A birthday on the globe
13 September on the globe: what happened in the world on this day, and who was born
For 13 September, the English Wikipedia lists 67 events and 261 births. 37 of the events stand at their places as rays of light; three more are dashed circles, where the sentence links only to a country or a sea. The taller the ray, the longer ago it happened. The people born that day come further down, as blue points.
A birthday, yours or someone else’s:
Turn it into a greetingScroll: the globe turns to each place
The day you were born, on the globe.
Three things from your day
Scroll: your day first, then 13 September through the years
The Earth on 13 September
The picture on the globe was assembled by NASA from satellite photographs taken in September 2004: the snow, the ice and the green are those of the month.
On 13 September the Sun passes straight overhead at noon along the parallel of 3.8° north. In London, the day lasts about 12 hours 50 minutes.
Beyond 86° north the Sun no longer sets; beyond 86° south it no longer rises.
The line between day and night is tilted on the globe exactly as on this day of the year. On the dark side you can see the lights of towns.
Europe · Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus
509 BC
The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Rome's Capitoline Hill is dedicated on the ides of September.
On the map: Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.
Europe · Waldbühne
1964
Martin Luther King Jr. addresses a crowd of 20,000 West Berliners on Sunday, in Waldbühne.
On the map: Waldbühne.
Europe · Oslo
1993
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shakes hands with Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat at the White House after signing the Oslo Accords granting limited Palestinian autonomy.
On the map: Oslo.
Also on the day’s list of Wikipedia in Romanian and Chinese.
Africa · Mount Kenya
1899
Mackinder, Ollier and Brocherel make the first ascent of Batian (5,199 m – 17,058 ft), the highest peak of Mount Kenya.
On the map: Mount Kenya.
Asia · Kozhikode
1500
Pedro Álvares Cabral and his Portuguese fleet arrive in Calicut, having crossed both the Atlantic and Indian Ocean.
On the map: Kozhikode.
North America · New York City
1788
The Congress of the Confederation sets the date for the first presidential election in the United States, and New York City becomes the country's temporary capital.
On the map: New York City.
Also on the day’s list of Wikipedia in Romanian and Chinese.
North America · Chicago Public Schools
1937
Chicago Public Schools began delivering lessons via radio amid to a polio outbreak, marking the first large-scale use of radio broadcasts for distance education.
On the map: Chicago Public Schools.
13 September
What the other Wikipedias remember#
For these years the English list has nothing on this day. The events below come from the same day’s lists on Wikipedia in Spanish, Chinese and Romanian and were translated for this page.
From Wikipedia in Spanish · David
1501
In the Republic of Florence, Michelangelo begins work on the statue of David.
On the map: David.
Translated from the list on Wikipedia in Spanish.
From Wikipedia in Chinese · David
1510
Michelangelo begins work on making the statue of David.
On the map: David.
Translated from the list on Wikipedia in Chinese.
From Wikipedia in Romanian · Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial
1584
In Spain, El Escorial, the largest construction of the Renaissance worldwide, is completed.
On the map: Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial.
Translated from the list on Wikipedia in Romanian.
The article on Wikipedia in Romanian: Mănăstirea El Escorial
From Wikipedia in Spanish · Rijksmuseum
1975
In the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), Rembrandt's famous painting The Night Watch is slashed.
On the map: Rijksmuseum.
Translated from the list on Wikipedia in Spanish.
13 September
Born on 13 September#
The English Wikipedia lists 261 births for this day. The blue points are the birthplaces of 60 of these people: those written about in the most Wikipedia editions, where Wikidata gives a place of birth.
Born on 13 September
1916
Roald Dahl, British novelist, poet, and screenwriter (died 1990)
Place of birth: Llandaff.
Born on 13 September
1989
Thomas Müller, German footballer
Place of birth: Weilheim in Oberbayern.
Born on 13 September
1903
Claudette Colbert, American actress (died 1996)
Place of birth: Saint-Mandé.
Born on 13 September
1874
Arnold Schoenberg, Austrian composer and painter (died 1951)
Place of birth: Vienna.
Born on 13 September
1973
Fabio Cannavaro, Italian footballer and manager
Place of birth: Naples.
