30th of September

Today is the 273rd day of the year, with 92 days remaining until the end of the year.

1882 - The world's first commercial hydroelectric power plant, begins operation on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin.

1888 - Jack the Ripper kills his third and fourth victims, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes.

1904 - Hubert Cecil Booth patents the vacuum cleaner.

1927 - Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 60 home runs in a season.

1935 - The Hoover Dam, astride the border between the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada is dedicated.

1941 - German Einsatzgruppe C complete the Babi Yur massacre, in Kiev, Ukraine.

1947 - The World Series, featuring the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers, is televised for the first time.

1962 - James Meredith enters the University of Mississippi, defying segregation.

1968 - The Boeing 747 is rolled out and shown to the public for the first time at the Boeing Everett Factory.

1972 - Roberto Clemente records the 3,000th and final hit of his career.

1975 - The AH-64 Apache makes its first flight.

1980 - Ethernet specifications are published Xerox working with Intel and Digital Equipment Corporation.

1982 - Cyanide-laced Tylenol kills six people in the Chicago area.  Seven are killed in all.

1986 - Mordechai Vanunu, who revealed details of Isreal's covert nuclear program to British media, is kidnapped in Rome, Italy by the Israeli Mossad.

2004 - The first images of a lie giant squid in its natural habitat are taken 600 miles south of Tokyo, Japan.

2004 - The AIM-54 Phoenix, the primary missile for the F-14 Tomcat, is retired from service.  Almost two years later, the aircraft itself is retired.

James Dean - American film star, dies in a car accident at the age of 24 in 1955.  His accident was caused while he was driving his Porsche 550 Spyder on route 466 east of Cholame, San Luis Obispo County, when a black-and-white 1950 Ford Custom Tudor coupe driven by Cal Polytech student Donald Turnupseed, crossed into Dean's lane while taking a fork to State Route 41.  The two cars collided, with Dean flying out of his car, and most likely slamming his head on the grill of the other car, had multiple fractures of the jaw, arms and legs, as well as massive internal bleeding.

29th of September

Today is the 272nd day of the year, with only 93 days remaining.

480 BC - During the Battle of Salamis, The Greek fleet under Themistocles defeats the Persian fleet under Xerxes I.

1789 AD - The United States Department of War first establishes a regular army with a strength of several hundred men.

1789 - The first United States Congress adjourns.

1864 - The Battle of Chaffin's Farm is fought during the War of Secesssion.

1907 - The cornerstone is laid at Washington National Cathedral in the U.S. capital.

1916 - John D. Rockefeller becomes the second billionaire.

1943 - General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Italian Marshal Peitro Badoglio sign an armistice aboard the Royal Navy battleship HMS Nelson, off the coast of Malta.

1951 - The first live sporting event seen coast-to-coast in the U.S., is a college football game between Duke and the University of Pittsburgh, is televised on NBC.

1966 - The Chevrolet Camaro, originally named Panther, is introduced.

1990 - The YF-22, which would later become the F-22 Raptor, flies for the first time.

2008 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points, the largest single-day point loss in its history.

28th of September

It is the 271st day of the year, with only 94 days remaining until the new year.

1708 - Peter the Great defeats the Swedes at the Battle of Lesnaya.

1781 - American forces backed by a French fleet begin the siege of Yorktown, Virginia during the American Revolution.

1787 - The newly completed United States Constitution is voted on by the U.S. Congress and sent to the state legislatures for their approval.

1928 - Sir Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.

1939 - Warsaw surrenders to Nazi Germany during World War II.

1944 - Soviet Army troops liberate Klooga concentration camp in Estonia.

1951 - CBS makes the first color televisions available for sale to the general public, but the product is discontinued less than a month later.

1994 - The car ferry MS Estonia sinks in the Baltic Sea, killing 852 people.

27th of September

It is the 270th day of the year with 95 days remaining until the end of the year.


1066 - William the Conqueror and his army, set sail from the mouth of the Somme River, beginning the Norman Conquest of England.


1540 - The Society of Jesus, The Jesuits, receives its charter from Pope Paul III.


1590 - Pope Urban VII, dies at the age of 69 only 13 days after being chosen as the Pope, making his reign the shortest papacy in history.


1777 - For one day, Lancaster, Pennsylvania is the capital of the United States.


1821 - Mexico gains its independence from the Spanish Crown.


1822 - Jean-Francois Champollion announces that he has deciphered the Rosetta Stone.


1825 - The Stockton and Darlington Railway opens, and begins operation of the world's first service of locomotive-hauled passenger trains.


1905 - The physics journal Annalen der Physik published Albert Einstein's paper, "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", introducing the equation E=mc².

1908 - The first production of the Ford Model T automobile was built at the Piquette Plant in Detroit, Michigan.

 1930 - Bobby Jones wins the U.S. Amateur Championship to complete the Grand Slam of golf.  The old structure of the grand slam was the U.S. Open, British Open, U.S. Amateur, and British Amateur.


1937 - The Balinese Tiger is declared extinct.


1940 - The Tripartite Pact is signed by Germany, Japan, and Italy in Berlin.


1942 - Last day of the Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as U.S. Marines barely escape after being surrounded by Japanese forces near the river.


1944 - The Kassel Mission results in the largest loss by the United States Army Air Force group on any mission in World War II.


1956 - USAF Captain Milburn G. Apt becomes the first man to exceed Mach 3 while flying the Bell X-2.  Shortly thereafter, the craft goes out of control and crashes.


1959 - Nearly 5000 people die on the main Japanese island of Honshu as the result of a typhoon.


1964 - The Warren Commission releases its report, concluding the Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, assassinated President John F. Kennedy.


1979 - The United States Department of Education, receives final approval from Congress to become the 13the U.S. Cabinet agency.


1995 - The Government of the United States, unveils the first of its redesigned bank notes with the $100 bill featuring a larger portrait of Benjamin Franklin slightly off-center.


2008 - CNSA astronaut Zhai Zhigang becomes the first Chinese person to perform a spacewalk while flying on Shenzhou 7.

26th of September

Today is the 269th day of the year, with 96 days remaining until the new year.

46 BC - Julius Caesar dedicates a temple to his mythical ancestor Venus Genetrix in accordance with a vow he made at the Battle of Pharsalus.

1580 AD - Sir Francis Drake finishes his circumnavigation of the Earth.

1687 - The Parthenon in Athens, Greece is partially destroyed by an explosion caused by the bombing from Venetian forces led by Morosini who are besieging the Ottoman Turks.

1687 - The city council of Amsterdam votes to support William of Orange's invasion of England, which became the Glorious Revolution.

1783 - The first battle of Shays' Rebellion begins.

1789 - Thomas Jefferson is appointed the first Secretary of State, John Jay is appointed the first Chief Justice, Samuel Osgood is appointed first Postmaster General, and Edmund Randolph is appointed first Attorney General.

1908 - Ed Reulbach becomes the first and only pitcher to throw two shutouts in one day against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

1914 - The United States Federal Trade Commission is established.

1918 - The Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the bloodiest single battle in American history, lasting almost two months.

1944 - Operation Market Garden is proved to be a failure.

1954 - Japanese rail ferry Toya Maru, sinks during a typhoon in the Tsugaru Strait of Japan, killing 1,172 people.

1960 - In Chicago, the first televised debate takes place between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy.

1970 - The Laguna Fire starts in San Diego County, California burning nearly 175,425 acres to the ground.

1981 - Pitcher Nolan Ryan sets a Major League record by throwing his fifth no-hitter.

2008 - Swiss pilot and inventor Yves Rossy, becomes the first person to fly a jet engine-powered wing across the English Channel.

25th of September

Today is the 268th day of the year with only 97 days remaining.

275 - In Rome, after the assassination of Aurelian, the Senate proclaims Marcus Claudius Tacitus Emperor.

151 - Spanish explorer, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, reaches what would become known as the Pacific Ocean.

1789 - The Congress passes the Bill of Rights, Congressional Compensation Amendment, and Congressional Apportionment Amendment.

1804 - The Teton Sioux, demand one of the boats from the Lewis and Clark Expedition, as a toll for moving further upriver.

1846 - U.S. forces led by Zachary Taylor capture the Mexican city of Monterrey.

1911 - Ground is broken for Fenway Park, in Boston, Masschusetts.

1929 - Jimmy Doolittle performs the first blind blight from Mitchel Field, proving that full instrument flying from take off to landing is possible.

1944 - Surviving elements of the British 1st Airborne Division withdraw from Arnhem in the Netherlands.  This ends the Battle of Arnhem and Operation Market Garden.

1957 - Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas is integrated by the use of U.S. Army troops.

1977 - About 4,200 people take part in the first running of the Chicago Marathon.

1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor becomes the 102nd person sworn in as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court and the first woman to hold the office.

1992 - NASA launches a $511 million probe to Mars, in the first U.S. mission to the planet in 17 years.  Eleven months later, the probe would fail.

24th of September

Today is the 267th day of the year with 98 days that are remaining until the new year.

622 - Prophet Muhammad completes his hijra, or journey from Mecca to Medina.

1789 - The United States Congress passes the Judiciary Act which creates the office of the United States Attorney General and the federal judiciary system, and orders the composition of the Supreme Court.

1852 - The first airship, powered by a steam engine, created by Henri Giffard, travels 17 miles from Paris to Trappes in France.

1877 - Battle of Siroyama occurs, as a decisive victory of the Imperial Japanese Army over the Satsuma Rebellion.

1906 - President Theodore Roosevelt, proclaims Devils Tower in Wyoming, as the nation's first National Monument.

1935 - Earl and Weldon Bascom produce the first rodeo ever held outdoors under electric lights in Columbia, Mississippi.

1948 - The Honda Motor Company is founded.

1957 - Dwight D. Eisenhower, sends 101st Airborne Division troops to Little Rock, Arkansas in order to enforce desegregation.

1968 - 60 Minutes, makes its television debut on CBS.

1979 - Compu-Serve launches the first consumer internet service, which features the first public electronic mail service.

1990 - Periodic Great White Spot is observed on Saturn.  These are storms on the planet that can be seen from our home world.

1996 - President Bill Clinton signs the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty at the United Nations.

2008 - The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago, is topped off at 1,389 feet (423 m), at the time becoming the world's highest residence above ground-level. 

23rd of September

It is the 266th day of the year, with 99 days remaining until the end of the year.

It is frequently the day of the Autumnal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, and the day of the Vernal Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere.

1459 - The Battle of Blore Heath begins, as the first major battle of the English Wars of the Roses in Stafforshire.

1642 - The first commencement exercises occur at Harvard College.

1779 - A squadron commanded by John Paul Jones on board the USS Bonhomme Richard wins the Battle of Flamborough Head, off the coast of England, against two British warships.

1780 - British Major John Adnre is arrested as a spy by American soldiers exposing Benedict Arnold's change of sides.

1806 - Lewis and Clark return to St. Louis after exploring the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

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

1889 - Nintendo Koppai, is founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce and market the playing card game Hanafuda.

1909- The Phantom of the Opera, a novel by French writer Gaston Lerou, is first published as a serialization in Le Gaulois.

1941 - The first gas chamber experiments by the Nazis are conducted at Auschwitz.

1986 - Jim Deshaies of the Houston Astros sets the major-league record by striking out the first eight batters of the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

1988 - Jose Canseco, while playing for the Oakland Athletics, becomes the first member of the 40-40 club, forty home runs and forty stolen bases in one season.

2002 - The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox is released.

2004 - Hurricane Jeanne strikes Haiti, where at least 1,070 are reported to have been killed by floods.

22nd of September

Today is the 265th day of the year with only 100 days remaining until the new year.

66 - Emperor Nero creates the Legion I Italica.

1776 - Nathan Hale is hanged for spying during the American War of Independence by the British.

1784 - Russia establishes a colony at Kodiak, Alaska.

1789 - The office of United States Postmaster General is established.

1823 - Joseph Smith Jr., states that he has found the golden plates after being directed by God through the angel Moroni, to the place where they are buried.

1862 - A preliminary version of the Emancipation Proclamation is released.

1888 - The first issue of National Geographic Magazine is published.

1893 - The first American-made automobile, built by the Duryea Brothers, is displayed.

1908 - Bulgaria declares that it will be an independent nation.

1927 - Jack Dempsey loses the Long Count boxing match to Gene Tunney.

1941 - Sadly on the Jewish New Year Day, the German SS murder 6,000 Jews in Vinnytsya, Ukraine.  These are survivors of the previous killings that took place a few days earlier, in which 24,000 were killed.

1975 - Sara Jane Moore, tries to assassinate President Gerald Ford, but it foiled by Oliver Sipple.

1991 - The Dead Sea Scrolls are made available to the public for the first time, by the Huntington Library.

1995 - An E-3B AWACS crashes outside Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska.  It crashes after multiple bird strikes to two of the four engines soon after takeoff, all 24 on board are killed.

2003 - David Hempleman-Adams becomes the first person to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an open-air, wicker-basket hot air balloon.

21st of September

Today is the 264th day of the year with 101 days remaining.

1780 - Benedict Arnold, becomes a traitor to the American cause, giving the British the plans to West Point.

1827 - Joseph Smith Jr., is reportedly visited by the angel Moroni, who gave him a record of gold plates, one-third of which he translated into the Book of Mormon.

1934 - A large typhoon hits western Honshu, Japan, killing 3,036 people.

1942 - On the holiday of Yom Kippur, Nazis send nearly 1,000 Jews of Pidhaytsi to the Belzec extermination camp.

1942 - In Dunaivtsi, Ukraine, Nazis severely execute 2,588 Jewish individuals.

1942 - The B-29 Superfortress makes its maiden flight.

1961 - It is the maiden flight of the CH-47 Chinook transportation helicopter.

1964 - Malta declares its independence from the United Kingdom.

1981 - The country of Belize is granted its full independence from the United Kingdom.

2003 - The Galileo mission is terminated, by sending the probe into Jupiter's atmosphere, where it is crushed by the pressure at the lower altitudes.

