23
Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954): African American. Civil rights activist. A lifelong champion of equal rights for Blacks and for women, Terrell served on the District of Columbia School board, was a founding member of the National Association of Colored Women and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and represented the United States at several international conferences.

23
Autumnal Equinox Day (Shubun No Hi): Japan. This is a public holiday to celebrate the end of summer and the beginning of the fall harvest season.

23
Grito de Lares (1868): Puerto Rico. This day is commemorated in Puerto Rico as the anniversary of the uprising that initiated the movement for Puerto Rican independence. On this date, 400-man army of liberation led by Manual Rojas, under orders from the exiled leader Ramon Emeterio Betances, gathered and took the town of Lares. They formed a provisional government and issued four proclamations, including one promising freedom of all slaves who joined the rebel army. Although the army was defeated and disbanded the following day, some of its aims were realized nearly immediately (the Spanish government decreed the gradual abolition of slavery by 1873), and the revolt is remembered as the first large-scale armed rebellion against Spanish colonial rule .

23
Unification of the Kingdom : Saudi Arabia. Since the end of the seventh century, Saudi Arabia was a collection of separate kingdoms. In 1932, however, King Ibn Saud began unifying these kingdoms under his rule into the single nation of Saudi Arabia.

24
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911): African American. Lecturer, writer, and civil rights activist. The long career of this remarkable women integrated political and social activism with notable literary achievement. A brilliant speaker, Harper lent her eloquence first to the movement to abolish slavery, and later to efforts on behalf of educational and economic opportunity for African Americans, the temperance movement, and the campaign for womenis suffrage. She was also a talented and successful poet and fiction writer. Her 1859 short story iThe Two Offersi is believed to have been the first short story by an African American to be published in the United States, and her 1892 novel Iola Leroy went into three editions

25
Eric Williams (1911-1981): Trinidadian. Political leader and writer. Educated in Trinidad and in England, Williams taught at Howard University before returning to Trinidad in 1955 to enter politics. His party, the Peopleis National Movement, won a landslide victory in the elections of 1961, making him prime minister of the colony and then, in August of the following year, of the newly independent republic of Trinidad and Tobago. He was repeatedly returned to office, serving as prime minister until his death. Under his leadership the republic became the most prosperous Caribbean nation in the British Commonwealth. A scholar as well as a statesman, Williams also wrote a number of books on Caribbean history.

25
Cabrillo Day : Portugal. This holiday, celebrated most commonly by Portuguese on the West Coast, commemorates the discovery of California by Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo when he sailed into the harbor of what is now San Diego in 1542.

26
George Gershwin (1898-1937): Jewish American. Composer. Gershwin won international fame in the 1920s as a composer of scores for Broadway musical comedies, collaboration with his brother, the lyricist Ira Gershwin; their songs include iI Got Rhythm,i iThe Man I Love,i and iSiWonderful.i Gershwin also wrote successful concert music using blues and jazz themes, notably the Rhapsody in Blue, and the African American ifolk operai Porgy and Bess.

26
Bessie Smith (1894-1937) : African American. Blues singer. Bessie Smithis authentic country blues style was first recorded in 1923. During her first year as a recording artist, she sold over two million records. Known as the iEmpress of the Blues,i she achieved her greatest fame between 1924 and 1927, when she was accompanied by some of the great jazz artists of the time.

28
Confuciusi Birthday (551-479 B. C. E.): Republic of China (Taiwan). Celebrated as Teacheris Day in Taiwan, this date is the anniversary of the birth of Confucius, the founder of the main doctrines of Chinese philosophy, and is one of the eight national holidays observed in the Republic of China. iConfuciusi is a Latin version of his title Kiung fu-tzu, meaning iMaster Kiung.i Confucius is revered by all Chinese as the iTeacher of All Generations.i Colorful rites are performed at all Confucian temples on this day.

29
Enrico Fermi (1901-1954): Italian American. Scientist. Fermi was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1938 for his research on radioactivity. In 1942 he created the first self-sustaining chain reaction in uranium, an achievement that made possible the development of the atomic bomb and other devices using nuclear energy.