States Secretary of State (died 1950) Henry Lewis Stimson was an American statesman, lawyer, and politician. Over his long career, he emerged as a leading figure in U.S. foreign policy by serving in both Republican and Democratic administrations. He served as Secretary of War (1911–1913) under President William Howard Taft, Secretary of State (1929–1933) under President Herbert Hoover, and again Secretary of War (1940–1945) under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, overseeing American military efforts during World War II. Read more
• 21 Sep 1866: Charles Nicolle, French-Tunisian microbiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1936) Charles Jules Henri Nicolle was a French bacteriologist who received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his identification of lice as the transmitter of epidemic typhus. Read more
• 21 Sep 1866: H. G. Wells, English novelist, historian, and critic (died 1946) Herbert George Wells was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than forty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, history, popular science, satire, biography, and autobiography. Wells is most known today for his groundbreaking science fiction novels; he has sometimes been called the "father of science fiction", a title that has also been given to Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback. Read more
• 21 Sep 1863: John Bunny, American actor (died 1915) John Bunny was an American actor. Bunny began his career as a stage actor, but transitioned to a film career after joining Vitagraph Studios around 1910. At Vitagraph, Bunny made over 150 short films – many of them domestic comedies with the comedian Flora Finch – and became one of the most well-known actors of his era. Read more
• 21 Sep 1862: James E. Talmage, English-American religious leader and author (died 1933) James Edward Talmage was an English chemist, geologist, and religious leader who served as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1911 until his death. Read more
• 21 Sep 1859: Francesc Macià, Catalan colonel and politician, 122nd President of Catalonia (died 1933) Francesc Macià i Llussà was a Catalan politician who served as the 122nd president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, and formerly an officer in the Spanish Army. Read more
• 21 Sep 1853: Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1926) Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was a Dutch experimental physicist who became the first to liquefy helium, cooling it to near 1.5 kelvin (K). For this work, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1913. Read more
• 21 Sep 1851: Fanny Searls, American biologist (died 1939) Fanny Searls, also known by her married name Fanny Gradle, was an American physician and botanical collector. Dalea searlsiae, Searls' prairie clover, is named after her. Born in Waukegan, Illinois, she attended Northwestern University and the University of Michigan, gaining her medical degree in 1877. She then worked at Bellevue Hospital as a student nurse as there were few opportunities for women to gain medical internships at the time. In the meantime, she had developed skills as a concert pianist and a collector of botanical and geological specimens. In the last capacity, she donated a collection of 215 specimens gathered in Nevada to Northwestern University, including the first subsequently named Searls' prairie clover. She moved to Santa Barbara, dying there in 1939. Read more
• 21 Sep 1849: Maurice Barrymore, American actor (died 1905) Herbert Arthur Chamberlayne Blyth, known professionally by his stage name Maurice Barrymore, was an Indian-born British stage actor. He is the patriarch of the Barrymore acting family, and the father of John, Lionel, and Ethel. Read more
• 21 Sep 1846: Mihály Kolossa, Hungarian-Slovene author and poet (died 1906) Mihály Kolossa was a Slovene ploughman and writer in Hungary. Read more
• 21 Sep 1842: Abdul Hamid II, 34th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (died 1918) Abdülhamid II or Abdul Hamid II was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1876 to 1909, and the last sultan to exert effective control over the fracturing state. He oversaw a period of decline with rebellions, and presided over an unsuccessful war with the Russian Empire (1877–78), the loss of Egypt, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Tunisia, and Thessaly from Ottoman control (1877–1882), followed by a successful war against Greece in 1897, though Ottoman gains were tempered by subsequent Western European intervention. Read more