Born in Britain and Ireland
1944
Jacqueline Bisset, English actress and producer
Place of birth: Weybridge.
Born in Britain and Ireland
1886
Robert Robinson, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1975)
Place of birth: Rufford.
Born in Britain and Ireland
1993
Niall Horan, Irish singer
Place of birth: Mullingar.
13 September
Number one in the charts that week
At the cinema
An animal recorded that day
The record can be seen in GBIF, which brings together wildlife records from around the world.
All your birthdays
The weather that day
Data: Met Office Hadley Centre (HadCET); NOAA (GHCN-Daily, Mauna Loa).
Above the Earth
Sources: Jonathan McDowell, GCAT (launches); GFZ Potsdam (Kp index). Days are counted in Universal Time.
Football that day
International matches played that day:
Source: the “International football results” dataset kept by Mart Jürisoo (CC0).
Also that day
The earthquake’s page at the USGS
Source: the USGS catalogue. The day is counted in Universal Time (UTC).
In those days
Make a link for someone
Type the name, pick the day and the year of birth. The link opens straight on their day, with their name in the greeting.
The link carries the name, date and place typed here; anyone who gets it can see them.
Put another birthday beside it
Your mother’s, your child’s, a friend’s: the two days appear side by side.
Below: 13 September through the years.
The whole globe of the day
Drag the globe to turn it. Touch a ray or a point to read what happened there.
Everything Wikipedia lists for 13 September
The list is the English Wikipedia’s, in its own wording, as it stood in October 2026. 27 events have no place on the map: the sentence links to no place with coordinates, only to places too wide to mark, or to several countries.
- 585 BC
Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, king of Rome, celebrates a triumph for his victories over the Sabines, and the surrender of Collatia.
Europe · CollatiaWikipedia: Lucius Tarquinius Priscus - 509 BC
The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Rome's Capitoline Hill is dedicated on the ides of September.
Europe · Temple of Jupiter Optimus MaximusWikipedia: Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus - 531
Khosrow I becomes king of the Sassanid Empire following the death of his father Kavad I. He starts negotiations with the Byzantine Empire to end the Iberian War.
Asia · Byzantine EmpireWikipedia: Iberian War - 533
Belisarius of the Byzantine Empire defeats Gelimer and the Vandals at the Battle of Ad Decimum, near Carthage, North Africa.
Africa · Battle of Ad DecimumWikipedia: Battle of Ad Decimum - 604
Consecration of pope Sabinian following the death of pope Gregory I earlier that year.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Consecration in Christianity - 1229
Ögedei Khan is proclaimed Khagan of the Mongol Empire in Kodoe Aral, Khentii: Mongolia.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Ögedei Khan - 1437
Battle of Tangier: a Portuguese expeditionary force initiates a failed attempt to seize the Moroccan citadel of Tangier.
Africa · TangierWikipedia: Battle of Tangier - 1500
Pedro Álvares Cabral and his Portuguese fleet arrive in Calicut, having crossed both the Atlantic and Indian Ocean.
Asia · KozhikodeWikipedia: Pedro Álvares Cabral - 1541
After three years of exile, French theologian John Calvin returned to Geneva to reform the church under a system of Christian theology later known as Calvinism.
Europe · GenevaWikipedia: John Calvin - 1567
The siege of Inabayama Castle, the final battle in Oda Nobunaga's campaign to conquer Mino Province, began; it culminated in a decisive victory for Nobunaga.
Asia · Siege of Inabayama CastleWikipedia: Siege of Inabayama Castle - 1609
Henry Hudson reaches the river that would later be named after him – the Hudson River.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Henry Hudson - 1645
Wars of the Three Kingdoms: Scottish Royalists are defeated by Covenanters at the Battle of Philiphaugh.
Britain & Ireland · Battle of PhiliphaughWikipedia: Battle of Philiphaugh - 1743
Great Britain, Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia sign the Treaty of Worms.
Europe · WormsWikipedia: Treaty of Worms - 1759
Battle of the Plains of Abraham: the British defeat the French near Quebec City in the Seven Years' War, known in the United States as the French and Indian War.
North America · Battle of the Plains of AbrahamWikipedia: Battle of the Plains of Abraham - 1782
American Revolutionary War: Franco-Spanish troops launch the unsuccessful "grand assault" during the Great Siege of Gibraltar.
Europe · Great Siege of GibraltarWikipedia: American Revolutionary War - 1788
The Congress of the Confederation sets the date for the first presidential election in the United States, and New York City becomes the country's temporary capital.
North America · New York CityWikipedia: Congress of the Confederation - 1791
King Louis XVI accepts the new French constitution.
no place on the mapWikipedia: French Constitution of 1791 - 1807
Beethoven's Mass in C major, Op. 86, is premiered, commissioned by Nikolaus I, Prince Esterházy, and displeasing him.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Mass in C major - 1808
Finnish War: In the Battle of Jutas, Swedish forces under Lieutenant General Georg Carl von Döbeln beat the Russians, making von Döbeln a Swedish war hero.
Europe · Battle of JutasWikipedia: Battle of Jutas - 1812
War of 1812: A supply wagon sent to relieve Fort Harrison is ambushed in the Attack at the Narrows.
North America · Fort Harrison, IndianaWikipedia: Fort Harrison, Indiana - 1814
In a turning point in the War of 1812, the British fail to capture Baltimore. During the battle, Francis Scott Key composes his poem "Defence of Fort McHenry", which is later set to music and becomes the United States' national anthem.
North America · BaltimoreWikipedia: Baltimore - 1843
The Greek Army rebels (OS date: September 3) against the autocratic rule of king Otto of Greece, demanding the granting of a constitution.
Europe · Old Royal PalaceWikipedia: 3 September 1843 Revolution - 1847
Mexican–American War: Six teenage military cadets known as Niños Héroes die defending Chapultepec Castle in the Battle of Chapultepec. American troops under General Winfield Scott capture Mexico City in the Mexican–American War.
Latin America · Battle of ChapultepecWikipedia: Mexican–American War - 1848
Vermont railroad worker Phineas Gage survives an iron rod 1+1⁄4 inches (3.2 cm) in diameter being driven through his brain; the reported effects on his behavior and personality stimulate discussion of the nature of the brain and its functions.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Phineas Gage - 1862
American Civil War: Union soldiers find a copy of Robert E. Lee's battle plans in a field outside Frederick, Maryland. It is the prelude to the Battle of Antietam.
North America · Battle of AntietamWikipedia: American Civil War - 1880
The Basuto Gun War breaks out after the Basuto launch a rebellion against the Cape Colony.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Basuto Gun War - 1882
Anglo-Egyptian War: English forces defeat the Egyptian army in the battle of Tel el-Kebir.
Africa · Battle of Tell El KebirWikipedia: Battle of Tell El Kebir - 1898
Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Hannibal Goodwin - 1899
Mackinder, Ollier and Brocherel make the first ascent of Batian (5,199 m – 17,058 ft), the highest peak of Mount Kenya.
Africa · Mount KenyaWikipedia: Halford Mackinder - 1900
Filipino insurgents defeat a small American column in the Battle of Pulang Lupa, during the Philippine–American War.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Battle of Pulang Lupa - 1906
The Santos-Dumont 14-bis makes a short hop, the first flight of a fixed-wing aircraft in Europe.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Santos-Dumont 14-bis - 1914
World War I: The French army repulsed a German assault against their positions on high ground near the city of Nancy.
Europe · Battle of Grand CouronnéWikipedia: World War I - 1919
The Boston police strike ended after four days of rule by the state militia, the deaths of nine people, and accusations that striking officers were "agents of Lenin".
no place on the mapWikipedia: Boston police strike - 1922
The final act of the Greco-Turkish War, the Great Fire of Smyrna, commences.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Greco-Turkish War - 1923
Following a military coup in Spain, Miguel Primo de Rivera takes over, setting up a dictatorship.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Miguel Primo de Rivera - 1933
Elizabeth McCombs becomes the first woman elected to the New Zealand Parliament.
no place on the mapWikipedia: 1933 Lyttelton by-election - 1937
Chicago Public Schools began delivering lessons via radio amid to a polio outbreak, marking the first large-scale use of radio broadcasts for distance education.
North America · Chicago Public SchoolsWikipedia: Chicago Public Schools - 1942
World War II: Second day of the Battle of Edson's Ridge in the Guadalcanal Campaign. U.S. Marines successfully defeat attacks by the Japanese with heavy losses for the Japanese forces.
Oceania · Battle of Edson's RidgeWikipedia: World War II - 1944
World War II: Start of the Battle of Meligalas between the Greek Resistance forces of the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) and the collaborationist security battalions.
Europe · Battle of MeligalasWikipedia: Battle of Meligalas - 1948
Deputy Prime Minister of India Vallabhbhai Patel orders the Army to move into Hyderabad to integrate it with the Indian Union.
Asia · Hyderabad StateWikipedia: Indian annexation of Hyderabad - 1948
Margaret Chase Smith is elected United States senator, and becomes the first woman to serve in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Margaret Chase Smith - 1953
Nikita Khrushchev is appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Nikita Khrushchev - 1956
The IBM 305 RAMAC is introduced, the first commercial computer to use disk storage.
no place on the mapWikipedia: IBM 305 RAMAC - 1956
The dike around the Dutch polder East Flevoland is closed.
Europe · Zuiderzee WorksWikipedia: Levee - 1959
The Soviet spacecraft Luna 2 struck the Moon, the first spacecraft to reach another celestial body.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Luna 2 - 1962
An appeals court orders the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith, the first African-American student admitted to the segregated university.
no place on the mapWikipedia: James Meredith - 1964
Martin Luther King Jr. addresses a crowd of 20,000 West Berliners on Sunday, in Waldbühne.
Europe · WaldbühneWikipedia: Waldbühne - 1964
South Vietnamese Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Dương Văn Đức fail in a coup attempt against General Nguyễn Khánh.
Asia · Ho Chi Minh CityWikipedia: September 1964 South Vietnamese coup attempt - 1968
Cold War: Albania leaves the Warsaw Pact.
Europe · People's Socialist Republic of AlbaniaWikipedia: Cold War - 1971
Chairman Mao Zedong's second in command and successor Marshal Lin Biao flees China after the failure of an alleged coup. His plane crashes in Mongolia, killing all aboard.
Asia · Lin Biao incidentWikipedia: Project 571 - 1971
State police and National Guardsmen storm New York's Attica Prison to quell a prison revolt, which claimed 43 lives.
North America · Attica Prison riotWikipedia: Attica Prison riot - 1979
South Africa grants independence to the "homeland" of Venda (not recognised outside South Africa).
no place on the mapWikipedia: Venda - 1982
Spantax Flight 995 crashes at Málaga Airport during a rejected takeoff, killing 50 of the 394 people on board.
Europe · Spantax Flight 995Wikipedia: Spantax Flight 995 - 1985
Super Mario Bros. is released in Japan for the NES, which starts the Super Mario series of platforming games.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Super Mario Bros. - 1986
A magnitude 6.0 earthquake strikes Kalamata, Greece with a maximum Modified Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), killing at least 20 and causing heavy damage in the city.
Europe · 1986 Kalamata earthquakeWikipedia: 1986 Kalamata earthquake - 1987
Goiânia accident: A radioactive object is stolen from an abandoned hospital in Goiânia, Brazil, contaminating many people in the following weeks and causing some to die from radiation poisoning.
Latin America · Goiânia accidentWikipedia: Goiânia accident - 1988
Hurricane Gilbert is the strongest recorded hurricane in the Western Hemisphere, later replaced by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 (based on barometric pressure).
no place on the mapWikipedia: Hurricane Gilbert - 1989
Largest anti-Apartheid march in South Africa, led by Desmond Tutu.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Apartheid - 1993
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shakes hands with Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat at the White House after signing the Oslo Accords granting limited Palestinian autonomy.
Europe · OsloWikipedia: Oslo Accords - 1993
Nirvana released their third and final studio album, In Utero, which went on to sell more than 15 million copies.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Nirvana - 1997
A German Air Force Tupolev Tu-154 and a United States Air Force Lockheed C-141 Starlifter collide in mid-air near Namibia, killing 33.
Africa · 1997 Namibia mid-air collisionWikipedia: 1997 Namibia mid-air collision - 2001
Civilian aircraft traffic resumes in the United States after the September 11 attacks.
North America · ShanksvilleWikipedia: September 11 attacks - 2005
A software bug caused a simulated pandemic in the online video game World of Warcraft, serving as a model for epidemiologists to understand how human interaction influences disease outbreaks.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Corrupted Blood incident - 2007
The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples - 2007
The McLaren F1 team are found guilty of possessing confidential information from the Ferrari team, fined $100 million, and excluded from the constructors' championship standings.
no place on the mapWikipedia: 2007 Formula One espionage controversy - 2008
Delhi, India, is hit by a series of bomb blasts, resulting in 30 deaths and 130 injuries.
Asia · 13 September 2008 Delhi bombingsWikipedia: 13 September 2008 Delhi bombings - 2013
Taliban insurgents attack the United States consulate in Herat, Afghanistan, with two members of the Afghan National Police reported dead and about 20 civilians injured.
Asia · HeratWikipedia: 2013 Herat US consulate attack
What the other Wikipedias remember
For these years the English list has nothing on this day. The events below come from the same day’s lists on Wikipedia in Spanish, Chinese and Romanian and were translated for this page.
- 1501
In the Republic of Florence, Michelangelo begins work on the statue of David.
- 1510
Michelangelo begins work on making the statue of David.
- 1584
In Spain, El Escorial, the largest construction of the Renaissance worldwide, is completed.
Europe · Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El EscorialTranslated from the list on Wikipedia in RomanianWikipedia: Mănăstirea El Escorial - 1975
In the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), Rembrandt's famous painting The Night Watch is slashed.
Who was born on 13 September
In order of how many Wikipedia editions have an article about each. The first 60 of 261 are shown.
- 1916
Roald Dahl, British novelist, poet, and screenwriter (died 1990)
LlandaffWikipedia: Roald Dahl - 1989
Thomas Müller, German footballer
Weilheim in OberbayernWikipedia: Thomas Müller - 1903
Claudette Colbert, American actress (died 1996)
Saint-MandéWikipedia: Claudette Colbert - 1874
Arnold Schoenberg, Austrian composer and painter (died 1951)
- 1973
Fabio Cannavaro, Italian footballer and manager
- 1819
Clara Schumann, German pianist and composer (died 1896)
LeipzigWikipedia: Clara Schumann - 1940
Óscar Arias, Costa Rican politician, President of Costa Rica, Nobel Prize laureate
San JoséWikipedia: Óscar Arias - 1951
Salva Kiir, South Sudanese politician, 1st President of South Sudan
Bahr el GhazalWikipedia: Salva Kiir - 1941
Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Turkish judge and politician, 10th President of the Republic of Turkey
AfyonkarahisarWikipedia: Ahmet Necdet Sezer - 1944
Jacqueline Bisset, English actress and producer
WeybridgeWikipedia: Jacqueline Bisset - 1830
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Austrian author (died 1916)
Schloss ZdislawitzWikipedia: Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach - 1957
Bongbong Marcos, 17th President of the Philippines
San JuanWikipedia: Bongbong Marcos - 1876
Sherwood Anderson, American novelist and short story writer (died 1941)
- 1887
Leopold Ružička, Croatian-Swiss biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1976)
VukovarWikipedia: Leopold Ružička - 1475
Cesare Borgia, Italian cardinal (died 1507)
SubiacoWikipedia: Cesare Borgia - 1961
Dave Mustaine, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
La MesaWikipedia: Dave Mustaine - 1924
Maurice Jarre, French composer and conductor (died 2009)
5th arrondissement of LyonWikipedia: Maurice Jarre - 1939
Richard Kiel, American actor and voice artist (died 2014)
DetroitWikipedia: Richard Kiel - 1860
John J. Pershing, American general and lawyer (died 1948)
LacledeWikipedia: John J. Pershing - 1886
Robert Robinson, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1975)
RuffordWikipedia: Robert Robinson - 1087
John II Komnenos, Byzantine emperor (died 1143)
ConstantinopleWikipedia: John II Komnenos - 1993
Niall Horan, Irish singer
MullingarWikipedia: Niall Horan - 1971
