September 23
1642 - The first commencement at Harvard College, in Cambridge, MA, was held.
1779 - John Paul Jones, commander of the American warship Bon Homme, was quoted as saying "I have not yet begun to fight!"
1780 - John Andre, a British spy, was captured with papers revealing that Benedict Arnold was going to surrender West Point, NY, to the British.
1806 - The Corps of Discovery, the Lewis and Clark expedition, reached St. Louis, MO, and ended the trip to the Pacific Northwest.
1838 - Victoria Chaflin Woodhull was born. She became the first female candidate for the U.S. Presidency.
1845 - The Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York was formed by Alexander Joy Cartwright. It was the first baseball team in America.
1846 - Astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle discovered the planet Neptune.
1912 - "Keystone Comedy" by Mack Sennett was released.
1930 - Flashbulbs were patented by Johannes Ostermeier.
1951 - The first transcontinental telecast was received on the west coast. The show "Crusade for Freedom" was broadcast by CBS-TV from New York.
1952 - The first Pay Television sporting event took place. The Marciano-Walcott fight was seen in 49 theaters in 31 cities.
1952 - Richard Nixon gave his "Checkers Speech". At the time he was a candidate for U.S. vice-president.
1953 - "The Robe" premiered in Hollywood a week after its premiere in New York. The 20th Century Fox movie had been filmed using the Cinemascope wide screen process.
1957 - Nine black students withdrew from Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas due to the white mob outside.
1962 - New York's Philharmonic Hall opened. It was the first unit of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The hall was later renamed the Avery Fisher Hall.
1962 - "The Jetsons" premiered on ABC-TV. It was the first program on the network to be carried in color.
1964 - The new ceiling painting of the Paris Opera house was unveiled. The work was done by Russian-born artist Marc Chagall.
1973 - Overthrown Argentine president Juan Peron was returned to power. He had been overthrown in 1955. His wife, Eva Duarte, was the subject of the musical "Evita."
1981 - The Reagan administration announced its plans for what became known as Radio Marti.
1986 - Japanese newspapers quoted Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone as saying that minorities lowered the "intelligence level" of America.
1990 - Iraq publicly threatened to destroy Middle East oil fields and to attack Israel if any nation tried to force it from Kuwait.
1991 - U.N. weapons inspectors find documents detailing Iraq's secret nuclear weapons program. The find in Baghdad triggered a standoff with authorities in Iraq.
1993 - The Israeli parliament ratified the Israel-PLO accord.
1993 - Black people were allowed a role in the South African government after a parliamentary vote.
1998 - Jamie Lee Curtis received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1999 - A 17-month-old girl fell 230 feet from the Capilano Suspension Bridge in North Vancouver, British Columbia. The girl had bruises but no broken limbs from the fall onto a rocky ledge.
1999 - Siegfried & Roy received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