• 21 Sep 1840: Murad V, Ottoman sultan (died 1904) Murad V was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 30 May to 31 August 1876. The son of Abdulmejid I, he supported the conversion of the government to a constitutional monarchy. His uncle Abdulaziz had succeeded Abdulmejid to the throne and had attempted to name his own son as heir to the throne, which spurred Murad to participate in Abdulaziz's overthrow. But his own frail physical and mental health made his reign unstable, and Murad V was deposed in favor of his half-brother Abdul Hamid II after only 93 days. Read more
• 21 Sep 1819: Princess Louise Marie Thérèse of Artois (died 1864) Louise Marie Thérèse d'Artois was a duchess and later a regent of Parma. She was the eldest daughter of Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry, younger son of King Charles X of France, and Princess Caroline of Naples and Sicily. She served as regent of Parma during the minority of her son from 1854 until 1859. Read more

Notable Deaths on 21 September

• 21 Sep 2024: Raquel Blandón, Guatemalan lawyer and activist, First Lady of Guatemala (born 1943) Haydee Raquel Blandón Sandoval was a Guatemalan lawyer, activist, and political leader who served as the first lady of Guatemala from 1986 to 1991, as the wife of President Vinicio Cerezo. She was the nominee for the Renewed Democratic Liberty party for vice president of Guatemala in the 2011 election as Manuel Baldizón's running mate. Read more
• 21 Sep 2024: Benny Golson, American saxophonist and composer (born 1929) Benny Golson was an American bebop and hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He came to prominence with the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie, more as a writer than a performer, before launching his solo career. Golson was known for co-founding and co-leading The Jazztet with trumpeter Art Farmer in 1959. From the late 1960s through the 1970s Golson was in demand as an arranger for film and television and thus was less active as a performer, but he and Farmer re-formed the Jazztet in 1982. Read more
• 21 Sep 2024: Eddie Low, New Zealand country singer and musician (born 1943) Edward Robert Low was a New Zealand country singer and musician, with a career spanning over 60 years. Low released a number of successful country albums and singles throughout the 1970s and 80s and performed in a number of groups since the 1960s including The Quin Tikis and the New Zealand Highwaymen. Low continued to record and release music throughout his life, enjoying a second wave of success in the 2010s after releasing his career overview album The Voice In A Million (2011) which went platinum. He was awarded Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to music in the 2006 Queen's Birthday Honours. Read more
• 21 Sep 2024: Mercury Morris, American football player (born 1947) Eugene Edward "Mercury" Morris was an American professional football player who was a running back and kick returner. He played for eight years, primarily for the Miami Dolphins in the American Football League (AFL) first as a rookie in 1969. Then he played in the American Football Conference (AFC) after the 1970 merger with the National Football League (NFL). Read more
• 21 Sep 2023: Walewska Oliveira, Brazilian volleyball player and Olympic champion (born 1979) Walewska Moreira de Oliveira was a Brazilian volleyball player in three consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 2000. She won a bronze medal with the women's national team in Sydney, Australia, and a gold medal in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Walewska also claimed the gold medal at the 1999 Pan American Games. Read more
• 21 Sep 2022: Raju Srivastav, Indian comedian, actor and politician (born 1963) Satya Prakash Srivastav, known professionally as Raju Srivastav and often credited as Gajodhar, was an Indian comedian, actor and politician. He was born in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, and moved to Mumbai in the 1980s to work in the Hindi film industry. He acted in Baazigar, Bombay to Goa, Aamdani Atthanni Kharcha Rupaiya among others. He contested in the comedy show The Great Indian Laughter Challenge and became the runner-up. He won the title of "The King of Comedy" in its spin-off show The Great Indian Laughter Challenge – Champions. He did many stand-up comedy live shows. Read more
• 21 Sep 2021: Willie Garson, American actor (born 1964) William Garson Paszamant was an American actor. He appeared in over 75 films and more than 300 TV episodes. He was known for playing Stanford Blatch on the series Sex and the City, in the related films Sex and the City and Sex and the City 2 and in the spin-off And Just Like That…, Mozzie in the series White Collar from 2009 to 2014, Ralph in the 2005 romantic comedy Little Manhattan, Gerard Hirsch in the reboot of Hawaii Five-0, and Martin Lloyd in the sci-fi series Stargate SG-1. Read more
