Reuters historical calendar - September 23

London. Sep 22 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on September 23 in history: 1912 - Silent film director Mack Sennett's first ''Keystone Cops'' film was released, ''Cohen Collects a Debt''.

1932 - Hijaz and Nejd and other districts were merged to form the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

1939 - Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist and founder of psychoanalysis, died aged 83.

1952 - Rocky Marciano became world heavyweight boxing champion when he knocked out champion Jersey Joe Walcott in 13 rounds in Philadelphia.

1972 - Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, to tackle corruption, violence and inflation.

1973 - Juan Peron and his wife Isabel were elected president and vice-president of Argentina.

1973 - Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet and diplomat, died.

One of the most noted Spanish-language poets, he also served as consul to Burma, Argentina and Mexico.

1976 - South Africa decided to allow multi-racial teams to represent the country in international sport.

1982 - Amin Gemayel was sworn in as Lebanon's president to replace his brother Bashir, who was killed in a bomb explosion.

1990 - Swiss citizens voted to ban the construction of nuclear power plants for the rest of the century but not to abandon nuclear power altogether.

1991 - Armenia declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

1997 - At the Northern Ireland peace talks, Unionists had their first face-to-face meeting with Sinn Fein in 75 years.

1999 - Indonesia said it was ending martial law in East Timor with immediate effect.

2001 - In Poland the ex-Communist Party won in an election that condemned the Solidarity government to political oblivion, but failed to secure an absolute majority.

2004 - Andre Hazes, the popular Dutch crooner who modernised the centuries-old tradition of Amsterdam tearjerkers by adding elements of pop music and soul, died aged 53.

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