Holidays Calendar for September 18, 2020
The Chilean people celebrate Independence Day, one of the national holidays, on September 18. Celebration of this holiday opens a series of festive events, that are awaited by children and adults, because many schools and companies have a week-long holiday.
World Water Monitoring Day is observed on September 18 every year. This observance was established in 2003 by America's Clean Water Foundation to raise public awareness of the issues of pollution of water bodies.
International Read an eBook Day, also known as simply Read an eBook Day, is celebrated on September 18 every year. It was initiated by OverDrive, Inc., an American company that specializes in the digital distribution of eBooks, audiobooks, music, and video titles.
World Bamboo Day is observed annually on September 18 to raise global awareness about bamboo and the importance of its sustainable cultivation and use. It was founded in 2009 by the World Bamboo Organization at the initiative of its then-president Kamesh Salam.
The third Friday of September is the perfect day to sit back and relax with a glass of delicious red or rosé wine because it is International Grenache Day. This holiday was created to celebrate one of the world’s most planted red wine grape varieties that grows on six of the seven continents.
Astronomy Day is annually celebrated in Armenia on September 18. This observance was established by the government of Armenia to commemorate birthday of Victor Ambartsumian, an outstanding Armenian scientist, founder of theoretical astrophysics and national hero in Armenia.
Croatian Navy Day (Dan Hrvatske ratne mornarice) is celebrated annually on September 18. The holiday commemorates the first recorded Croatian naval victory that occurred in 887 as well as the naval battles of the Croatian War of Independence.
The birthday of the United States Air Force is observed annually on September 18. It commemorates the establishment of the U.S. Air Force as a separate branch of the country’s armed forces.
Clean Up the World is a global campaign that is annually held on the third weekend in September. The campaign lasts for three days, starting on Friday, and it involves an estimated 35 million people in 130 countries around the world.
National Music Day is one of the national working holidays in Azerbaijan. It's annually celebrated on September 18, on birthday anniversary of Uzeyir Hajibeyov, the father of Azerbaijani music.
Persian Literature and Poetry Day is an annual cultural observance celebrated in the Islamic Republic of Iran on the 27th of Shahrivar (September 18 in the Gregorian calendar). Such a date was chosen to honor the memory of Mohammad-Hossein Shahriar, one of the most notable Iranian poets.
Island Languages Day is an annual observance held on the Ryukyu Islands, Japan. It is dedicated to the indigenous languages of the Ryukyu Islands that have been labeled endangered by UNESCO.
National POW/MIA Recognition Day is an observance that honors whose who were prisoners of war (POW) as well as those who are still missing in action (MIA). It is observed in the United States on the third Friday in September.
Deceased Motorcyclists Remembrance Day, also known as Deceased Bikers Remembrance Day, is observed by the Ukrainian motorcycling community every September 18. It was created to honor the memory of all motorcyclists who died in accidents.
Tacurong City Charter Day (Araw ng Pribilehiyo ng Lungsod ng Tacurong) is a special working holiday in the city of Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat, Philippines. It is celebrated annually on September 18 to commemorate the conversion of Tacurong from a municipality into a city.
Don't forget to go out to your favorite local burger joint for lunch or dinner on September 18 as it is the National Cheeseburger Day. Cheeseburger is a variation of hamburger topped with cheese.
International Equal Pay Day is a United Nation observance celebrated annually on September 18. It was declared by a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 18, 2019 and celebrated for the first time in 2020.
National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day is a U.S. awareness day observed on September 18 every year. Like most HIV/AIDS-related awareness days, it is supported by HIV.gov, an internet portal for all federal domestic HIV and AIDS resources and information.
National Concussion Awareness Day is observed on the third Friday of September. It was created to remind people that not all injuries are immediately visible and educate the general public about the common signs and symptoms of concussion.
Festivals on September 18, 2020
- Bloody Scotland in Stirling, United Kingdom
- Harvest Moon Festival in Clearwater, Canada
- San Sebastian International Film Festival in San Sebastian, Spain
- Warsaw Autumn Music Festival in Warsaw, Poland
- Egremont Crab Fair in Egremont, United Kingdom
- Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival in Strasbourg, France
- Atlanta Film Festival in Atlanta, USA
- Züri-Wiesn (Swiss Oktoberfest) in Zürich, Switzerland
- Kaunas International Film Festival in Kaunas, Lithuania
- Zabaikalsky International Film Festival in Chita, Russia
- New York Film Festival in New York, USA
- Oldenburg International Film Festival in Oldenburg, Germany
- Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada
- Geneva International Jewish Film Festival in Geneva, Switzerland
- Lviv International Literature Festival in Lviv, Ukraine
This Day in History
- 2020 Died: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020.
- 2014 Scotland voted against its independence from the United Kingdom in a referendum. 55.3% voted against independence, with a turnout of 84.6%.
- 2009 The final episode of Guiding Light, the longest-running soap opera, was broadcast. It aired on CBS for 57 years from 1952 to 2009, overlapping a 19-year radio broadcast from 1937 to 1956.