Goran Ivanišević, Croatian tennis player and coach
- 1941
Tadao Ando, Japanese architect and academic, designed Piccadilly Gardens
Minato-kuWikipedia: Tadao Ando - 1969
Tyler Perry, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
New OrleansWikipedia: Tyler Perry - 1894
Julian Tuwim, Polish poet, playwright, and director (died 1953)
- 1960
Kevin Carter, South African photojournalist (died 1994)
JohannesburgWikipedia: Kevin Carter - 1971
Stella McCartney, English fashion designer
LambethWikipedia: Stella McCartney - 1996
Lili Reinhart, American actress
ClevelandWikipedia: Lili Reinhart - 1977
Fiona Apple, American singer-songwriter, producer, and pianist
Upper West SideWikipedia: Fiona Apple - 1899
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, Romanian politician (died 1938)
- 1967
Michael Johnson, American former sprinter and journalist
- 1969
Shane Warne, Australian cricketer, coach, and sportscaster (died 2022)
Upper Ferntree GullyWikipedia: Shane Warne - 1872
Kijūrō Shidehara, Japanese politician and diplomat, 44th Prime Minister of Japan (died 1951)
- 1894
J. B. Priestley, English novelist and playwright (died 1984)
- 1939
Guntis Ulmanis, Latvian economist and politician, 5th President of Latvia
- 1951
Jean Smart, American actress
SeattleWikipedia: Jean Smart - 1986
Kamui Kobayashi, Japanese race car driver
AmagasakiWikipedia: Kamui Kobayashi - 1987
Jonathan de Guzmán, Canadian-Dutch footballer
ScarboroughWikipedia: Jonathan de Guzmán - 1931
Barbara Bain, American actress
ChicagoWikipedia: Barbara Bain - 1873
Constantin Carathéodory, German mathematician and author (died 1950)
- 1987
Tsvetana Pironkova, Bulgarian tennis player
- 1948
Sitiveni Rabuka, Fijian general and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Fiji
CakaudroveWikipedia: Sitiveni Rabuka - 1950
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz, Polish lawyer and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Poland
- 1937
Don Bluth, American animator, director, and producer, co-founded Sullivan Bluth Studios and Fox Animation Studios
El PasoWikipedia: Don Bluth - 1982
Nenê, Brazilian basketball player
São CarlosWikipedia: Nenê - 1928
Robert Indiana, American painter and sculptor (died 2018)
New CastleWikipedia: Robert Indiana - 1969
Daniel Fonseca, Uruguayan footballer
MontevideoWikipedia: Daniel Fonseca - 1877
Wilhelm Filchner, German-Swiss explorer (died 1957)
- 1904
Gladys George, American actress (died 1954)
PattenWikipedia: Gladys George - 1911
Bill Monroe, American singer-songwriter and mandolin player (died 1996)
RosineWikipedia: Bill Monroe - 1973
Christine Arron, French runner
Les AbymesWikipedia: Christine Arron - 1990
Luciano Narsingh, Dutch footballer
AmsterdamWikipedia: Luciano Narsingh - 1994
Anna Karolína Schmiedlová, Slovak tennis player
- 1521
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, English academic and politician, Lord High Treasurer (died 1598)
- 1882
Ramón Grau, Cuban physician and politician, 6th President of Cuba (died 1969)
La PalmaWikipedia: Ramón Grau - 1931
Marjorie Jackson-Nelson, Australian sprinter and politician, 33rd Governor of South Australia
Coffs HarbourWikipedia: Marjorie Jackson-Nelson - 1946
Frank Marshall, American director and producer
GlendaleWikipedia: Frank Marshall - 1976
Puma Swede, Swedish pornographic actress
StockholmWikipedia: Puma Swede - 1908
Sicco Mansholt, Dutch farmer and politician, 4th President of the European Commission (died 1995)
What is celebrated on 13 September
- Christian feast day: Feast of the Cross (Assyrian Church of the East)
- Christian feast day: Aimé (Amatus)
- Christian feast day: Amé (Amatus) of Remiremont
- Christian feast day: John Chrysostom
- Christian feast day: Marcellinus of Carthage
- Christian feast day: Blessed María López de Rivas Martínez
- Christian feast day: Maurilius (Maurille) of Angers
- Christian feast day: Nectarius of Autun
- Christian feast day: Venerius the Hermit
- Christian feast day: Wulfthryth (Wilfrida) of Wilton
- Christian feast day: September 13 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Day of the Programmer, during a non-leap year. (Russia)
- Día de los Niños Héroes (Mexico)
- Engineer's Day (Mauritius)
A greeting link for someone
Type a name and, if you like, the year of birth. The link opens with a greeting, and beside each event it says how old the person turned that day, or how many years before their birth it happened.
The name and the year go only into the link you send.
All 366 days
How the globe is made
Where the events come from
Each edition of this page uses the day’s list from Wikipedia in its own language: Romanian, English, Spanish, Chinese. The lists are written by volunteers and differ from one edition to the next; the text of each event is Wikipedia’s, with a link to the article. A row that appears twice in a list is shown once. The lists have not been checked event by event: they are Wikipedia’s, mistakes included.
For events before 1582, and for countries that moved to the Gregorian calendar later (Britain in 1752, Russia in 1918), the same day may be counted Old Style in one list and New Style in another.
The chapter “What the other Wikipedias remember” adds up to five events a day from the lists of the other three editions, only for years in which the English list has nothing on that day. They were translated for this page, passed the same filters as the tour, and are not counted among the events of the English list.
How an event gets onto the map
The place comes from Wikidata. If the sentence links to the article about the event itself (a battle, an opening, an earthquake), dated to the same year, the ray stands on its coordinates or on those of its location. Otherwise it stands on the first place the sentence links to: a town, a building, a mountain, an island. This second step can be wrong: sometimes the sentence only mentions the place. That is why the page says, under each event, which place the ray stands on.
When the sentence links to a single state or province, or to a single sea, lake or desert larger than 5,000 km², the globe shows a dashed circle, not a ray. The circle has the area Wikidata gives, with its radius kept between 1.2° and 16°, or a radius of 4.5° when Wikidata gives no area; it says only that the sentence links to that place. Organisations, ships, spacecraft, museum objects, rivers, mountain ranges, languages and continents are never used as places. When a sentence names several states and no exact place, the event stays in the list only.
What the height means
The height of a ray shows how many years have passed, on a logarithmic scale: 10 years, 100 years and 1,000 years are equal steps apart; anything older than about 2,600 years has the tallest ray. The colour runs from pale yellow for recent years to violet for antiquity.
Where the tour stops
In each region the tour stops at up to three events (five in Britain and Ireland), chosen mainly by three things: whether Wikipedia’s editors put the event in the “On this day” box of their main page (the English, Spanish and Chinese editions), how many Wikipedia editions have an article about it, and how many of the four lists include it. Events whose sentence or article is about a war, an attack, a crime or a disaster are left out of the tour; they stay in the whole list, in Wikipedia’s wording. The filter is a list of words and a list of Wikidata types, so it can miss some.
The tour of births names the people with articles in the most editions and leaves aside those whom the list or Wikidata describes as rulers, politicians, commanders, leaders of movements or criminals; they stay in the list.
The Earth and the Sun
The daytime images are NASA’s Blue Marble Next Generation mosaics, one for each month of 2004; the night side is Black Marble 2016. The tilt of the line between day and night is computed for the day; the hour is chosen so that the place being read is in daylight. The latitude where the Sun stands overhead is the average of the four years of the leap cycle; in a given year it can differ by up to 0.4°.
The day you were born
The number ones come from the weekly lists on Wikipedia: Billboard for the United States (from 1940; the Hot 100 from August 1958), the UK Singles Chart (from November 1952), Los 40 Principales for Spain (from July 1966) and, for Romania, the Romanian Top 100 and Airplay 100 (2001–2021, with missing weeks). The page shows the chart of the week in which the day of birth falls, with its date; Billboard and the UK chart are dated at the end of their week. For Romania before 2001 and for China these sources have no weekly chart.
The films are those that reached cinemas in the United States up to ten days before or three days after that day (some of them in a few cinemas at first), from the English Wikipedia’s yearly lists (from 1968), in order of how many editions have an article about them. The events “in those days” are the ones on the neighbouring days’ lists that carry the year of birth, passed through the same filter as the tour.
The day of birth, year included
The Moon, the star sign and the constellation are worked out by the page itself, for noon Universal Time on the day. The lit part of the Moon is rounded and can differ by a few per cent from that at the hour of birth. The sign follows the usual zodiac of twelve equal parts starting at the March equinox; the constellation is the one the Sun actually stood in front of, by the borders set by the International Astronomical Union, and within a day of a border the page does not name it. When the Sun changes sign while it is that day anywhere on Earth, the page gives the moment of crossing, rounded to ten minutes and accurate to within about a quarter of an hour, and the clock time in a few cities, with the time zone and summer time of that year.
The year in the Chinese calendar is the one your device’s own calendar gives for the date, checked against the Hong Kong Observatory’s tables. “All your birthdays” uses the same sources as the rest of the chapter for the same day in every year since the birth: the temperature, well-known launches that took place on that very day, matches of the teams the edition follows, snow deeper than 10 cm and strong geomagnetic storms. The three things at the top and the four on the picture are chosen in a fixed order (the song, the animal, a full Moon, a well-known launch before an ordinary earthquake); on the picture you can change them.
When the link carries a year of birth, the page adds a few things about that exact day. The weather is the Met Office’s Central England temperature record and the readings from New York’s Central Park; the “usual high” is the average of the daily highs of 1961–1990 for that date, with two days either side. The carbon dioxide figure is the monthly mean at the Mauna Loa observatory, where measurements begin in March 1958.
The earthquake is the one with the largest magnitude in the USGS catalogue for that day, counted in Universal Time. Before the 1960s the catalogue has gaps even above magnitude 5.5, so in the older years many days have no earthquake. The page gives only the magnitude and the place: the country the epicentre falls in or, when the epicentre is at sea within 300 km of a coast, the nearest country; farther out, only the ocean.
The launches are those that reached orbit or left for the Moon and the planets, from Jonathan McDowell’s GCAT catalogue. If nothing left that day, the page shows the nearest launch within three days before or after, and says how many days away it was. The geomagnetic storm appears only when the Kp index reached at least 5 in one of the day’s eight three-hour intervals.
The animal comes from GBIF: an observation made by a person (the animal seen or heard, or its tracks), dated to that exact day, with coordinates and a CC0 or CC BY licence. Only a few hundred well-known species are searched (mammals, birds, turtles, butterflies); of those noted that day, mammals and species with articles in many Wikipedia editions come first; birds noted almost every day, and species used recently, wait their turn. Observations dated 1 January are left out, because records without a day are often filed there. An observation shows that the animal was recorded there, not how many animals there were.
The matches are those between national teams. Only matches of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, Canada and Australia are shown, along with those at the big final tournaments. The picture to send is drawn in the page from the day’s globe and the facts above, and stays on your device until you send it.
Sources
- Events, births and holidays: the day’s page on Wikipedia, text under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Coordinates, places of birth and the number of editions: Wikidata (CC0).
- The Earth by day: NASA Blue Marble Next Generation. The Earth by night: NASA Black Marble 2016.
- Borders and regions: Natural Earth.
- World population and births per year: UN World Population Prospects 2024.
- Charts and films: Wikipedia’s lists for Billboard, the UK Singles Chart, Los 40 Principales, Romanian Top 100, Airplay 100 and American films by year (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Weather: Met Office Hadley Centre, HadCET (Open Government Licence) and NOAA GHCN-Daily, New York Central Park. Carbon dioxide: NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, Mauna Loa.
- Earthquakes: the USGS catalogue. Launches: Jonathan McDowell, GCAT (CC BY). Kp index: GFZ Potsdam (CC BY 4.0). Matches: International football results, Mart Jürisoo (CC0).
- Animal observations: GBIF, with a link to each record; species names come from Wikidata.