• 21 Sep 2020: Arthur Ashkin, American scientist and Nobel laureate (born 1922) Arthur Ashkin was an American scientist and Nobel laureate who worked at Bell Labs. Ashkin has been considered by many as the father of optical tweezers,
  for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 at age 96, becoming the oldest Nobel laureate until 2019 when John B. Goodenough was awarded at 97. He resided in Rumson, New Jersey. Read more
• 21 Sep 2018: Trần Đại Quang, President of Vietnam (born 1956) Trần Đại Quang was a Vietnamese politician and former police general who served as the ninth president of Vietnam from 2016 until his death in 2018. After serving for five years as the Minister of Public Security from 2011 to 2016, Quang was nominated by his predecessor Trương Tấn Sang to the presidency and was elected to the post by the National Assembly of Vietnam on 2 April 2016. He was one of the country's top leaders and ranked second in the Politburo behind Nguyễn Phú Trọng, the General Secretary of the Communist Party. Read more
• 21 Sep 2018: Vitaliy Masol, Ukrainian Former Prime Minister (born 1928) Vitaliy Andriyovych Masol was a Soviet-Ukrainian politician who served as leader of the Ukrainian government on two occasions. He held various posts in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, most notably the Head of the Council of Ministers, which is the equivalent of today's Prime Minister, from 1987 until late 1990, when he was forced to resign. He was later Prime Minister of Ukraine, confirmed in that post on 16 June 1994. He resigned from that post on 1 March 1995. Read more
• 21 Sep 2015: Yoram Gross, Polish-Australian director and producer (born 1926) Yoram Jerzy Gross was a Polish-Australian filmmaker. He founded the animation studio Flying Bark Productions. Read more
• 21 Sep 2015: Ray Warleigh, Australian-English saxophonist and flute player (born 1938) Raymond Kenneth Warleigh was an Australian alto saxophonist and flautist. Read more
• 21 Sep 2015: Richard Williamson, American footballer and coach (born 1941) Richard Williamson was an American football player and coach. He was the head football coach at Memphis State University—now known as the University of Memphis—from 1975 to 1980. Williamson served as the head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL) from 1990 to 1991. Read more
• 21 Sep 2014: Michael Harari, Israeli intelligence officer (born 1927) Michael Harari was an Israeli intelligence officer in the Mossad. He was notably involved in the Lillehammer affair, an attempted revenge killing following the Munich massacre that instead resulted in the murder of an innocent individual in a case of mistaken identity. He was later involved in Operation Entebbe. Read more
• 21 Sep 2014: Caldwell Jones, American basketball player and coach (born 1950) Caldwell "Pops" Jones Jr. was an American professional basketball player. Read more
• 21 Sep 2014: Sheldon Patinkin, American director and playwright (born 1935) Sheldon Arthur Patinkin was a chair of the Theater Department of Columbia College Chicago, artistic director of the Getz Theater of Columbia College, Artistic Consultant of The Second City and of Steppenwolf Theatre and co-director of the Steppenwolf Theatre Summer Ensemble Workshops. Read more
• 21 Sep 2013: Kofi Awoonor, Ghanaian author, poet, and diplomat (born 1935) Kofi Awoonor was a Ghanaian poet, author and diplomat. His work combined the poetic traditions of his native Ewe people with contemporary and religious symbolism to depict Africa during decolonization. He started writing under the name George Awoonor-Williams, and was also published as Kofi Nyidevu Awoonor. He taught African literature at the University of Ghana. Professor Awoonor was among those who were killed in the September 2013 attack at Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, where he was a participant at the Storymoja Hay Festival. Read more
• 21 Sep 2013: Michel Brault, Canadian director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1928) Michel Brault, OQ was a Canadian cinematographer, cameraman, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He was a leading figure of direct cinema, characteristic of the French branch of the National Film Board of Canada in the 1960s. Brault was a pioneer of the hand-held camera aesthetic. Read more
