1 Mehr 1384 | Friday 23 September 2005

This day in four calendars

1918 (108 years ago) World War I: British forces capture Haifa, Acre, and Es Salt from the Ottoman Empire.
1932 (94 years ago) Saudi National Day: Crown Prince (later king) Faisal of Saudi Arabia, on behalf of Ibn Saud, proclaims the unification of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the current iteration of the Third Saudi State.
1942 (84 years ago) World War II: The Matanikau action on Guadalcanal begins: U.S. Marines attack Japanese units along the Matanikau River.
1956 (70 years ago) A tropical storm originating in the eastern Pacific Ocean passes into the Gulf of Mexico and is upgraded and named Hurricane Flossy just hours before striking the Gulf Coast and causing 15 deaths and an estimated US$24.8 million in damages.
1962 (64 years ago) Flying Tiger Line Flight 923, a Lockheed L-1049H Super Constellation registered as N6923C, ditches into the Atlantic Ocean killing 28 out the 76 occupants onboard. The remaining 48 were rescued six hours later.
1964 (62 years ago) Typhoon Wilda, one of the strongest typhoons to ever strike Japan, makes landfall, causing at least 30 fatalities and sinking at least 64 ships.
2004 (22 years ago) Over 3,000 people die in Haiti after Hurricane Jeanne produces massive flooding and mudslides.
2024 (2 years ago) Israel launches airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, killing more than 490 people.

63 BC Augustus, Roman emperor (died 14 AD)
1215 (811 years ago) Kublai Khan, Mongolian emperor (died 1294)
1901 (125 years ago) Jaroslav Seifert, Czech poet and journalist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1986)
1916 (110 years ago) Aldo Moro, Italian academic and politician, 39th Prime Minister of Italy (died 1978)
1930 (96 years ago) Ray Charles, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor (died 2004)
1940 (86 years ago) Michel Temer, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 25th Vice President of Brazil
1943 (83 years ago) Julio Iglesias, Spanish singer-songwriter
1949 (77 years ago) Bruce Springsteen, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

1241 (785 years ago) Snorri Sturluson, Icelandic historian, poet, and politician (born 1178)
1870 (156 years ago) Prosper Mérimée, French archaeologist and historian (born 1803)
1877 (149 years ago) Urbain Le Verrier, French mathematician and astronomer (born 1811)
1889 (137 years ago) Wilkie Collins, English novelist, short story writer, and playwright (born 1824)
1929 (97 years ago) Richard Adolf Zsigmondy, Austrian-German chemist, physicist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1865)
1939 (87 years ago) Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist (born 1856)
1973 (53 years ago) Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet and diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1904)
2018 (8 years ago) Charles Kuen Kao, Hong Kong-American-British electrical engineer and physicist (born 1933)