September 21 Birthday

Famous Birthdays on September 21

• Stephen King (1947)

  American author of horror and suspense novels including The Shining, It, and Carrie, among the best-selling fiction writers of all time.

• Bill Murray (1950)

  American actor and comedian known for Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, and an Academy Award-nominated role in Lost in Translation.

• Faith Hill (1967)

  American country music singer known for crossover hits and a long recording and touring career.

• Ricki Lake (1968)

  American actress and talk show host known for the film Hairspray and her own long-running daytime talk show.

This Day in History

• 1780 — American General Benedict Arnold's plot to surrender the fort at West Point to the British was discovered after the capture of British spy John André.

• 1897 — The New York Sun published its famous editorial 'Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus,' responding to a child's letter questioning whether Santa Claus was real.

• 1999 — A magnitude 7.6 earthquake, known as the 921 earthquake, struck central Taiwan, killing more than 2,400 people.

What September 21 Says About You

Benedict Arnold's betrayal is one of the few things in American history that still functions as pure shorthand for treason, and its discovery happened on this exact date: on September 21, 1780, the plot to surrender the strategically vital fort at West Point to the British was uncovered after the British spy John André, carrying incriminating documents, was captured by American militia — Arnold fled to the British side days later, his name permanently attached to the betrayal itself. The date's other famous piece of writing runs in the opposite emotional direction. In 1897, The New York Sun published 'Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus,' an editorial written in response to an eight-year-old's letter asking whether Santa was real, and it remains one of the most reprinted newspaper editorials in American history, still circulated every December more than a century later. The date's more recent history includes tragedy on a large scale: in 1999, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake known as the 921 earthquake struck central Taiwan, killing more than 2,400 people and prompting major reforms to the island's building codes and disaster response systems. Four entertainers born on September 21 have built work that spans genuine dread and genuine warmth in roughly equal measure. Stephen King, born in 1947, has spent five decades writing some of the most commercially successful horror and suspense fiction ever published. Bill Murray, born in 1950, moved from broad comedy in Ghostbusters to a much drier, more melancholic register later in his career. Faith Hill, born in 1967, built a long, crossover-friendly country music career spanning multiple decades. And Ricki Lake, born in 1968, became a defining daytime talk show host after an early breakout film role in Hairspray. Numerology reduces the 21st to day number 3, tied to expression and communication, a fitting thread for a date whose defining moments include a discovered conspiracy, a widely reprinted editorial, and public storytelling in several different registers. As a Virgo date, September 21 carries the sign's careful, discerning instincts, well suited to a birthday whose history includes both catching a lie and telling a comforting truth. Benedict Arnold's grievances that led to his betrayal had built for years, including resentment over being passed over for promotion and mounting personal debts, and in exchange for surrendering West Point he had negotiated a payment of roughly 20,000 pounds sterling from the British, a sum he never fully collected once the plot collapsed, and he spent the remainder of his life in Britain and Canada, largely shunned by the British officers he had defected to serve. September's birthstone and flowers, sapphire together with the aster and morning glory, belong to the entire month instead of the 21st specifically, but sapphire's old association with discernment fits a date whose history includes both catching a lie and telling a comforting truth.