• 21 Sep 2013: Harl H. Haas, Jr., American lawyer, jurist, and politician (born 1932) Harl H. Haas Jr. was an American politician and jurist in Oregon. A native of Missouri, he served in both chambers of the Oregon Legislative Assembly as a Democrat before serving as a district attorney and Oregon Circuit Courts judge. Read more
• 21 Sep 2013: Walter Wallmann, German lawyer and politician, Minister-President of Hesse (born 1932) Walter Wallmann was a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as the Mayor of Frankfurt between 1977 and 1986, and as Minister-president of Hesse from 1987 to 1991. Read more
• 21 Sep 2013: Ko Wierenga, Dutch lawyer and politician (born 1933) Heiko "Ko" Wierenga was a Dutch politician and member of the Labour Party (PvdA). He served as the Mayor of the municipality of Enschede from September 1977 until April 1994. Under Wierenga, artwork by Joop Hekman, called Het ei van Ko, was installed near Enschede's town hall in 1984. Read more
• 21 Sep 2012: José Curbelo, Cuban-American pianist and manager (born 1917) José Curbelo was a Cuban-born American pianist and manager. Curbelo was a key figure in Latin jazz in New York City in the 1940s and helped to popularize Mambo and the cha cha dance in the 1950s. Read more
• 21 Sep 2012: Yehuda Elkana, Israeli historian and philosopher (born 1934) Yehuda Elkana was a historian and philosopher of science, and a former President and Rector of the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. Read more
• 21 Sep 2012: Sven Hassel, Danish-German soldier and author (born 1917) Sven Hassel was the pen name of the Danish-born Børge Willy Redsted Pedersen known for his bestselling novels about German soldiers fighting in World War II. In Denmark he used the pen name Sven Hazel. He is one of the bestselling Danish authors, possibly second only to Hans Christian Andersen. Read more
• 21 Sep 2012: Bill King, English commander, sailor, and author (born 1910) Commander William Donald Aelian King, DSO & Bar, DSC was a British naval officer, yachtsman and author. He was the oldest participant in the first solo non-stop, around-the-world yacht race, the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, and the only person to command a British submarine on both the first and last days of World War II. Read more
• 21 Sep 2012: Tom Umphlett, American baseball player and manager (born 1930) Thomas Mullen Umphlett was an American center and right fielder in Major League Baseball who played from 1953 to 1955 with the Boston Red Sox and Washington Senators. His 21-year professional baseball career as a player and manager lasted from 1950 through 1970. He batted and threw right-handed and was listed as 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) tall and 180 pounds (82 kg). Read more
• 21 Sep 2011: Jun Henmi, Japanese author and poet (born 1939) Mayumi Shimizu , known by her pen name Jun Henmi , was a Japanese writer and poet. She was known for her works of fiction and nonfiction about people affected by World War II. Read more
• 21 Sep 2009: Robert Ginty, American actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1948) Robert Winthrop Ginty was an American actor, producer, screenwriter, and director. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Ginty took interest in the arts at a young age and went on to study acting at Yale University. Ginty worked in theatre until he moved to Hollywood in the mid-1970s. He started to play supporting roles on television and films, most notably a recurring role on the series The Paper Chase and two Hal Ashby films: Bound for Glory (1976) and Coming Home (1978). Ginty became an action film lead with his breakthrough role in James Glickenhaus's vigilante film The Exterminator (1980), which became a box-office success. Read more
• 21 Sep 2007: Hallgeir Brenden, Norwegian skier (born 1929) Hallgeir Brenden was a Norwegian cross-country skier and steeplechase runner. Read more
• 21 Sep 2007: Alice Ghostley, American actress (born 1923) Alice Margaret Ghostley was an American actress and singer on stage, film and television. Ghostley was best known for her roles as bumbling witch Esmeralda (1969–72) on Bewitched, as Cousin Alice (1970–71) on Mayberry R.F.D., and as Bernice Clifton (1986–93) on Designing Women. Read more
• 21 Sep 2006: Tasos Athanasiadis, Greek author (born 1913) Anastasios Athanasiadis was a writer and academician. Read more
• 21 Sep 2002: Robert L. Forward, American physicist and science fiction author (born 1932) Robert Lull Forward was an American physicist and science fiction writer. His literary work was noted for its scientific credibility and use of ideas developed from his career as an aerospace engineer. He also made important contributions to gravitational wave detection research. Read more
• 21 Sep 2000: Jacques Flynn, Canadian lawyer and politician, 35th Canadian Minister of Justice (born 1915) Jacques Flynn was a Canadian lawyer and federal politician, serving in both the House of Commons and Senate. Read more
• 21 Sep 2000: Leonid Rogozov, Russian physician and surgeon (born 1934) Leonid Ivanovich Rogozov was a Russian general practitioner and surgeon who took part in the Sixth Soviet Antarctic Expedition at Novolazarevskaya Station from September 1960 to October 1962. He is best known for performing a surgery to remove his own appendix—an auto-appendectomy—after he began suffering from appendicitis while deployed there in April 1961. The incident, which occurred because Rogozov was the only medical professional among his entire team, prompted the Soviet government to reform the safety policies for all personnel at the country's Antarctic research facilities. Read more
• 21 Sep 1998: Florence Griffith Joyner, American sprinter (born 1959) Florence Delorez Griffith Joyner, also known as Flo-Jo, was an American track and field athlete who set world records in the 100m and 200m in 1988. During the late 1980s, she became a popular figure due to both her record-setting athleticism and eclectic personal style. Read more
• 21 Sep 1995: Rudy Perpich, American dentist and politician, 34th Governor of Minnesota (born 1928) Rudolph George Perpich Sr. was an American politician who served as the 34th and 36th governor of Minnesota from 1976 to 1979 and from 1983 to 1991. He was a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. To date, he is the only governor elected to serve non-consecutive terms in the history of Minnesota. Read more
• 21 Sep 1992: Tarachand Barjatya, Indian film producer, founded Rajshri Productions (born 1914) Tarachand Barjatya was an Indian film producer. He has produced many Hindi films from the 1960s through to the 1980s. He founded Rajshri Productions, which continues to produce films even today. His mainstay was family-oriented films based on family values. Read more
• 21 Sep 1991: Gordon Bashford, English engineer (born 1916) Gordon Dennis Bashford was a British car design engineer. Bashford played a significant part in the design of most post-war Rover cars, including the Land Rover. Read more
• 21 Sep 1990: Takis Kanellopoulos, Greek director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1933) Takis Kanellopoulos was a Greek film director and screenwriter. He directed ten films between 1960 and 1980. Read more
• 21 Sep 1989: Rajini Thiranagama, Sri Lankan physician and academic (born 1954) Rajani Thiranagama was a Sri Lankan Tamil human rights activist and feminist who was assassinated by the LTTE cadres after she had criticised them for their atrocities. At the time of her assassination, she was the head of the Department of Anatomy at the University of Jaffna and an active member and one of the founders of University Teachers for Human Rights, Jaffna. Read more
• 21 Sep 1987: Jaco Pastorius, American bass player, composer, and producer (born 1951) John Francis Anthony Pastorius III, also known as Jaco Pastorius, was an American jazz bassist, composer, and producer. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential bassists of all time, Pastorius recorded albums as a solo artist, band leader, and as a member of the jazz fusion group Weather Report from 1976 to 1981. He also collaborated with numerous artists, including Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny and Joni Mitchell. Read more
• 21 Sep 1985: Gu Long, Chinese author and screenwriter (born 1937) Xiong Yaohua, better known by his pen name Gu Long, was a Taiwanese novelist, screenwriter, film producer and director. Born in Hong Kong and educated at Cheng Kung Senior High School and Tamkang University in Taiwan, he is best known for writing wuxia novels, among which his best known works are Juedai Shuangjiao, the Xiaoli Feidao Series, the Chu Liuxiang Series, the Lu Xiaofeng Series, and The Eleventh Son. Some of them have been adapted into films and television series. In the 1980s, he started his own film studio to produce film adaptations of his works. Read more
• 21 Sep 1983: Birgit Tengroth, Swedish actor (born 1915) Birgit Tengroth was a Swedish film actress. She appeared in more than 40 films between 1926 and 1950. She was married briefly to Danish politician Jens Otto Krag in 1950. Read more
• 21 Sep 1983: Xavier Zubiri, Basque philosopher (born 1898) Xavier Zubiri was a Spanish philosopher. Read more
• 21 Sep 1982: Ivan Bagramyan, Russian general (born 1897) Ivan Khristoforovich Bagramyan, born Hovhannes Baghramyan, was a Soviet military commander of Armenian origin who held the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. As commander of the 1st Baltic Front, he orchestrated the offensives which pushed German forces out of the Baltic countries on the Eastern Front of World War II. Read more
• 21 Sep 1976: Benjamin Graham, British-American economist, professor, and investor (born 1894) Benjamin Graham was an English-American financial analyst, economist, accountant, investor and professor. He is widely known as the "father of value investing", and wrote two of the discipline's founding texts: Security Analysis (1934) with David Dodd, and The Intelligent Investor (1949). His investment philosophy stressed independent thinking, emotional detachment, and careful security analysis, emphasizing the importance of distinguishing the price of a stock from the value of its underlying business. Read more
• 21 Sep 1976: Orlando Letelier, Chilean economist and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Chile (born 1932) Marcos Orlando Letelier del Solar was a Chilean Marxist and diplomat during the presidency of Salvador Allende. A member of the Socialist Party of Chile, he fled from the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, and accepted several academic positions in Washington D.C. after his exile from Chile. In 1976, agents of Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), the Pinochet regime's secret police, killed him in Washington by a car bomb. The agents had been working in collaboration with members of the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations, an anti-Castro militant group. Read more
• 21 Sep 1975: Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, Turkish painter and poet (born 1911) Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu was a Turkish painter, mosaic-maker, muralist, writer and poet. His art work was inspired by Anatolian village scenes and folk literature, and included traditional handicraft folk patterns. Read more
• 21 Sep 1974: Walter Brennan, American actor (born 1894) Walter Andrew Brennan was an American actor and singer. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Come and Get It (1936), Kentucky (1938) and The Westerner (1940), making him the only person to win three awards in the supporting actor category. Brennan was also nominated for his performance in Sergeant York (1941). Other noteworthy performances were in To Have and Have Not (1944), My Darling Clementine (1946), Red River (1948) and Rio Bravo (1959). On television, he starred in the sitcom The Real McCoys (1957–1963). Read more
• 21 Sep 1974: Jacqueline Susann, American author and actress (born 1918) Jacqueline Susann was an American novelist and actress. Her novel Valley of the Dolls (1966) is one of the best-selling books in publishing history. With her two subsequent works, The Love Machine (1969) and Once Is Not Enough (1973), Susann became the first author to have three novels top The New York Times Best Seller list consecutively. Read more
• 21 Sep 1972: Henry de Montherlant, French essayist, novelist, and dramatist (born 1896) Henry Marie Joseph Frédéric Expedite Millon de Montherlant was a French essayist, novelist, and dramatist. His most famous play written in 1942 is La Reine morte, still studied today in French high schools. It was translated into English under the title 'Queen After Death'. He was elected to the Académie française in 1960. Read more
• 21 Sep 1971: Bernardo Houssay, Argentinian physiologist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1887) Bernardo Alberto Houssay was an Argentinian physiologist. Houssay was a co-recipient of the 1947 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering the role played by pituitary hormones in regulating the amount of glucose in animals, sharing the prize with Carl Ferdinand Cori and Gerty Cori. He is the first Latin American Nobel laureate in the sciences. Read more
• 21 Sep 1966: Paul Reynaud, French lawyer and politician, 118th Prime Minister of France (born 1878) Paul Reynaud was a French politician and lawyer prominent in the interwar period, noted for his economic liberalism and vocal opposition to Nazi Germany. Read more
• 21 Sep 1964: Josef Müller, Croatian entomologist (born 1880) Josef Müller, also known as Giuseppe Müller, was a Croatian entomologist. Read more
• 21 Sep 1963: Paulino Masip, Spanish author, playwright, and screenwriter (born 1899) Paulino Masip Roca was a Spanish playwright, screenwriter and novelist. Driven into exile in Mexico in 1939 by the events of the Spanish Civil War, he became involved with the nascent Golden age of Mexican cinema and was the author of over 50 screenplays. Masip is best known for his novel ¨El Diario de Hamlet Garcia¨ which takes place during the Spanish Civil War. Read more
• 21 Sep 1962: Bo Carter, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1892) Armenter Chatmon, known as Bo Carter, was an early American blues musician. He was a member of the Mississippi Sheiks in concerts and on a few of their recordings. He also managed that group, which included his brothers Lonnie Chatmon on fiddle and, occasionally, Sam Chatmon on bass, and their friend Walter Vinson on guitar and lead vocals. Read more
• 21 Sep 1958: Peter Whitehead, English racing driver (born 1914) Peter Nield Whitehead was a British racing driver. He was born in Menston, Yorkshire and was killed in an accident at Lasalle, France, during the Tour de France endurance race. A cultured, knowledgeable and well-travelled racer, he was excellent in sports cars. He won the 1938 Australian Grand Prix, which along with a 24 Heures du Mans win in 1951, probably was his finest achievement, but he also won two 12 Heures internationales de Reims events. He was a regular entrant, mostly for Peter Walker and Graham Whitehead, his half-brother. His death in 1958 ended a career that started in 1935 – however, he was lucky to survive an air crash in 1948. Read more
• 21 Sep 1957: Haakon VII of Norway (born 1872) Haakon VII was King of Norway from 1905 until his death in 1957. Read more
• 21 Sep 1956: Bill Struth, Scottish footballer and manager (born 1875) William Struth was a Scottish football manager. He was the second manager of Rangers Football Club, leading the club for 34 years between 1920 and 1954, as well as being the holder of a number of other positions, including director. Struth is one of the most successful managers in Scottish and British football history, winning 30 major trophies in his career; a record 18 Scottish league championships, 10 Scottish Cups and two Scottish League Cups. Read more
• 21 Sep 1954: Mikimoto Kōkichi, Japanese businessman (born 1858) Kokichi Mikimoto was a Japanese entrepreneur who is credited with creating the first cultured pearl and subsequently starting the cultured pearl industry with the establishment of his luxury pearl company Mikimoto. Read more
• 21 Sep 1953: Necmettin Sadak, Turkish publisher and politician, 10th Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1890) Sadık Necmettin Sadak was a Turkish politician, former minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey and former chairman of the Turkish sports club Galatasaray. Read more
• 21 Sep 1947: Harry Carey, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1878) Henry DeWitt Carey II was an American actor and one of silent film's earliest superstars, usually cast as a Western hero. One of his best-known performances is as the president of the United States Senate in the drama film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was the father of Harry Carey Jr., who was also a prominent actor. Read more
• 21 Sep 1944: Alexander Koshetz, Ukrainian choral conductor, arranger, composer (born 1875) Alexander Antonovich Koshetz was a Ukrainian choral conductor, arranger, composer, ethnographer, writer, musicologist, and lecturer. Koshetz built a prominent conducting career in Kyiv, before going on to be one of the most prominent international promoters of Ukrainian music worldwide. He is best known for his promotion of Mykola Leontovych's "Shchedryk", the precursor to the Christmas song Carol of the Bells, during his worldwide tour with the Ukrainian Republican Capella. Read more
• 21 Sep 1944: Artur Phleps, Romanian general (born 1881) Artur Gustav Martin Phleps was an Austro-Hungarian, Romanian and Nazi German army officer who held the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS in the Waffen-SS during World War II. An Austro-Hungarian Army officer before and during World War I, Phleps specialised in mountain warfare and logistics, and had been promoted to Oberstleutnant by the end of the war. During the interwar period he joined the Romanian Army, reaching the rank of General de divizie, and also became an adviser to King Carol. After he spoke out against the government, he was sidelined and asked to be dismissed from the army. Read more
• 21 Sep 1942: John Symes, English cricketer (born 1879) John Symes was a member of the gold medal–winning Great Britain Olympic cricket team at the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris, France. Read more
• 21 Sep 1939: Armand Călinescu, Romanian economist and politician, 39th Prime Minister of Romania (born 1893) Armand Călinescu was a Romanian economist and politician, who served as 39th Prime Minister from March 1939 until his assassination six months later. He was a staunch opponent of the fascist Iron Guard and may have been the real power behind the throne during the dictatorship of King Carol II. He survived several assassination attempts but was finally killed by members of the Iron Guard with German assistance. Read more
