September 23
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1806
Welcome back, Lewis and Clark!
On this day in 1806, the Lewis and Clark expedition arrived in St. Louis, Missouri, near where they had set out from two and a half years earlier. Their westward exploration of the Louisiana Purchase and the Pacific Northwest gets more attention, but their return journey was also full of discovery and adventure. Had Meriwether Lewis and William Clark failed to return—with maps, specimens, and observations—their trip west would have been far less momentous.
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Portraits courtesy of the Independence National Historical Park Collection, Philadelphia; Photo composite and illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Featured Event
NASA/JPL
This day in 1846, astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle became the first person ever to observe the planet Neptune, the existence of which had been mathematically predicted by Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le Verrier and John Couch Adams.
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
© Gai Terrell—Redferns/Getty Images
If there’s any such thing as a perfect man, I think John Coltrane was one. And I think that kind of perfection has to come from a greater force than there is here on earth.
John Coltrane, born this day in 1926, was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader, and composer who exerted as strong an influence on jazz in the 1960s and ’70s as Charlie Parker did in the 1940s and ’50s.
Famous Birthdays
More on September 23
© Sylvia Pitcher—Redferns/Getty Images
2006
American folk musician Etta Baker, who influenced the folk music revival of the 1950s and ’60s with her blend of Piedmont blues and bluegrass, died at age 93. [Take our musicians quiz.]
© B Bennett/Getty Images
1992
Goaltender Manon Rhéaume played in a preaseason NHL game for the Tampa Bay Lightning, making her the first woman to compete in one of the four major North American professional sports leagues.
© 1979 Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.
1987
American choreographer and director Bob Fosse—who revolutionized musicals with his distinct style of dance, including his frequent use of props, signature moves, and provocative steps—died in Washington, D.C. [How much do you know about dance?]
© Hulton Archive/Getty Images
1980
Jamaican musician Bob Marley, who was especially known for popularizing reggae, performed his last concert, a sold-out show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; he died of cancer the following year. [Test your knowledge of reggae.]
© 1969 Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
1969
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had its world premiere, and it became a western classic, especially noted for the pairing of Paul Newman and Robert Redford as the titular outlaws. [How much do you know about Paul Newman?]
Chris Walter/Retna Ltd.
1949
Bruce Springsteen, who became the archetypal rock performer of the 1970s and ’80s, was born in Long Branch, New Jersey. [Take our quiz about rock and roll.]
Mary Evans/Sigmund Freud Copyrights (courtesy of W.E. Freud)
1939
Sigmund Freud, the founder of modern psychoanalysis, died in London. [Test your knowledge of psychology.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1932
By royal decree the dual kingdom of the Hejaz and Najd, along with its dependencies, was unified under the name of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
© Science History Images—Photo Researchers, Inc./Alamy
1869
Mary Mallon—who later became known as Typhoid Mary, accused of causing multiple outbreaks of typhoid fever while working as a domestic servant in the United States—was born in Ireland. [Test your knowledge of diseases and disorders.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1868
A small group of Puerto Rican radicals committed to independence attempted an uprising, El Grito de Lares; the revolt was crushed by the Spanish. [Take our quiz about plots and revolutions.]
Archiv für Kunst und Geschichte, Berlin
1862
Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (reproduction no. LC-USZC4-2761)
1779
During the American Revolution, in the midst of a naval engagement between the warships Bonhomme Richard and Serapis off the east coast of England, American commander John Paul Jones answered a call to surrender from his English counterpart with the famous quotation, “I have not yet begun to fight!” [How much do you know about the American Revolution?]