Today in History: September 23rd

Highlights of this day in history: Richard Nixon gives his 'Checkers' speech; Rome's Augustus Caesar born; Lewis and Clark finish trek to America's West; Psychologist Sigmund Freud dies; Musicians Ray Charles and Bruce Springsteen born.

Other notable September 23rd events include:

1459 – Battle of Blore Heath, the first major battle of the English Wars of the Roses, is fought at Blore Heath in Staffordshire.

1780 – American Revolution: British Major John André is arrested as a spy by American soldiers exposing Benedict Arnold's change of sides.

1845 – The Knickerbockers Baseball Club, the first baseball team to play under the modern rules, is founded in New York.

1846 – Neptune is discovered by French astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier and British astronomer John Couch Adams; the discovery is verified by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle.

1889 – Nintendo Koppai (Later Nintendo Company, Limited) is founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce and market the playing card game Hanafuda.

1969 – The Chicago Eight trial opens in Chicago.

1973 – Juan Perón returns to power in Argentina.

1999 – NASA announces that it has lost contact with the Mars Climate Orbiter.

Early year of a decade not too long before our own – The human race suddenly encountered a deadly threat to its very existence.