- 2003 Born: Aidan Gallagher, American actor, musician, and environmental activist. His breakthrough role was Number Five on the Netflix superhero series The Umbrella Academy.
- 2001 The first letters containing anthrax spores were delivered to several news media offices and Democratic U.S. Senators. The 2001 2001 anthrax attacks resulted in five deaths.
- 1997 American media proprietor and philanthropist Ted Turner donated $1 billion to create the United Nations Foundation, a public charity to broaden U.S. support for the UN.
- 1993 Born: Patrick Schwarzenegger, American actor and model known for his role as Luke Riordan on Gen V. He is the oldest son of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver.
- 1987 Born: Américo Tomás, Portuguese Navy officer and politician who served as the 13th president of Portugal from 1958 to 1974. He was the last president of the Estado Novo.
- 1984 Born: Babs Olusanmokun, Nigerian-American actor best known for playing Dr. Joseph M'Benga in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Jamis in Dune and Dune: Part Two.
- 1983 Born: Christina Chong, British actress and singer. She is best known for her role as La'an Noonien Singh in the Paramount+ original series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
- 1980 Died: Katherine Anne Porter, American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, poet and political activist. In 1966, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
- 1977 The first distant photograph of the Earth and the Moon together was taken by Voyager 1, a space probe launched by NASA on September 5 that year.
- 1975 Born: Jason Sudeikis, American actor, comedian and screenwriter. He is widely known for co-creating and playing the title role in the Apple TV+ sports comedy series Ted Lasso.
- 1974 Born: Alvin Nathaniel Joiner, better known by his stage name Xzibit, American rapper, actor, television host, and radio personality. He is known for hosting Pimp My Ride.
- 1974 Honduras was struck by Hurricane Fifi, later known as Hurricane Orlene. It was a catastrophic tropical cyclone that killed over 8,000 people.
- 1973 Born: James Marsden, American actor. His film credits include the X-Men film series, Interstate 60, The Notebook, Superman Returns, Hairspray, Enchanted, 27 Dresses, and more.
- 1970 Died: Jimi Hendrix, American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is widely regarded as the greatest guitarist in the history of popular music and one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.
- 1967 Died: John Cockcroft, English physicist who was instrumental in the development of nuclear power and shared with Ernest Walton the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1951 for splitting the atomic nucleus.
- 1964 Died: Seán O'Casey, Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes.
- 1961 Born: James Gandolfini, American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of Tony Soprano, the Italian-American Mafia crime boss in HBO's television series The Sopranos.
- 1961 Died: Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish economist and diplomat who served as the second Secretary-General of the United Nations from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash.
- 1950 Born: Sampath Kumar, better known by his screen name Vishnuvardhan, Indian actor who worked predominantly in Kannada cinema. He was called the "Phoenix of Indian Cinema".
- 1947 The National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency were established in the United States under the National Security Act.
- 1931 Died: Geli Raubal, Austrian woman who was the half-niece of Adolf Hitler. She lived in close contact with her half-uncle Adolf from 1925 until her presumed suicide in 1931.
- 1907 Born: Edwin McMillan, American physicist credited with being the first to produce a transuranium element, neptunium. For this, he shared the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Glenn Seaborg.
- 1906 At least 10,000 people died due to a typhoon with tsunami that hit Hong Kong.
- 1905 Born: Greta Garbo, Swedish-American actress and a premier star during Hollywood's silent and early golden eras. She is regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses of all time.
- 1896 Died: Hippolyte Fizeau, French physicist. In 1851, he measured the speed of light in moving water in an experiment known as the Fizeau experiment.
- 1888 Born: Grey Owl (born Archibald Stansfeld Belaney), English-Canadian writer, public speaker, and conservationist. He claimed to be of Apache descent, but after his death his real identity as an Englishman was exposed.
- 1838 Born: Anton Mauve, Dutch realist painter who was a leading member of the Hague School. He was a very significant early influence on his cousin-in-law Vincent van Gogh.
- 1837 Charles Lewis Tiffany and Teddy Young founded Tiffany & Young (now Tiffany & Co.) in New York City. The store initially sold a wide variety of stationery items.
- 1830 Died: William Hazlitt, English essayist, drama and literary critic, painter, social commentator, and philosopher. He is considered one of the greatest critics and essayists in the history of the English language.
- 1819 Born: Léon Foucault, French physicist best known for his demonstration of the Foucault pendulum, a device demonstrating the effect of Earth's rotation.
- 1809 The Royal Opera House (Covent Garden) opened in London for the second time after a disastrous fire in 1808. The current building is the third theater on the site.
- 1793 George Washington laid the first cornerstone of the first United States Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Its construction was completed in 1800.
- 1783 Died: Leonhard Euler, Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, geographer, logician, and engineer who founded the studies of graph theory and topology.
- 1765 Born: Pope Gregory XVI (Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari), head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1831 to his death in June 1846.
- 1709 Born: Samuel Johnson, English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer.