On This Day

August 20, 2015

1741 - Danish navigator Vitus Jonas Bering discovered Alaska.

1862 - Horace Greeley's "The Prayer of Twenty Millions" was published.

1866 - The National Labor Union in the U.S. advocated an eight-hour workday.

1866 - It was formally declared by U.S. President Andrew Johnson that the American Civil War was over. The fighting had stopped months earlier.

1882 - Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuted in Moscow.

1885 - "The Mikado", by Gilbert and Sullivan, opened at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City.

1914 - German forces occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War I.

1918 - The British opened its Western Front offensive during World War I.

1923 - The first American dirigible, the "Shenandoah," was launched in Lakehurst, NJ. The ship began its maiden voyage from the same location on September 4.

1939 - The National Bowling Association was founded in Detroit, MI. It was the first bowling association in the U.S. for African-Americans.

1940 - France fell to the Germans during World War II.

1945 - Tommy Brown (Brooklyn Dodgers) became the youngest player to hit a home run in a major league ball game. Brown was 17 years, 8 months and 14 days old.

1949 - Cleveland’s Indians and Chicago’s White Sox played at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland before the largest crowd, 78,382 people, to see a nighttime major-league baseball game.

1953 - It was announced by the Soviet Union that they had detonated a hydrogen bomb.

1955 - In Morocco and Algeria hundreds of people were killed in anti-French rioting.

1955 - Colonel Horace A. Hanes, a U.S. Air Force pilot, flew to an altitude of 40,000 feet. Hanes reached a speed of 822.135 miles per hour in a Super Sabrejet.

1964 - A $1 billion anti-poverty measure was signed by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.

1967 - The New York Times reported about a noise reduction system for album and tape recording developed by technicians R. and D.W. Dolby. Elektra Record's subsidiary, Checkmate Records became the first label to use the new Dolby process in its recordings.

1968 - The Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations began invading Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague Spring" liberalization.

1977 - Voyager 2 was launched by the United States. The spacecraft was carrying a 12 inch copper phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature.

1985 - The original Xerox 914 copier was presented to the Smithsonian Institute's Museum of American History. Chester Carlson was the man who invented the machine.

1991 - A rally of more that 100,000 people occurred outside the Russian parliament building to protest the coup that removed Gorbachev from power.

1997 - NATO troops seized six police stations in Banja Luka that had been held by troops controlled by former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic.

1997 - Britain began voluntary evacuation of its Caribbean island of Montserrat due to the volcanic activity of the Soufriere Hills.

1998 - Canada's Supreme Court announced that Quebec could not secede without the federal government's consent.

1998 - U.S. military forces attacked a terrorist camp in Afghanistan and a chemical plant in Sudan. Both targets were chosen for cruise missile strikes due to their connection with Osama bin Laden.

1998 - The U.N. Security Council extended trade sanctions against Iraq for blocking arms inspections.

2010 - The last American combat brigade exited Iraq after more than seven years after the U.S.-led invasion began.

August 21, 2015

1680 - The Pueblo Indians drove the Spanish out and took possession of Santa Fe, NM.

1831 - Nat Turner, a former slave, led a violent insurrection in Virginia. He was later executed.

1841 - A patent for venetian blinds was issued to John Hampton.

1878 - The American Bar Association was formed by a group of lawyers, judges and law professors in Saratoga, NY.

1888 - The adding machine was patented by William Burroughs.

1912 - Arthur R. Eldred became the first American boy to become an Eagle Scout. It is the highest rank in the Boy Scouts of America.

1923 - In Kalamazoo, Michigan, an ordinance was passed forbidding dancers from gazing into the eyes of their partner.

1943 - Japan evacuated the Aleutian island of Kiaska. Kiaska had been the last North American foothold held by the Japanese.

1945 - U.S. President Truman ended the Lend-Lease program that had shipped about $50 billion in aid to America's Allies during World War II.

1959 - Hawaii became the 50th state. U.S. President Eisenhower also issued the order for the 50 star flag.

1963 - In South Vietnam, martial law was declared. Army troops and police began to crackdown on the Buddhist anti-government protesters.

1971 - Laura Baugh, at the age of 16, won the United States Women's Amateur Golf tournament. She was the youngest winner in the history of the tournament.

1984 - Victoria Roche, a reserve outfielder, became the first girl to ever compete in a Little League World Series game.

1984 - Clint Eastwood was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1989 - Voyager 2, a U.S. space probe, got close to the Neptune moon called Triton.

1991 - The hard-line coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev ended. The uprising that led to the collapse was led by Russian federation President Boris Yeltsin.

1992 - NBC News fired Authur Kent two weeks after he refused an assignment to war-torn Croatia.

1993 - NASA lost contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft. The fate of the spacecraft was unknown. The mission cost $980 million.

1994 - Ernesto Zedillo won the Mexican presidential election.

1996 - The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 was signed by U.S. President Clinton. The act made it easier to obtain and keep health insurance.

1997 - Hudson Foods Inc. closed a plant in Nebraska after it had recalled 25 million pounds of ground beef that was potentially contaminated with E. coli 01557:H7. It was the largest food recall in U.S. history.

1997 - Afghanistan suspended its embassy operations in the United States.

1997 - Cicely Tyson received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - Wesley Snipes received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2002 - In Pakistan, President General Pervez Musharraf unilaterally amended the Pakistani constitution. He extended his term in office and granted himself powers that included the right to dissolve parliament.

2003 - In Ghana, businessman Gyude Bryant was selected to oversee the two-year power-sharing accord between Liberia's rebels and the government. The accord was planned to guide the country out of 14 years of civil war.

August 22, 2015

1485 - The War of the Roses ended with the death of England's King Richard III. He was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field. His successor was Henry V II

1567 - The "Council of Blood" was established by the Duke of Alba. This was the beginning of his reign of terror in the Netherlands.

1642 - The English Civil War began when Charles I called Parliament and its soldiers traitors.

1762 - Ann Franklin became the editor of the Mercury of Newport in Rhode Island. She was the first female editor of an American newspaper.

1770 - Australia was claimed under the British crown when Captain James Cook landed there.

1775 - The American colonies were proclaimed to be in a state of open rebellion by England's King George III.

1846 - The U.S. annexed New Mexico.

1851 - The schooner America outraced the Aurora off the English coast to win a trophy that became known as the America's Cup.

1865 - A patent for liquid soap was issued to William Sheppard.

1902 - In Hartford, CT, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt became the first president of the United States to ride in an automobile.

1906 - The Victor Talking Machine Company of Camden, NJ began to manufacture the Victrola. The hand-cranked unit, with horn cabinet, sold for $200.

1910 - Japan formally annexed Korea.

1911 - It was announced that Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" had been stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris. The painting reappeared two years later in Italy.

1932 - The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) began its first TV broadcast in England.

1938 - Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers appeared on the cover of "LIFE" magazine.

1941 - Nazi troops reached the outskirts of Leningrad during World War II.

1950 - Althea Gibson became the first black tennis player to be accepted into a national competition.

1951 - 75,052 people watched the Harlem Globetrotters perform. It was the largest crowd to see a basketball game.

1959 - Stephen Rockefeller married Anne Marie Rasmussen. Anne had once been a maid for the powerful and wealthy Rockefeller family.

1968 - Pope Paul VI arrived in Bogota, Colombia, for the start of the first papal visit to Latin America.

1972 - Due to its racial policies, Rhodesia was asked to withdraw from the 20th Olympic Summer Games.

1973 - Henry Kissinger was named Secretary of State by U.S. President Nixon. Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize in the same year.

1984 - The last Volkswagen Rabbit rolled off the assembly line in New Stanton, PA.

1986 - Kerr-McGee Corp. agreed to pay the estate of the late Karen Silkwood $1.38 million to settle a 10-year-old nuclear contamination lawsuit.

1989 - Nolan Ryan became the first major league pitcher to strike out 5000 batters. (MLB)

1990 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush signed an order for calling reservists to aid in the build up of troops in the Persian Gulf.

1990 - The U.S. State Department announced that the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait would not be closed under President Saddam Hussein's demand.

1990 - Angry smokers blocked a street in Moscow to protest the summer-long cigarette shortage.

1991 - It was announced by Yugoslavia that a truce ordered on August 7th with Croatia had collapsed.

1991 - Mikhail S. Gorbachev returned to Moscow after the collapse of the hard-liners' coup. On the same day he purged the men that had tried to oust him.

1992 - In Rostock, Germany, neo-Nazi violence broke out against foreigners.

1996 - U.S. President Clinton signed legislation that ended guaranteed cash payments to the poor and demanded work from recipients.

1998 - "The Howard Stern Radio Show" premiered on CBS to about 70% of the U.S.

2004 - In Oslo, Norway, a version of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" and his work "Madonna" were stolen from the Munch Museum. This version of "The Scream," one of four different versions, was a tempera painting on board.

August 24, 2015

0079 - Mount Vesuvius erupted killing approximately 20,000 people. The cities of Pompeii, Stabiae and Herculaneum were buried in volcanic ash.

0410 - The Visigoths overran Rome. This event symbolized the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

1456 - The printing of the Gutenberg Bible was completed.

1572 - The Catholics began their slaughter of the French Protestants in Paris. The killings claimed about 70,000 people.

1814 - Washington, DC, was invaded by British forces that set fire to the White House and Capitol.

1853 - The first convention of the American Pharmaceutical Association was held.

1869 - A patent for the waffle iron was received by Cornelius Swarthout.

1891 - Thomas Edison applied patents for the kinetoscope and kinetograph (U.S. Pats. 493,426 and 589,168).

1912 - A four-pound limit was set for parcels sent through the U.S. Post Office mail system.

1932 - Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the U.S. non-stop. The trip from Los Angeles, CA to Newark, NJ, took about 19 hours.

1949 - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) went into effect. The agreement was that an attack against on one of the parties would be considered "an attack against them all."

1954 - The Communist Party was virtually outlawed in the U.S. when the Communist Control Act went into effect.

1959 - Three days after Hawaiian statehood, Hiram L. Fong was sworn in as the first Chinese-American U.S. senator while Daniel K. Inouye was sworn in as the first Japanese-American U.S. representative.

1963 - John Pennel pole-vaulted 17 feet and 3/4 inches becoming the first to break the 17-foot barrier.

1968 - France became the 5th thermonuclear power when they exploded a hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific.

1975 - Davey Lopes of the Los Angeles Dodgers set a major league baseball record when he stole his 38th consecutive base.

1985 - 27 anti-apartheid leaders were arrested in South Africa as racial violence rocked the country.

1986 - Frontier Airlines shut down. Thousands of people were left stranded.

1989 - Pete Rose, the manager of the Cincinnati Reds, was banned from baseball for life after being accused of gambling on baseball.

1989 - "Total war" was declared by Columbian drug lords on their government.

1989 - The U.S. space probe, Voyager 2, sent back photographs of Neptune.

1990 - Iraqi troops surrounded foreign missions in Kuwait.

1991 - Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as the head of the Communist Party.

1992 - China and South Korea established diplomatic relations.

1995 - Microsoft's "Windows 95" went on sale.

1998 - U.S. officials cited a soil sample as part of the evidence that a Sudan plant was producing precursors to the VX nerve gas. And, therefore made it a target for U.S. missiles on August 20, 1998.

1998 - A donation of 24 beads was made, from three parties, to the Indian Museum of North America at the Crazy Horse Memorial. The beads are said to be those that were used in 1626 to buy Manhattan from the Indians.

2001 - In McAllen, TX, Bridgestone/Firestone agreed to settle out of court and pay a reported $7.5 million to a family in a rollover accident in their Ford Explorer.

2001 - The remains of nine American servicemen killed in the Korean War were returned to the U.S. The bodies were found about 60 miles north of Pyongyang. It was estimated that it would be a year before the identies of the soldiers would be known.

2001 - U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly was randomly picked to take over the Microsoft monopoly case. The judge was to decide how Microsoft should be punished for illegally trying to squelch its competitors.

2001 - NASA announced that operation of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite would end by September 30th due to budget restrictions. Though the satellite is best known for monitoring a hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica, it was designed to provide information about the upper atmosphere by measuring its winds, temperatures, chemistry and energy received from the sun.

2005 - The planet Pluto was reclassified as a "dwarf planet" by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Pluto's status was changed due to the IAU's new rules for an object qualifying as a planet. Pluto met two of the three rules because it orbits the sun and is large enough to assume a nearly round shape. However, since Pluto has an oblong orbit and overlaps the orbit of Neptune it disqualified Pluto as a planet.

August 25, 2015

1718 - Hundreds of colonists from France arrived in Louisiana. Some settled in present-day New Orleans.

1814 - The U.S. Library of Congress was destroyed by British forces.

1825 - Uruguay declared independence from Brazil.

1840 - Joseph Gibbons received a patent for the seeding machine.

1875 - Captain Matthew Webb swam from Dover, England, to Calais, France making him the first person to swim the English Channel. The feat took about 22 hours.

1902 - "Al-Hoda" began publication in New York City making it the first Arabic daily newspaper in the U.S.

1916 - The National Park Service was established as part of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

1920 - Ethelda Bleibtrey won the 100-meter freestyle swimming competition in Antwerp, Belgium. She was the first woman to win an Olympic competition for the U.S.

1920 - The first airplane to fly from New York to Alaska arrived in Nome.

1921 - The U.S. signed a peace treaty with Germany.

1939 - The movie "Wizard of Oz" opened around the United States.

1940 - Arno Rudolphi and Ann Hayward were married while suspended in parachutes at the World’s Fair in New York City.

1941 - Soviet and British troops invaded Iran. This was in reaction to the Shah's refusal to reduce the number of German residents.

1941 - Allied forces invaded Iran. Within four days the Soviet Union and England controlled Iran.

1941 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed the bill appropriating funds for construction of the Pentagon.

1944 - Paris, France, was liberated by Allied forces ending four years of German occupation.

1944 - Romania declared war on Germany.

1946 - Ben Hogan won the PGA in Portland, OR. It was his first major golf title.

1949 - NBC Radio debuted "Father Knows Best." The show went to TV in 1954.

1950 - U.S. President Truman ordered the seizure of U.S. railroads to avert a strike.

1972 - In Great Britain, computerized axial tomography (CAT scan) was introduced.

1978 - The Turin shroud believed to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ went on display for the first time in 45 years.

1981 - The U.S. Voyager 2 sent back pictures and data about Saturn. The craft came within 63,000 miles of the planet.

1983 - The U.S. and the Soviet Union signed a $10 billion grain pact.

1987 - Saudi Arabia denounced the "group of terrorists" that ran the Iranian government.

1988 - Iran and Iraq began talks in Geneva after ending their eight years of war.

1990 - Military action was authorized by the United Nations to enforce the trade embargo that had been placed on Iraq after their invasion of Kuwait.

1991 - Byelorussia declared independence from the Soviet Union.

1992 - It was reported by researchers that cigarette smoking significantly increased the risk of developing cataracts.

1993 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 3,652.09, an all-time high.

1995 - Harry Wu, human rights activist, returned to the United States. He said the spying case against him in China was "all lies."

1997 - The tobacco industry agreed to an $11.3 billion settlement with the state of Florida.

1998 - A survey released said that 1/3 of Americans use the Internet.

August 26, 2015

55 B.C. - Britain was invaded by Roman forces under Julius Caesar.

1498 - Michelangelo was commissioned to make the "Pieta."

1842 - The first fiscal year was established by the U.S. Congress to start on July 1st.

1847 - Liberia was proclaimed as an independent republic.

1873 - The school board of St. Louis, MO, authorized the first U.S. public kindergarten.

1896 - In the Philippines, and insurrection began against the Spanish government.

1920 - The 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect. The amendment prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in the voting booth.

1934 - Adolf Hitler demanded that France turn over their Saar region to Germany.

1937 - All Chinese shipping was blockaded by Japan.

1939 - The first televised major league baseball games were shown. The event was a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

1939 - The radio program, "Arch Oboler’s Plays", presented the NBC Symphony for the first time.

1945 - The Japanese were given surrender instructions on the U.S. battleship Missouri at the end of World War II.

1947 - Don Bankhead became the first black pitcher in major league baseball.

1957 - It was announced that an intercontinental ballistic missile was successfully tested by the Soviet Union.

1957 - The first Edsel made by the Ford Motor Company rolled of the assembly line.

1961 - The International Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto opened.

1973 - A U.S. Presidential Proclamation was declared that made August 26th Women's Equality Day.

1978 - Sigmund Jahn blasted off aboard the Russian Soyuz 31 and became the first German in space.

1981 - The U.S. claimed that North Korea fired an antiaircraft missile at a U.S. Surveillance plane while it was over South Korea.

1987 - The Fuller Brush Company announced plans to open two retail stores in Dallas, TX. The company that had sold its products door to door for 81 years.

1990 - The 55 Americans at the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait left Baghdad by car and headed for the Turkish border.

1991 - Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev promised that national elections would be held.

1992 - A "no-fly zone" was imposed on the southern 1/3 of Iraq. The move by the U.S., France and Britain was aimed at protecting Iraqi Shiite Muslims.

1998 - The U.S. government announced that they were investigating Microsoft in an attempt to discover if they "bullied" Intel into delaying new technology.

August 27, 2015

1660 - The books of John Milton were burned in London due to his attacks on King Charles II.

1789 - The Declaration of the Rights of Man was adopted by the French National Assembly.

1828 - Uruguay was formally proclaimed to be independent during preliminary talks between Brazil and Argentina.

1858 - The first cabled news dispatch was sent and was published by "The New York Sun" newspaper. The story was about the peace demands of England and France being met by China.

1859 - The first oil well was successfully drilled in the U.S. by Colonel Edwin L. Drake near Titusville, PA.

1889 - Charles G. Conn received a patent for the metal clarinet.

1889 - Boxer jack "Nonpareil" Dempsey was defeated for the first time of his career by George LaBlanche.

1892 - The original Metropolitan Opera House in New York was seriously damaged by fire.

1894 - The Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act was passed by the U.S. Congress. The provision within for a graduated income tax was later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

1921 - The owner of Acme Packing Company bought a pro football team for Green Bay, WI. J.E. Clair paid tribute to those who worked in his plant by naming the team the Green Bay Packers. (NFL)

1928 - The Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed by 15 countries in Paris. Later, 47 other nations would sign the pact.

1938 - Robert Frost, in a fit of jealousy, set fire to some papers to disrupt a poetry recital by another poet, Archibald MacLeish.

1939 - Nazi Germany demanded the Polish corridor and Danzig.

1945 - American troops landed in Japan after the surrender of the Japanese government at the end of World War II.

1962 - Mariner 2 was launched by the United States. In December of the same year the spacecraft flew past Venus. It was the first space probe to reach the vicinity of another planet.

1972 - North Vietnam's major port at Haiphong saw the first bombings from U.S. warplanes.

1981 - Work began on recovering a safe from the Andrea Doria. The Andrea Doria was a luxury liner that had sank in 1956 in the waters off of Massachusetts.

1984 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced that the first citizen to go into space would be a teacher. The teacher that was eventually chosen was Christa McAuliffe. She died in the Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986.

1984 - Diane Sawyer became the fifth reporter on CBS-TV's "60 Minutes."

1984 - The Menetta Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village opened. It was the first new off-Broadway theater to be built in 50 years in New York City.

1985 - The Space Shuttle Discovery left for a seven-day mission in which three satellites were launched and another was repaired and redeployed.

1986 - Nolan Ryan (Houston Astros) earned his 250th career win against the Chicago Cubs.

1989 - The first U.S. commercial satellite rocket was launched. A British communications satellite was onboard.

1990 - The U.S. State Department ordered the expulsion of 36 Iraqi diplomats.

1991 - The Soviet republic of Moldavia declared its independence.

1996 - California Governor Pete Wilson signed an order that would halt state benefits to illegal immigrants.

1998 - James Brolin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - "Titanic" became the first movie in North America to earn more than $600 million.

1999 - The final crew of the Russian space station Mir departed the station to return to Earth. Russia was forced to abandon Mir for financial reasons.

2001 - The U.S. military announced that an Air Force RQ-1B "Predator" aircraft was lost over Iraq. It was reported that the unmanned aircraft "may have crashed or been shot down."

2001 - Work began on the future site of a World War II memorial on the U.S. capital's historic national Mall. The site is between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.

August 28, 2015

1609 - Delaware Bay was discovered by Henry Hudson.

1619 - Ferdinand II was elected Holy Roman Emperor. His policy of "One church, one king" was his way of trying to outlaw Protestantism.

1774 - The first American-born saint was born in New York City. Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton was canonized in 1975.

1811 - Percy Bysshe Shelley and Harriet Westbrook eloped.

1830 - "The Tom Thumb" was demonstrated in Baltimore, MD. It was the first passenger-carrying train of its kind to be built in America.

1833 - Slavery was banned by the British Parliament throughout the British Empire.

1907 - "American Messenger Company" was started by two teenagers, Jim Casey and Claude Ryan. The company's name was later changedto "United Parcel Service."

1916 - Italy's declaration of war against Germany took effect duringWorld War I.

1917 - Ten suffragists were arrested as they picketed the White House.

1922 - The first radio commercial aired on WEAF in New York City. The Queensboro Realty Company bought 10 minutes of time for$100.

1922 - The Walker Cup was held for the first time at Southampton, NY. It is the oldest international team golf match in America.

1939 - The first successful flight of a jet-propelled airplane took place. The plane was a German Heinkel He 178.

1941 - The Football Writers Association of America was organized.

1963 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his "I Have a Dream" speech at a civil rights rally in Washington, DC. More than 200,000 people attended.

1972 - Mark Spitz captured the first of his seven gold medals at the Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. He set a world record when he completed the 200-meter butterfly in 2 minutes and 7/10ths of a second.

1981 - "The New York Daily News" published its final afternoon edition.

1990 - Iraq declared Kuwait to be its 19th province and renamed Kuwait City al-Kadhima.

1995 - The biggest bank in the U.S. was created when Chase Manhattan and Chemical Bank announced their $10 billion deal.

1996 - A divorce decree was issued for Britain's Charles and Princess Diana. This was the official end to the 15-year marriage.

1998 - The Pakistani prime minister created new Islamic order and legal system based on the Koran.

2004 - George Brunstad, at age 70, became the oldest person to swim the English Channel. The swim from Dover, England, to Sangatte, France, took 15 hours and 59 minutes.

2008 - In China, the Shanghai World Financial Center officially opened. The observation decks opened on August 30.

2014 - Google announced its Project Wing. The project was aimed at delivering products across a city using unmanned flying vehicles.

August 29, 2015

1828 - A patent was issued to Robert Turner for the self-regulating wagon brake.

1833 - The "Factory Act" was passed in England to settle child labor laws.

1842 - The Treaty of Nanking was signed by the British and the Chinese. The treaty ended the first Opium War and gave the island of Hong Kong to Britain.

1885 - The first prizefight under the Marquis of Queensberry Rules was held in Cincinnati, OH. John L. Sullivan defeated Dominick McCaffery in six rounds.

1886 - In New York City, Chinese Ambassador Li Hung-chang's chef invented chop suey.

1892 - Pop (Billy) Shriver (Chicago Cubs) caught a ball that was dropped from the top of the Washington Monument in Washington, DC.

1944 - During the continuing celebration of the liberation of France from the Nazis, 15,000 American troops marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris.

1945 - U.S. General Douglas MacArthur left for Japan to officially accept the surrender of the Japanese.

1949 - At the University of Illinois, a nuclear device was used for the first time to treat cancer patients.

1957 - Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina set a filibuster record in the U.S. when he spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes.

1962 - The lower level of the George Washington Bridge opened.

1965 - Gemini 5, carrying astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles ("Pete") Conrad, splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean after eight days in space.

1966 - Mia Farrow withdrew from the cast of the ABC-TV's "Peyton Place."

1967 - The final episode of "The Fugitive" aired.

1971 - Hank Aaron became the first baseball player in the National League to hit 100 or more runs in each of 11 seasons.

1977 - Lou Brock brought his total of stolen bases to 893. The record he beat was held by Ty Cobb for 49 years.

1983 - Two U.S. marines were killed in Lebanon by the militia group Amal when they fired mortar shells at the Beirut airport.

1983 - The anchor of the USS Monitor, from the U.S. Civil War, was retrieved by divers.

1990 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, in a television interview, declared that America could not defeat Iraq.

1991 - The Communist Party in the Soviet Union had its bank accounts frozen and activities were suspended because of the Party's role in the failed coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev.

1991 - The republics of Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement to stay in the Soviet Union.

1992 - The U.N. Security Council agreed to send troops to Somalia to guard the shipments of food.

1994 - Mario Lemieux announced that he would be taking a medical leave of absence due to fatigue, an aftereffect of his 1993 radiation treatments. He would sit out the National Hockey Leagues (NHL) 1994-95 season.

1998 - Northwest Airlines pilots went on strike after their union rejected a last-minute company offer.

2004 - India test-launched a nuclear-capable missle able to carry a one-ton warhead. The weapon had a range of 1,560 miles.

August 30, 2015

1146 - European leaders outlawed the crossbow.

1645 - American Indians and the Dutch made a peace treaty at New Amsterdam. New Amsterdam later became known as New York.

1682 - William Penn sailed from England and later established the colony of Pennsylvania in America.

1780 - General Benedict Arnold secretly promised to surrender the West Point fort to the British army.

1806 - New York City's second daily newspaper, the "Daily Advertiser," was published for the last time.

1809 - Charles Doolittle Walcott first discovered fossils near Burgess Pass. He named the site Burgess Shale after nearby Mt. Burgess.

1862 - The Confederates defeated Union forces at the second Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, VA.

1905 - Ty Cobb made his major league batting debut with the Detroit Tigers.

1928 - The Independence of India League was established in India.

1941 - During World War II, the Nazis severed the last railroad link between Leningrad and the rest of the Soviet Union.

1945 - General Douglas MacArthur set up Allied occupation headquarters in Japan.

1951 - The Philippines and the United States signed a defense pact.

1956 - In Louisianna, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway opened.

1960 - A partial blockade was imposed on West Berlin by East Germany.

1963 - The "Hotline" between Moscow and Washington, DC, went into operation.

1965 - Thurgood Marshall was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a Supreme Court justice. Marshall was the first black justice to sit on the Supreme Court.

1982 - P.L.O. leader Yasir Arafat left Beirut for Greece.

1983 - The space shuttle Challenger blasted off with Guion S. Bluford Jr. aboard. He was the first black American to travel in space.

1984 - The space shuttle Discovery lifted off for the first time. On the voyage three communications satellites were deployed.

1984 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan, and several others, were inducted into the Sportscasters Hall of Fame.

1991 - The Soviet republic of Azerbaijan declared its independence.

1993 - On CBS-TV "The Late Show with David Letterman" premiered.

1994 - Rosa Parks was robbed and beaten by Joseph Skipper. Parks was known for her refusal to give up her seat on a bus in 1955, which sparked the civil rights movement.

1994 - The largest U.S. defense contractor was created when the Lockheed and Martin Marietta corporations agreed to a merger.

1996 - An expedition to raise part of the Titanic failed when the nylon lines being used to raise part of the hull snapped.

1999 - The residents of East Timor overwhelmingly voted for independence from Indonesia. The U.N. announced the result on September 4.

2002 - Conoco Inc. and Phillips Petroleum merged to create ConocoPhillips. The new company was the third largest integrated energy company and the second largest refining company in the U.S.

August 31, 2015

1823 - Ferdinand VII was restored to the throne of Spain when invited French forces entered Cadiz. The event is known as the Battle of Trocadero.

1852 - The first pre-stamped envelopes were created with legislation of the U.S. Congress.

1881 - The first tennis championships in the U.S. were played.

1887 - The kinetoscope was patented by Thomas Edison. The device was used to produce moving pictures.

1920 - The first news program to be broadcast on radio was aired. The station was 8MK in Detroit, MI.

1920 - John Lloyd Wright was issued a patent for "Toy-Cabin Construction," which are known as Lincoln Logs. (U.S. patent 1,351,086)

1935 - The act of exporting U.S. arms to belligerents was prohibited by an act signed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1940 - Lawrence Olivier and Vivian Leigh were married.

1941 - The radio program "The Great Gildersleeve" made its debut on NBC.

1946 - Superman returned to radio on the Mutual Broadcasting System after being dropped earlier in the year.

1950 - Gil Hodges of the Brooklyn Dodgers hit four home runs in a single game off of four different pitchers.

1959 - Sandy Koufax set a National League record by striking out 18 batters.

1962 - The Caribbean nations Tobago and Trinidad became independent within the British Commonwealth.

1964 - California officially became the most populated state in America.

1965 - The Department of Housing and Urban Development was created by the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.

1980 - Poland's Solidarity labor movement was born with an agreement signed in Gdansk that ended a 17-day strike.

1981 - The 30-year contract between Milton Berle and NBC-TV expired.

1989 - Great Britain's Princess Anne and Mark Phillips announced that they were separating. The marriage was 16 years old.

1990 - U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar met with the Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz to try and negotiate a solution to the crisis in the Persian Gulf.

1990 - East and West Germany signed a treaty that meant the harmonizing of political and legal systems.

1991 - Uzbekistan and Kirghiziz declared their independence from the Soviet Union. They were the 9th and 10th republics to announce their plans to secede.

1991 - In a "Solidarity Day" protest hundreds of thousands of union members marched in Washington, DC.

1993 - Russia withdrew its last soldiers from Lithuania.

1994 - A cease-fire was declared by the Irish Republican Army after 25 years of bloodshed in Northern Ireland.

1994 - Russia officially ended its military presence in the former East Germany and the Baltics after a half-century.

1998 - A ballistic missile was fired over Japan by North Korea. The missile landed in stages in the waters around Japan. There was no known target.

September 1, 2015

1799 - The Bank of Manhattan Company opened in New York City, NY. It was the forerunner of Chase Manhattan.

1807 - Former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr was found innocent of treason.

1810 - The first plow with interchangeable parts was patented by John J. Wood.

1859 - The Pullman sleeping car was placed into service.

1878 - Emma M. Nutt became the first female telephone operator in the U.S. The company was the Telephone Dispatch Company of Boston.

1884 - The Thomas A. Edison Construction Department and the Edison Company for Isolated Lighting merged.

1887 - Emile Berliner filed for a patent for his invention of the lateral-cut, flat-disk gramophone. It is a device that is better known as a record player. Thomas Edison made the idea work.

1897 - The first section of Boston's subway system was opened.

1905 - Saskatchewan and Alberta became the ninth and tenth provinces of Canada.

1906 - jack Coombs of the American League’s Philadelphia Athletics pitched 24 innings against the Boston Red Sox. (MLB)

1922 - The first daily news program on radio was "The Radio Digest," on WBAY radio in New York City, NY.

1939 - World War II began when Germany invaded Poland.

1942 - A federal judge in Sacramento, CA, upheld the wartime detention of Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals.

1945 - The U.S. received official word of Japan's formal surrender that ended World War II. In Japan, it was actually September 2nd.

1949 - "Martin Kane, Private Eye" debuted on NBC-TV.

1951 - The ANZUS Treaty, a mutual defense pact, was signed by the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

1969 - Col. Moammar Gadhafi came into power in Libya after the government was overthrown.

1970 - The last episode of "I Dream of Jeannie" aired on NBC-TV. The show premiered was on September 18, 1965.

1971 - Danny Murtaugh (Pittsburgh Pirates) gave his lineup card to the umpire with the names of nine black baseball players on it. This was a first for Major League Baseball.

1972 - America’s Bobby Fischer beat Russia’s Boris Spassky to become world chess champion. The chess match took place in Reykjavik, Iceland.

1979 - The U.S. Pioneer 11 became the first spacecraft to visit Saturn.

1982 - J.R. Richard returned to major league baseball after a two-year absence following a near-fatal stroke.

1982 - Mexican President Jose Lopez Portillo closed all the country's private banks.

1985 - The Titanic was found by Dr. Robert Ballard and Jean Louis Michel in a joint U.S. and French expedition. The wreck site is located 963 miles northeast of New York and 453 miles southeast of the Newfoundland coast.

1986 - Jerry Lewis raised a record $34 million for Muscular Dystrophy during his annual telethon for Jerry’s kids over the Labor Day weekend.

1997 - In France, the prosecutor's office announced that the driver of the car, in which Britain's Princess Diana was killed, was over the legal alcohol limit.

1998 - The movie "Titanic" went on sale across North America.

1998 - Mark McGwire (St. Louis Cardinals) hit his 56th and 57th homeruns to set a new National League record. He would eventually reach a total of 70 for the season on September 27.

1998 - J.K. Rowling's book "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" was released in the U.S. This was the first book in the Harry Potter series.

1998 - Vietnam released 5,000 prisoners, including political dissidents, on National Day.

1999 - Twenty-two of major league baseball's 68 permanent umpires were replaced. The problem arose from their union's failed attempt to force an early start to negotiations for a new labor contract.

September 2, 2015

31 B.C. - The Roman leader Octavian defeated the alliance of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Octavian, as Augustus Caesar, became the first Roman emperor.

1666 - The Great Fire of London broke out. The fire burned for three days destroying 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral. Only 6 people were killed.

1775 - Hannah, the first American war vessel was commissioned by General George Washington.

1789 - The U.S. Treasury Department was established.

1864 - During the U.S. Civil War Union forces led by Gen. William T. Sherman occupied Atlanta following the retreat of the Confederates.

1897 - The first issue of "McCall’s" magazine was published. The magazine had been known previously as "Queens Magazine" and "Queen of Fashion."

1901 - Theodore Roosevelt, then Vice President, said "Speak softly and carry a big stick" in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair.

1930 - The "Question Mark" made the first non-stop flight from Europe to the U.S. The plane was flown by Captain Dieudonne Coste and Maurice Bellonte.

1938 - The first railroad car to be equipped with fluorescent lighting was put into operation on the New York Central railroad.

1945 - Japan surrendered to the U.S. aboard the USS Missouri, ending World War II. The war ended six years and one day after it began.

1945 - Ho Chi Minh declared the independence the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

1961 - The U.S.S.R. resumed nuclear weapons testing. Test ban treaty negotiations had failed with the U.S. and Britain when the three nations could not agree upon the nature and frequency of on-site inspections.

1962 - Ken Hubbs (Chicago Cubs) set a major-league baseball fielding record when he played errorless for his 74th consecutive game.

1963 - The integration of Tuskegee High School was prevented by state troopers assigned by Alabama Gov. George Wallace. Wallace had the building surrounded by state troopers.

1963 - "The CBS Evening News" was lengthened from 15 to 30 minutes.

1969 - NBC-TV canceled "Star Trek." The show had debuted on September 8, 1966.

1973 - Billy Martin was fired as manager of the Detroit Tigers. Martin was relieved of his duties three days after ordering his pitchers to throw spitballs against Cleveland Indians batters.

1985 - It was announced that the Titanic had been found on September 1 by a U.S. and French expedition 560 miles off Newfoundland. The luxury liner had been missing for 73 years.

1991 - The U.S. formally recognized the independence of Lithuania, Lativa and Estonia.

1992 - The U.S. and Russia agreed to a joint venture to build a space station.

1996 - Muslim rebels and the Philippine government signed a pact formally ending 26-years of insurgency that had killed more than 120,000 people.

1998 - In Canada, pilots for Canada's largest airline launch their first strike in Air Canada's history.

September 3, 2015

1189 - England's King Richard I was crowned in Westminster.

1783 - The Revolutionary War between the U.S. and Great Britain ended with the Treaty of Paris.

1833 - The first successful penny newspaper in the U.S., "The New York Sun," was launched by Benjamin H. Day.

1838 - Frederick Douglass boarded a train in Maryland on his way to freedom from being a slave.

1895 - The first professional football game was played in Latrobe, PA. The Latrobe YMCA defeated the Jeannette Athletic Club 12-0.

1935 - Sir Malcolm Campbell became the first person to drive an automobile over 300 miles an hour. He reached 304.331 MPH on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

1939 - British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, in a radio broadcast, announced that Britain and France had declared war on Germany. Germany had invaded Poland on September 1.

1943 - Italy was invaded by the Allied forces during World War II.

1951 - "Search for Tomorrow" debuted on CBS-TV.

1954 - "The Lone Ranger" was heard on radio for the final time after 2,956 episodes over a period of 21 years.

1966 - The television series "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" ended after 14 years.

1967 - The TV game show "What's My Line?" broadcast its final episode. The show aired over 17 years on CBS.

1967 - Nguyen Van Thieu was elected president of South Vietnam under a new constitution.

1967 - In Sweden, motorists stopped driving on the left side of the road and began driving on the right side.

1976 - The U.S. spacecraft Viking 2 landed on Mars. The unmanned spacecraft took the first close-up, color photos of the planet's surface.

1981 - David Brinkley left NBC News after 38 years to join with ABC.

1981 - Egypt arrested more than 1,500 opponents of the government.

1984 - Bruce Sutter (St. Louis Cardinals) set a National League record by earning his 38th save of the season.

1986 - Peat Marwick International and Klynveld Main Goerdeler of the Netherlands agreed to merge and form the world’s largest accounting firm.

1989 - The U.S. began shipping military aircraft and weapons, worth $65 million, to Columbia in its fight against drug lords.

1994 - Russia and China announced that they would no longer be targeting nuclear missiles or using force against each other.

1999 - Mario Lemieux's ownership group officially took over the National Hockey League's Pittsburgh Penguins. Lemieux became the first player in the modern era of sports to buy the team he had once played for.

2013 - Hunters in Mississippi caught a 727-pound alligator.

September 4, 2015

0476 - Romulus Augustulus, the last emperor of the western Roman Empire, was deposed when Odoacer proclaimed himself King of Italy.

1609 - English navigator Henry Hudson began exploring the island of Manhattan.

1781 - Los Angeles, CA, was founded by Spanish settlers. The original name was "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula," which translates as "The Town of the Queen of Angels."

1825 - New York Governor Clinton ceremoniously emptied a barrel of Lake Erie water in the Atlantic Ocean to consummate the "Marriage of the Waters" of the Great Lakes and the Atlantic.

1833 - Barney Flaherty answered an ad in "The New York Sun" and became the first newsboy/paperboy at the age of 10.

1882 - Thomas Edison's Pearl Street electric power station began operations in New York City. It was the first display of a practical electrical lighting system.

1885 - The Exchange Buffet opened in New York City. It was the first self-service cafeteria in the U.S.

1886 - Geronimo, and the Apache Indians he led, surrendered in Skeleton Canyon in Arizona to Gen. Nelson Miles.

1888 - George Eastman registered the name "Kodak" and patented his roll-film camera. The camera took 100 exposures per roll.

1894 - A strike in New York City by 12,000 tailors took place to protest sweatshops.

1899 - An 8.3 earthquake hit Yakutat Bar, AK.

1917 - The American expeditionary force in France suffered its first fatalities in World War I.

1921 - The first police broadcast was made by radio station WIL in St. Louis, MO.

1923 - The first American dirigible, the "Shenandoah," began its maiden voyage in Lakehurst, NJ.

1944 - During World War II, British troops entered the city of Antwerp, Belgium.

1948 - The Dutch Queen Wilhelmina left her throne for health reasons.

1949 - The longest pro tennis match in history was played when Pancho Gonzales and Ted Schroeder played 67 games in five sets.

1951 - The first live, coast-to-coast TV broadcast took place in the U.S. The event took place in San Francisco, CA, from the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference. It was seen all the way to New York City, NY.

1953 - The New York Yankees became the first baseball team to win five consecutive American League championships.

1957 - The Arkansas National Guard was ordered by Governor Orval Faubus to keep nine black students from going into Little Rock's Central High School.

1957 - The Ford Motor Company began selling the Edsel. The car was so unpopular that it was taken off the market only two years.

1967 - "Gilligan's Island" aired for the last time on CBS-TV. It ran for 98 shows.

1967 - Michigan Gov. George Romney said during a TV interview that he had undergone "brainwashing" by U.S. officials while visiting Vietnam in 1965.

1971 - "The Lawrence Welk Show" was seen for the last time on ABC-TV.

1972 - Swimmer Mark Spitz captured his seventh Olympic gold medal in the 400-meter medley relay event at Munich, Germany. Spitz was the first Olympian to win seven gold medals.

1981 - The Soviet Union began war games with about 100,000 troops on the Polish border.

1983 - U.S. officials announced that there had been an American plane, used for reconnaissance, in the vicinity of the Korean Air Lines flight that was shot down.

1986 - South African security forces halted a mass funeral for the victims of the riot in Soweto.

1989 - A reconnaissance satellite was released by the Air Force's Titan Three rocket. The Titan Three set over 200 satellites into space between 1964 and 1989.

1993 - Pope John Paul II started his first visit to the former Soviet Union.

1993 - Jim Abbott (New York Yankees) pitched a no-hitter. Abbott had been born without a right hand.

1995 - The Fourth World Conference on Women was opened in Beijing. There were over 4,750 delegates from 181 countries in attendance.

1998 - In Mexico, bankers stopped approving personal loans and mortgages.

1998 - The International Monetary Fund approved a $257 million loan for the Ukraine.

1998 - Google was incorporated as a privately held company.

1998 - While in Ireland, U.S. President Clinton said the words "I'm sorry" for the first time about his affair with Monica Lewinsky and described his behavior as indefensible.

1999 - The United Nations announced that the residents of East Timor had overwhelmingly voted for independence from Indonesia in a referendum held on August 30. In Dili, pro-Indonesian militias attacked independence supporters, burned buildings, blew up bridges and destroyed telecommunication facilities.

2002 - The Oakland Athletics won their AL-record 20th straight game. The A's gave up an 11-run lead during the game and then won the game on a Scott Hatteberg home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.

2003 - Keegan Reilly, 22, became the first parapalegic climber to reach the peak of Japan's Mount Fuji.

September 5, 2015

1698 - Russia's Peter the Great imposed a tax on beards.

1774 - The first session of the U.S. Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia. The delegates drafted a declaration of rights and grievances, organized the Continental Association, and elected Peyton Randolph as the first president of the Continental Congress.

1793 - In France, the "Reign of Terror" began. The National Convention enacted measures to repress the French Revolutionary activities.

1836 - Sam Houston was elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas.

1877 - Sioux chief Crazy Horse was killed by the bayonet of a U.S. soldier. The chief allegedly resisted confinement to a jail cell.

1881 - The American Red Cross provided relief for disaster for the first time. The disaster was the Great Fire of 1881 in Michigan.

1882 - The first U.S. Labor Day parade was held in New York City.

1885 - Jake Gumper bought the first gasoline pump to be manufactured in the U.S.

1900 - France proclaimed a protectorate over Chad.

1901 - The National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues was formed in Chicago, IL. It was the first organized baseball league.

1905 - The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed by Russia and Japan to end the Russo-Japanese War. The settlement was mediated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt in New Hampshire.

1906 - Bradbury Robinson executed the first legal forward pass in football. Robinson threw the ball to jack Schneider of St. Louis University in a game against Carroll College.

1914 - Babe Ruth hit his first home run as a professional player in the International League.

1914 - The Battle of the Marne began. The Germans, British and French fought for six days killing half a million people.

1917 - Federal raids were carried out in 24 cities on International Workers of the World (IWW) headquarters. The raids were prompted by suspected anti-war activities within the labor organization.

1930 - Charles Creighton and James Hagris completed the drive from New York City to Los Angeles and back to New York City all in reverse gear. The trip took 42 days in their 1929 Ford Model A.

1938 - The NBC Red network broadcast "Life Can Be Beautiful" for the first time.

1939 - The U.S. proclaimed its neutrality in World War II.

1945 - Iva Toguri D'Aquino was arrested. D'Aquino was suspected of being the wartime radio propagandist "Tokyo Rose". She served six years and was later pardoned by U.S. President Ford.

1953 - The first privately operated atomic reactor opened in Raleigh, NC.

1957 - jack Kerouac's "On the Road" was first published.

1958 - The first color videotaped program was aired. It was "The Betty Freezor Show" on WBTV-TV in Charlotte, NC.

1958 - Boris Pasternak's "Doctor Zhivago" was published for the first time in the U.S.

1960 - Cassius clay of Louisville, KY, won the gold medal in light heavyweight boxing at the Olympic Games in Rome, Italy. clay later changed his name to Muhammad Ali.

1961 - The U.S. government made airline hijacking a federal offense.

1971 - J.R. Richard (Houston Astros) tied Karl Spooner’s record when he struck out 15 batters in his major-league baseball debut.

1977 - The U.S. launched Voyager .

1980 - The St. Gothard Tunnel opened in Switzerland. It is the world's longest highway tunnel at 10.14 miles long.

1982 - Eddie Hill set a propeller-driven boat water speed record when he reached 229 mph.

1983 - U.S. President Reagan denounced the Soviet Union for shooting down a Korean Air Lines. Reagan demanded that the Soviet Union pay reparations for the act that killed 269 people.

1983 - "Sports Illustrated" became the first national weekly magazine to use four-color process illustrations on every page.

1983 - The "MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour" on PBS (Public Broadcasting System) became the first hour-long network news show.

1984 - The space shuttle Discovery landed after its maiden voyage.

1984 - Mortimer Zuckerman purchased the newsmagazine, "U.S. News & World Report" for $163 million.

1985 - Rioting in South Africa spilled into white neighborhoods for the first time.

1986 - Merv Griffin aired his final program for Metromedia Television after 23 years on various talk shows.

1986 - NASA launched DOD-1.

1989 - Chris Evert retired from professional tennis after a 19 year career.

1989 - Deborah Norville became the news anchor of the "Today" show.

1990 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein urged for a Holy War against the West and former allies.

1991 - Soviet lawmakers created an interim government to usher in the confederation after dissolving the U.S.S.R. The new name the Union of Sovereign States was taken.

1992 - A General Motors Corporation strike ended with a new agreement being approved. Nearly 43,000 workers were on strike.

1995 - France set off an underground nuclear blast in the South Pacific.

1996 - The play "Summer and Smoke" opened at the Criterion Theatre.

2001 - Fox News Channel terminated Paula Zahn for breach of contract.

2003 - In London, magician David Blaine entered a clear plastic box and then suspended by a crane over the banks of the Thames River. He remained there until October 19 surviving only on water.

September 6, 2015

1620 - The Pilgrims left on the Mayflower from Plymouth, England to settle in the New World.

1819 - Thomas Blanchard patented a machine called the lathe.

1837 - The Oberlin Collegiate Institute of Ohio went co-educational.

1876 - The Southern Pacific rail line from Los Angeles to San Francisco was completed.

1899 - Carnation processed its first can of evaporated milk.

1901 - U.S. President William McKinley was shot and mortally wounded (he died eight days later) by Leon Czolgosz. Czolgosz, an American anarchist, was executed the following October.

1909 - Robert Peary, American explorer, sent word that he had reached the North Pole. He had reached his goal five months earlier.

1939 - South Africa declared war on Germany.

1941 - Jews in German-occupied areas were ordered to wear the Star of David with the word "Jew" inscribed. The order only applied to Jews over the age of 6.

1943 - The youngest player to appear in an American League baseball game was pitcher Carl Scheib of the Philadelphia Athletics. Scheib was 16 years, eight months and five days old.

1944 - During World War II, the British government relaxed blackout restrictions and suspended compulsory training for the Home Guard.

1948 - Queen Juliana of the Netherlands was crowned.

1952 - In Montreal, Canadian television began broadcasting.

1972 - Rick DeMont lost the gold medal he received in a 400-meter swimming event because a banned drug was found in his system during routine drug testing.

1975 - Martina Navratilova requested political asylum while in New York for the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament.

1978 - James Wickwire and Louis Reichardt reached the top of the world's second largest mountain, Pakistan's K-2. They were the first Americans to reach the summit.

1990 - Iraq warned that anyone trying to flee the country without permission would be put in prison for life.

1991 - The State Council of the Soviet Union recognized the independence of the Baltic states.

1991 - The name St. Petersburg was restored to Russia's second largest city. The city was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great. The name has been changed to Petrograd (1914) and to Leningrad (1924).

1992 - A 35-year old man died ten weeks after receiving a transplanted baboon liver.

1993 - Renault of France and Volvo of Sweden announced they were merging. Volvo eventually canceled the deal the following December.

1995 - U.S. Senator Bob Packwood was expelled by the Senate Ethics Committee.

1995 - Cal Ripken played his 2,131st consecutive game setting a new record. Lou Gehrig previously held the record.

1996 - Eddie Murray (Baltimore Orioles) hit his 500th career home run during a game against the Detroit Tigers. He was only the third person to have at least 3,000 hits and 500 home runs.

2000 - The U.N. Millennium Summit began in New York. It was the largest gathering of world leaders in history with more than 150 present.

2001 - The U.S. Justice Department announced that it was seeking a lesser antitrust penalty and would not attempt to break up Microsoft.

2001 - eBay Inc. was found not liable for copyright infringement because bootleg copies of a Charles Manson documentary had been sold on the site.

2002 - In New York, the U.S. Congress convened at Federal Hall for a rare special session. The session was held in New York to express the nation's mourning for the loss on September 11, 2001 and unity in the war against terrorism.

2002 - At the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the exhibition "George Catlin and His Indian Gallery" went on view. The exhibit contained over 400 objects.

September 7, 2015

1812 - Napoleon defeated the Russian army of Alexander I at the battle of Borodino.

1813 - The nickname "Uncle Sam" was first used as a symbolic reference to the United States. The reference appeared in an editorial in the New York's Troy Post.

1822 - Brazil declared its independence from Portugal.

1880 - George Ligowsky was granted a patent for his device that threw clay pigeons for trapshooters.

1888 - Edith Eleanor McLean became the first baby to be placed in an incubator.

1896 - A.H. Whiting won the first automobile race held on a racetrack. The race was held in Cranston, RI.

1901 - The Boxer Rebellion began in China ending the Peace of Beijing.

1915 - Johnny Gruelle received a patent for his Raggedy Ann doll. (U.S. Patent D47789)

1921 - Margaret Gorman of Washington, DC, was crowned the first Miss America in Atlantic City, NJ.

1927 - Philo T. Farnsworth succeeded in transmitting an image through purely electronic means by using an image dissector.

1930 - The cartoon "Blondie" made its first appearance in the comic strips.

1940 - London received its initial rain of bombs from Nazi Germany during World War II.

1942 - During World War II, the Russian army counter attacked the German troops outside the city of Stalingrad.

1963 - The National Professional Football Hall of Fame was dedicated in Canton, OH.

1966 - The final episode of the original "The Dick Van Dyke Show" was aired on CBS-TV.

1971 - "The Beverly Hillbillies" was seen for the final time on CBS-TV.

1977 - The Panama Canal treaties were signed by U.S. President Carter and General Omar Torrijos Herrera. The treaties called for the U.S. to turn over control of the canal's waterway to Panama in the year 2000.

1979 - ESPN, the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, made its debut on cable TV.

1983 - In Ireland, voters approved a constitutional ammendment that banned abortion.

1984 - American Express Co. issued the first of its Platinum charge cards.

1986 - Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins threw his 100th career touchdown pass, in only his 44th NFL game, which set a NFL record.

1986 - President Augusto Pinochet survived an assassination attempt made by guerrillas.

1986 - Desmond Tutu was the first black to be installed to lead the Anglican Church in southern Africa.

1987 - Erich Honecker became the first East German head of state to visit West Germany.

1989 - Legislation was approved by the U.S. Senate that prohibited discrimination against the handicapped in employment, public accommodations, transportation and communications.

1995 - U.S. Senator Bob Packwood announced that he would resign after 27 years in the Senate.

1998 - Mark McGwire set a new major league baseball record for most homeruns hit in a single season. The previous record was 61 set in 1961.

1999 - Viacom Inc. announced that it had plans to buy CBS Corp.

2001 - Barry Bonds (San Francisco Giants) became the only the fifth player in major league baseball history to hit 60 home runs in a season. (California)

September 8, 2015

1565 - A Spanish expedition established the first permanent European settlement in North America at present-day St. Augustine, FL.

1664 - The Dutch surrendered New Amsterdam to the British, who then renamed it New York.

1866 - The first recorded birth of sextuplets took place in Chicago, IL. The parents were James and Jennie Bushnell.

1892 - An early version of "The Pledge of Allegiance" appeared in "The Youth's Companion."

1893 - In New Zealand, the Electoral Act 1893 was passed by the Legislative Council. It was consented by the governor on September 19 giving all women in New Zealand the right to vote.

1935 - U.S. Senator Huey P. Long, "The Kingfish" of Louisiana politics, was shot and mortally wounded. He died two days later.

1945 - In Washington, DC, a bus equipped with a two-way radio was put into service for the first time.

1945 - Bess Myerson of New York was crowned Miss America. She was the first Jewish contestant to win the title.

1951 - A peace treaty with Japan was signed by 48 other nations in San Francisco, CA.

1952 - The Ernest Hemingway novel "The Old Man and the Sea" was published.

1960 - NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, was dedicated by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The facility had been activated in July earlier that year.

1966 - NBC-TV aired the first episode of "Star Trek" entitled "The Man Trap". The show was canceled on September 2, 1969.

1971 - In Washington, DC, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was inaugurated. The opening featured the premiere of Leonard Bernstein's "Mass."

1973 - Hank Aaron hit his 709th home run.

1974 - U.S. President Ford granted an unconditional pardon to former U.S. President Nixon.

1975 - In Boston, MA, public schools began their court-ordered citywide busing program amid scattered incidents of violence.

1986 - Herschel Walker made his start in the National Football League (NFL) after leaving the New Jersey Generals of the USFL.

1997 - America Online acquired CompuServe.

1998 - Mark McGwire (St. Louis Cardinals) hit his 62nd home run of the season. He had beaten a record that had stood for 37 years by Roger Maris. McGwire would eventually reach 70 home runs on September 27.

1999 - Russia's Mission Control switched off the Mir space station's central computer and other systems to save energy during a planned six months of unmanned flights.

September 9, 2015

490 B.C. - The Battle of Marathon took place between the invading Persian army and the Athenian Army. The marathon race was derived from the events that occurred surrounding this battle.

1776 - The second Continental Congress officially made the term "United States", replacing the previous term "United Colonies."

1836 - Abraham Lincoln received his license to practice law.

1850 - California became the 31st state to join the union.

1898 - In Omaha, NE, Tommy Fleming of Eau Claire, WI won the first logrolling championship.

1893 - U.S. President Grover Cleveland's wife, Frances Cleveland, gave birth to a daughter, Esther. It was the first time a president's child was born in the White House.

1904 - Mounted police were used for the first time in the City of New York.

1911 - Italy declared war on the Ottoman Turks and annexed Libya, Tripolitania, and Cyrenaica in North Africa.

1919 - The majority of Boston's police force went on strike. The force was made up of 1,500 men.

1919 - Alexander Graham Bell and Casey Baldwin's HD-4, a hydrofoil craft, set a world marine speed record.

1926 - The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) was created by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA).

1942 - Japan dropped incendiaries over NE in an attempt to set fire to the forests in Oregon and Washington. The forest did not ignite.

1943 - During World War II Allied forces landed at Taranto and Salerno.

1946 - Ben Alexander hosted "Heart’s Desire" for the first time on the Mutual Broadcasting System.

1948 - North Korea became the People's Democratic Republic of Korea.

1950 - Sal Maglie (New York Giants) pitched a fourth consecutive shutout. Only four other pitchers in the National League had ever accomplished this feat.

1957 - The first civil rights bill to pass Congress since Reconstruction was signed into law by U.S. President Eisenhower.

1965 - French President Charles de Gaulle announced that France was withdrawing from NATO to protest the domination of the U.S. in the organization.

1965 - Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitched the eighth perfect game in major league baseball history.

1971 - Gordie Howe of the Detroit Red Wings retired from the National Hockey League (NHL).

1979 - Tracy Austin, at 16, became the youngest player to win the U.S. Open women’s tennis title.

1981 - Nicaragua declared a state of economic emergency and banned strikes.

1983 - The Soviet Union announced that the Korean jetliner the was shot down on September 1, 1983 was not an accident or an error.

1984 - Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears broke Jim Brown’s combined yardage record when he reached 15,517 yards.

1986 - Frank Reed was taken hostage in Lebanon by pro-Iranian kidnappers. The director of a private school in Lebanon was released 44 months later.

1986 - Ted Turner presented the first of his colorized films on WTBS in Atlanta, GA.

1986 - Gennadiy Zakharov was indicted by a New York jury on espionage charges. Zakharov was a Soviet United Nations employee.

1987 - Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer aired for the last time on CBS.

1993 - Israeli and PLO leaders agreed to recognize each other.

1994 - The U.S. agreed to accept about 20,000 Cuban immigrants a year. This was in return for Cuba's promise to halt the flight of refugees.

1994 - The space shuttle Discovery blasted off on an 11-day mission.

1995 - Amtrak's Broadway Limited service made its final run between New York City, NY and Chicago, IL.

1997 - Sinn Fein, the IRA's political ally, formally renounced violence as it took its place in talks on Northern Ireland's future.

1998 - Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr delivered to the U.S. Congress 36 boxes of material concerning his investigation of U.S. President Clinton.

1998 - Four tourists who had paid $32,500 each were taken in submarine to view the wreckage of the Titanic. The ship is 2 miles below the Atlantic off Newfoundland.

1999 - The Sega Dreamcast game system went on sale. By 1:00pm all Toys R Us locations in the U.S. had sold out.

2008 - The iTunes music Store reached 100 million applications downloaded.

2009 - The iTunes music Store reached 1.8 billion applications downloaded.

2014 - Apple unveiled the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport and Apple Watch Edition.

September 10, 2015

1608 - John Smith was elected president of the Jamestown, VA colony council.

1794 - America's first non-denominational college was charted. Blount College later became the University of Tennessee.

1813 - The first defeat of British naval squadron occurred in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. The leader of the U.S. fleet sent the famous message "We have met the enemy, and they are ours" to U.S. General William Henry Harrison.

1845 - King Willem II opened Amsterdam Stock exchange.

1846 - Elias Howe received a patent for his sewing machine.

1847 - The first theater opened in Hawaii.

1862 - Rabbi Jacob Frankel became the first Jewish Army chaplain.

1897 - British police arrest George Smith for drunken driving. It was the first DWI.

1899 - A second quake in seven days hit Yakutat Bay, AK. It measured 8.6.

1913 - The Lincoln Highway opened. It was the first paved coast-to-coast highway in the U.S.

1919 - New York City welcomed home 25,000 soldiers and General John J. Pershing who had served in the First Division during World War I.

1919 - Austria and the Allies signed the Treaty of St.-Germain-en-Laye. Austria recognized the independence of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.

1921 - The Ayus Autobahn in Germany opened near Berlin. The road is known for its nonexistent speed limit.

1923 - The Irish Free state joined the League of Nations.

1926 - Germany joined the League of Nations.

1935 - "Popeye" was heard on NBC radio for the first time.

1939 - Canada declared war on Germany.

1940 - In Britain, Buckingham Palace was hit by German bomb.

1942 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt mandated gasoline rationing as part of the U.S. wartime effort.

1943 - German forces began their occupation of Rome during World War II.

1948 - Mildred "Axis Sally" Gillars was indicted for treason in Washington, DC. Gillars was a Nazi radio propagandist during World War II. She was convicted and spent 12 years in prison.

1950 - Eddie Cantor began working on TV on the "Colgate Comedy Hour" on NBC.

1951 - Britain began an economic boycott of Iran.

1953 - Swanson began selling its first "TV dinner."

1955 - "Gunsmoke" premiered on CBS.

1955 - Bert Parks began a 25-year career as host of the "Miss America Pageant" on NBC.

1956 - Great Britain performed a nuclear test at Maralinga, Australia.

1961 - Mickey Mantle tied a major league baseball record for home runs when he hit the 400th of his career.

1963 - Twenty black students entered public schools in Alabama at the end of a standoff between federal authorities and Alabama governor George C. Wallace.

1972 - Gayle Sayers (Chicago Bears) retired from the National Football League (NFL).

1974 - Lou Brock (St. Louis Cardinals) set a new major league baseball record when he stole his 105th base of the season.

1977 - "Mickey Finn" appeared in the comic pages for the last time.

1979 - U.S. President Carter granted clemency to four Puerto Rican nationalists who had been imprisoned for an attack on the U.S. House of Representatives in 1954 and an attempted assassination of U.S. President Truman in 1950.

1981 - Pablo Picasso's mural Guernica was received in the town of Guernica.

1984 - The Federal Communications Commission changed a rule to allow broadcasters to own 12 AM and 12 FM radio stations. The previous limit was 7 of each.

1989 - Hungary gave permission to thousands of East German refugees and visitors to immigrate to West Germany.

1990 - Iran agreed to resume full diplomatic ties with past enemy Iraq.

1990 - Iraq's Saddam Hussein offered free oil to developing nations in an attempt to win their support during the Gulf War Crisis.

1992 - In Minneapolis, MN, a federal jury struck down professional football's limited free agency system.

1998 - Mac Davis received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - U.S. President Clinton met with members of his Cabinet to apologize, ask forgiveness and promise to improve as a person in the wake of the scandal involving Monica Lewinsky.

1998 - Northwest Airlines announced an agreement with pilots, ending a nearly two-week walkout.

1999 - A bronze sculpture of a war horse just over 24 feet high was dedicated in Milan, Italy.

2002 - Florida tested its new elections system. The test resulted in polling stations opening late and problems occurred with the touch screen voting machines.

2002 - The "September 11: Bearing Witness to History" exhibit opened at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

2002 - Switzerland became the 190th member of the United Nations.

September 11, 2015

1297 - Scotsman William Wallace defeated the English forces of Sir Hugh de Cressingham at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

1499 - French forces took over Milan, Italy.

1609 - Explorer Henry Hudson sailed into New York harbor and discovered Manhattan Island and the Hudson River.

1695 - Imperial troops under Eugene of Savoy defeated the Turks at the Battle of Zenta.

1709 - An Anglo-Dutch-Austrian force defeated the French in the Battle of Malplaquet.

1714 - Spanish and French troops broke into Barcelona and ended Catalonia's sovereignty after 13 months of seige.

1776 - A Peace Conference was held between British General Howe and three representatives of the Continental Congress (Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Edward Rutledge). The conference failed and the American war for independence continued for seven years.

1777 - American forces, under General George Washington, were forced to retreat at the Battle of Brandywine Creek by British forces under William Howe. The Stars and Stripes (American flag) were carried for the first time in the battle.

1786 - The Convention of Annapolis opened with the aim of revising the articles of the confederation.

1789 - Alexander Hamilton was appointed by U.S. President George Washington to be the first secretary of the treasury.

1814 - The U.S. fleet defeated a squadron of British ships in the Battle of Lake Champlain, VT.

1842 - 1,400 Mexican troops captured San Antonio, TX. The Mexicans retreated with prisoners.

1855 - The siege of Sevastopol ended when French, British and Piedmontese troops captured the main naval base of the Russian Black fleet in the Crimean War.

1875 - "Professor Tidwissel's Burglar Alarm" was featured in the New York Daily Graphic and became the first comic strip to appear in a newspaper.

1877 - The first comic-character timepiece was patented by the Waterbury Clock Company.

1883 - The mail chute was patented by James Cutler. The new device was first used in the Elwood Building in Rochester, NY.

1897 - A ten-week strike of coal workers in Pennsylvania, WV, and Ohio came to an end. The workers won and eight-hour workday, semi-monthly pay, and company stores were abolished.

1904 - The U.S. battleship Connecticut was launched in New York.

1910 - In Hollywood, the first commercially successful electric bus line opened.

1926 - In Honolulu Harbor, HI, the Aloha Tower was dedicated.

1936 - Boulder Dam in Nevada was dedicated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt by turning on the dam's first hydroelectric generator. The dam is now called Hoover Dam.

1941 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave orders to attack any German or Italian vessels found in U.S. defensive waters. The U.S. had not officially entered World War II at this time.

1941 - Charles A. Lindbergh brought on charges of anti-Semitism with a speech in which he blamed "the British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt administration" for trying to draw the United States into World War II.

1941 - In Arlington, VA, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Pentagon took place.

1951 - Florence Chadwick became the first woman to swim the English Channel from both directions.

1952 - Dr. Charles Hufnagel successfully replaced a diseased aorta valve with an artificial valve made of plastic.

1954 - The Miss America beauty pageant made its network TV debut on ABC. Miss California, Lee Ann Meriwether, was the winner.

1959 - The U.S. Congress passed a bill authorizing the creation of food stamps.

1964 - "Friday Night Fights" was seen for the last time.

1965 - The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) arrived in South Vietnam and was stationed at An Khe.

1967 - The Carol Burnett Show premiered on CBS.

1970 - The last "Get Smart" episode aired on CBS-TV.

1974 - "Little House On The Prairie" made its television debut.

1974 - The St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Mets set a National League record when they played 25 innings. It was the second longest game in professional baseball history.

1977 - The Atari 2600 was released. It was originally sold as the Atari VCS. The system was discontinued on January 1, 1992.

1985 - Pete Rose (Cincinnati Reds) achieved hit number 4,192 to break the record held by Ty Cobb.

1985 - A U.S. satellite passed through the tail of the Giacobini-Zinner comet. It was the first on-the-spot sampling of a comet.

1990 - U.S. President Bush vowed "Saddam Hussein will fail" while addressing Congress on the Persian Gulf crisis. In the speech Bush spoke of an objective of a new world order - "freer from the threat of terror, stronger in the pursuit of justice, and more secure in the quest for peace".

1991 - Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev announced that thousands of troops would be drawn out of Cuba.

1997 - John Lee Hooker received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1997 - Scotland voted to create its own Parliament after 290 years of union with England.

1998 - Independent counsel Kenneth Starr sent a report to the U.S. Congress accusing President Clinton of 11 possible impeachable offenses.

1999 - The Wall Street Journal reported that Bayer Corp. had quit putting a wad of cotton in their bottles of aspirin. Bayer had actually stopped the practice earlier in the year.

2001 - In the U.S., four airliners were hijacked and were intentionally crashed. Two airliners hit the World Trade Center, which collapsed shortly after, in New York City, NY. One airliner hit the Pentagon in Arlington, VA. Another airliner crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. About 3,000 people were killed.

2012 - Terrorists attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Four Americans were brutally murdered and ten others were injured.

September 12, 2015

1609 - English explorer Henry Hudson sailed down what is now known as the Hudson River.

1814 - During the War of 1812, the Battle of North Point was fought in Maryland.

1866 - "The Black Crook" opened in New York City. It was the first American burlesque show.

1873 - The first practical typewriter was sold to customers.

1878 - Patent litigation involving the Bell Telephone Company against Western Union Telegraph Company and Elisha Gray began. The issues were over various telephone patents.

1914 - The first battle of Marne ended when the allied forces stopped the German offensive in France.

1916 - Adelina and August Van Buren finished the first successful transcontinental motorcycle tour to be attempted by two women. They started in New York City on July 5, 1916.

1918 - During World War I, At the Battle of St. Mihiel, U.S. Army personnel operate tanks for the first time. The tanks were French-built.

1922 - The Episcopal Church removed the word "Obey" from the bride's section of wedding vows.

1928 - Katharine Hepburn made her stage debut in the play "The Czarina." Four years later she made her film debut in "A Bill of Divorcement."

1938 - In a speech, Adolf Hitler demanded self-determination for the Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia.

1940 - The Lascaux paintings were discovered in France. The cave paintings were 17,000 years old and were some of the best examples of art from the Paleolithic period.

1943 - During World War II, Benito Mussolini was taken by German paratroopers from the Italian government that was holding him.

1944 - U.S. Army troops entered Germany, near Trier, for the first time during World War II.

1953 - U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier.

1953 - Nikita Krushchev was elected as the first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

1954 - "Lassie" made its television debut on CBS. The last show aired on September 12, 1971.

1963 - The last episode of "Leave it to Beaver" was aired. The show had debuted on October 4, 1957.

1966 - "Family Affair" premiered on CBS television.

1974 - Violence occurred on the opening day of classes in Boston, MA, due opposition to court-ordered school "busing."

1974 - Emperor Haile Selassie was taken out of power by Ethiopia's military after ruling for 58 years.

1977 - South African anti-apartheid activist Stephen Biko died at the age of 30. The student leader died while in police custody which triggered an international outcry.

1979 - Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox became the first American League player to get 3,000 career hits and 400 career home runs.

1983 - Arnold Schwarzenegger became a U.S. citizen. He had emigrated from Austria 14 years earlier.

1984 - Michael Jordan signed a seven-year contract to play basketball with the Chicago Bulls.

1984 - Dwight Gooden (New York) Mets set a rookie strikeout record with his 251st strikeout of the season.

1991 - The space shuttle Discovery took off on a mission to deploy an observatory that was to study the Earth's ozone layer.

1992 - Police in Peru captured Shining Path founder Abimael Guzman.

1992 - Dr. Mae Carol Jemison became the first African-American woman in space. She was the payload specialist aboard the space shuttle Endeavor. Also onboard were Mission Specialist N. Jan Davis and Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Mark C. Lee. They were the first married couple to fly together in space. And, Mamoru Mohri became the first Japanese person to fly into space.

2009 - Steve Jobs announced that Apple's iTunes had 88% of the legal U.S. music download market.

September 12, 2015

1759 - The French were defeated by the British on the Plains of Abraham in the final French and Indian War.

1788 - The Constitutional Convention decided that the first federal election was to be held on Wednesday the following February. On that day George Washington was elected as the first president of the United States. In addition, New York City was named the temporary national capital.

1789 - The United States Government took out its first loan.

1847 - U.S. forces took the hill Chapultepec during the Mexican-American War.

1862 - During the American Civil War General Lee's Order No. 191 was found by federal soldiers in Maryland.

1898 - Hannibal Williston Goodwin patented celluloid photographic film, which is used to make movies.

1922 - In El Azizia, Libya, the highest shade temperature was recorded at 136.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

1935 - Aviator Howard Hughes, Jr., of Houston, set a new airspeed record of 352 mph with his H-1 airplane (Winged Bullet).

1937 - The first broadcast of "Kitty Keene, Incorporated" was heard on the NBC Red network.

1943 - Chiang Kai-shek became the president of China.

1948 - The School of Performing Arts opened in New York City. It was the first public school to specialize in performing arts.

1948 - Margaret Chase Smith was elected to the U.S. Senate and became the first woman to serve in both houses of the U.S. Congress.

1949 - The Ladies Professional Golf Association of America was formed.

1959 - The Soviet Union's Luna 2 became the first space probe to reach the moon. It was launched the day before.

1960 - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission banned payola.

1970 - The first New York City Marathon took place. Fireman Gary Muhrucke won the race.

1971 - In New York, National Guardsmen stormed the Attica Correctional Facility and put an end to the four-day revolt. A total of 43 people were killed in the final assault. A committee was organized to investigate the riot on September 30, 1971.

1971 - The World Hockey Association was formed.

1977 - The first diesel automobiles were introduced by General Motors.

1981 - U.S. Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig said the U.S. had physical evidence that Russia and its allies used poisonous biological weapons in Laos, Cambodia and Afghanistan.

1988 - Forecasters reported that Hurricane Gilbert's barometric pressure measured 26.13. It was the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere.

1993 - "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" premiered on NBC.

1993 - Israel and Palestine signed their first major agreement. Palestine was granted limited self-government in the Gaza Strip and in Jericho.

1994 - U.S. President Bill Clinton signed a $30 billion crime bill into law.

1998 - The New York Times closed its Web site after hackers added offensive material.

2001 - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell named Osama bin Laden as the prime suspect in the terror attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Limited commercial flights resumed in the U.S. for the first time in two days.

September 14, 2015

1807 - Former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr was acquitted of a misdemeanor charge. Two weeks earlier Burr had been found innocent of treason.

1812 - Moscow was set on fire by Russians after Napoleon Bonaparte's troops invaded.

1814 - Francis Scott Key wrote the "Star-Spangled Banner," a poem originally known as "Defense of Fort McHenry," after witnessing the British bombardment of Fort McHenry, MD, during the War of 1812. The song became the official U.S. national anthem on March 3, 1931.

1847 - U.S. forces took control of Mexico City under the leadership of General Winfield Scott.

1866 - George K. Anderson patented the typewriter ribbon.

1899 - In New York City, Henry Bliss became the first automobile fatality.

1901 - U.S. President William McKinley died of gunshot wounds inflicted by an assassin. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt, at age 42, succeeded him.

1915 - Carl G. Muench received a patent for Insulit, the first sound-absorbing material to be used in buildings.

1938 - The VS-300 made its first flight. The craft was based on the helicopter technology patented by Igor Sikorsky.

1940 - The Selective Service Act was passed by the U.S. Congress providing the first peacetime draft in the United States.

1948 - In New York, a groundbreaking ceremony took place at the site of the United Nations' world headquarters.

1959 - Luna II, a Soviet space probe, became the first man-made object on the moon when it crashed on the surface.

1960 - The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was founded. The core members were Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.

1963 - Mary Ann Fischer gave birth to America's first surviving quintuplets.

1965 - "My Mother The Car" premiered on NBC TV. The series was canceled after only a few weeks after the debut.

1972 - "The Waltons" premiered on CBS-TV.

1975 - Pope Paul VI declared Mother Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton the first U.S.-born saint.

1978 - "Mork & Mindy" premiered on ABC-TV.

1983 - The U.S. House of Representatives voted 416-0 in a resolution condemning the Soviet Union for the shooting down of a Korean jet on September 1.

1984 - Joe Kittinger became the first person to fly a balloon solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

1987 - Tony Magnuson cleared 9.5 feet above the top of the U-ramp and set a new skateboard high jump record.

1989 - Joseph T. Wesbecker shot and killed eight people and wounded twelve others at a printing plant in Louisville, KY. Wesbecker, 47 years old, was on disability for mental illness. He took his own life after the incident.

1994 - It was announced that the season was over for the National Baseball League on the 34th day of the players strike. The final days of the regular season were canceled.

1998 - Jaime Jarrin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - Israel announced that they had successfully tested its Arrow-2 missile defense system. The system successfully destroyed a simulated target.

1999 - Disney World closed down for the first time in its 28-year history. The closure was due to Hurricane Floyd heading for Florida.

1999 - It was announced that "US" magazine would change from monthly to weekly and change its name to "USWeekly."

2001 - Nintendo released the GameCube home video game console in Japan.

2001 - The FBI released the names of the 19 suspected hijackers that had taken part in the September 11 terror attacks on the U.S.

2009 - Greyhound UK began operations as an hourly service between London and Portsmouth or Southampton.

Sign In

Join Toyota Owners Club

On This Day

Recommended Posts

Raistlin

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Raistlin

Toyota Official Store

Latest Deals

Create an account or sign in to comment

Create an account

Sign in

Topics

Our picks

Picked By

Picked By

Picked By

Picked By

Picked By

Forums

News

Membership