• 21 Sep 1938: Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, Croatian author and poet (born 1874) Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, also spelled Ivana Berlic-Mazuranic in English, was a Croatian writer. She has been praised as the best Croatian writer for children. Read more
• 21 Sep 1937: Osgood Perkins (actor, born 1892), American actor (born 1892) James Ridley Osgood Perkins was an American actor. Read more
• 21 Sep 1933: Kenji Miyazawa, Japanese author and poet (born 1896) Kenji Miyazawa was a Japanese novelist, poet, and children's literature writer from Hanamaki, Iwate, in the late Taishō and early Shōwa periods. He was also known as an agricultural science teacher, vegetarian, cellist, devout Buddhist, and utopian social activist. Read more
• 21 Sep 1926: Léon Charles Thévenin, French engineer (born 1857) Léon Charles Thévenin was a French telegraph engineer who extended Ohm's law to the analysis of complex electrical circuits. Read more
• 21 Sep 1906: Samuel Arnold, American conspirator (born 1838) Samuel Bland Arnold was an American Confederate sympathizer involved in a plot to kidnap U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. He had joined the Confederate Army shortly after the start of the Civil War but was discharged for health reasons in 1864. Read more
• 21 Sep 1905: Nikolay Benardos, Ukrainian inventor (born 1842) Nikolay Nikolayevich Benardos was a Russian inventor of Greek descent who in 1881 introduced carbon arc welding, which was the first practical arc welding method. Read more
• 21 Sep 1904: Chief Joseph, American tribal leader (born 1840) Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, popularly known as Chief Joseph, Young Joseph, or Joseph the Younger, was a leader of the wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa) band of Nez Perce, a Native American tribe of the interior Pacific Northwest region of the United States, in the latter half of the 19th century. He succeeded his father Tuekakas in the early 1870s. Read more
• 21 Sep 1880: Manuel Montt, Chilean scholar and politician, 6th President of Chile (born 1809) Manuel Francisco Antonio Julián Montt Torres was a Chilean statesman and scholar who was twice elected President of Chile between 1851 and 1861. He was the first civilian to serve a full term as President of Chile. Read more
• 21 Sep 1874: Jean-Baptiste Élie de Beaumont, French geologist and engineer (born 1798) Jean-Baptiste Armand Louis Léonce Élie de Beaumont was a French geologist. Among his ideas was that mountains were created in a series of episodes over geological time due to the cooling and shrinking of the earth. He also suggested that there was a pattern in the orientation of the mountain systems of the world which followed a system of five circles meeting at points on the earth that marked the points of a polyhedron. Read more
• 21 Sep 1860: Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher and author (born 1788) Arthur Schopenhauer, also known as the “Philosopher of Pessimism”, was a German philosopher and writer. He is known for his 1818 work The World as Will and Representation, which characterizes the phenomenal world as the manifestation of a blind and irrational noumenal will. Building on the transcendental idealism of Immanuel Kant, Schopenhauer developed an atheistic, metaphysical and ethical system that rejected the contemporaneous ideas of German idealism. Read more
• 21 Sep 1832: Walter Scott, Scottish novelist, playwright, and poet (born 1771) Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet, was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature. He is known for his Waverley novels (1814–1831), which were, for nearly a century, among the most popular and widely read novels in Europe. He is also known for his narrative poems Marmion (1808) and The Lady of the Lake (1810). He greatly influenced European and American literature. Read more
• 21 Sep 1812: Emanuel Schikaneder, German actor and playwright (born 1751) Emanuel Schikaneder was a German impresario, dramatist, actor, singer, and composer. He wrote the libretto of Mozart's opera Die Zauberflöte and was the builder of the Theater an der Wien. Peter Branscombe called him "one of the most talented theatre men of his era". Aside from Mozart, he knew and worked with Salieri, Haydn and Beethoven. Read more

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