20th of September

Today is the 263rd day of the year with 102 days remaining.

451 - The Battle of Chalons takes place in North Eastern France.  Flavius Aetius' victory over Attila the Hun in a day of combat, is considered to be the largest battle in the ancient world.

1519 - Ferdinand Magellan sets sail from Sanlucar de Barrameda with about 270 men on his expedition to circumnavigate the globe.

1596 - Diego de Montemayor founds the city of Monterrey in New Spain, that will one day become what we know as Mexico.

1633 - Galileo Galilei is tried before the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for teaching that the Earth orbits the Sun.

1737 - It is the end of the Walking Purchase, which forces the cession of 1.2 million acres of Lenape-Delaware tribal land to the Colony of Pennsylvania.

1863 - The fierce Battle of Chickamauga ends.

1881 - Chester A. Arthur is inaugurated as the 21st President of the United States of America.

1891 - The first gasoline-powered car debuts in Springfield, Massachusetts.

1942 - In the course of two days the German SS murders nearly 3,000 Jews in the area of the Letychiv, Ukraine.

1962 - James Meredith, an African-American, is temporarily barred from entering the University of Mississippi.

1973 - Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes tennis match at the Houston Astrodome in Texas.

1990 - South Ossetia declares its independence from Georgia.

2001 - In an address to a joint session of Congress and the American people, U.S. President George W. Bush declares a "war on terror."

19th of September

It is the 262nd day of the year, with only 103 days remaining.

1676 - Jamestown is burned to the ground by the forces of Nathaniel Bacon during Bacon's Rebellion.

1692 - Giles Corey is pressed to death after refusing to plead in the Salem witch trials.

1778 - The Continental Congress passes the first budget of the United States.

1862 - Union troops under General William Rosecrans defeat a Confederate force commanded by General Sterling Price at the Battle of Iuka.

1881 - President James A. Garfield, dies of wounds suffered in a July 2nd shooting.

1934 - Bruno Hauptmann is arrested for the kidnap and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr.

1952 - The United States bars Charlie Chaplin from re-entering the country after a trip to England.

1961 - Betty and Barney Hill, claim that hey saw a mysterious craft in the sky and that it tried to abduct them.

1982 - Scott Fahlman posts the first documented emoticons :-) and :-( on the Carnegie Mellon University Bulletin Board System.

1985 - Tipper Gore and other political wives form the Parents Music Resource Center, as Frank Zappa and other musicians testify at Congressional hearings on obscenity in rock music.

1991 - German tourists discover, Otzi the Iceman, a well-preserved natural mummy of a man who lived about 5,300 years ago.

18th of September

It is the 261st day of the year with only 104 days remaining.

53 - Roman Emperor Trajan is born.

1502 - Christopher Columbus lands at Costa Rica, on his fourth and final voyage.

1679 - New Hampshire becomes a county of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1793 - The cornerstone of the Capitol building is laid by George Washington.

1837 - Tiffany and Company, is founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and Teddy Young in New York City.  The store is called a stationery and fancy goods emporium.

1850 - The United States Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.

1851 - The first publication of the New York Daily Times, which later renames itself as the New York Times.

1870 - Old Faithful Geyser is observed and named by Henry D. Washburn during the expedition to Yellowstone.

1906 - A typhoon with tsunami kills an estimated 10,000 people in Hong Kong, China.

1919 - Fritz Pollard becomes the first African-American to play professional football for a major team, the Akron Pros.

1944 - The British submarine, HMS Tradewind torpedoes Junyo Maru, killing 5,600 people.

1947 - The United States Air Force becomes an independent branch of the U.S. armed forces.

1947 - The National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency are established.

1964 - The North Vietnamese Army, begins the infiltrations of South Vietnam.

1977 - Voyager I takes the first photograph of the Earth and the Moon together.

Jimi Hendrix - American guitarist, widely considered to be the greatest electric guitarist in musical history, across a range of genres.  He favored raw overdriven amplifiers with high gain and treble.  He passes away at the age of 27 on this date in 1970.  It is estimated that he took nine Vesparax sleeping pills and a deficient supply of oxygen to his body.

17th of September

Today is the 260th day of the year, with 105 days remaining until the end of the year.

480 BC - The Battle of Thermopylae, fought between 300 Spartans led by King Leonidas, and Achaemenid Empire begins.

1630 AD - The city of Boston, Massachusetts is founded.

1778 - The Treaty of Fort Pitt is signed.  It is the first formal treaty between the United States and a Native American tribe, the Lenape or known as the Delaware Indians.

1787 - The United States Constitution is adopted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1858 - Dred Scott, an African-American slave who sued unsuccessfully for his freedom and that of his wife and two daughters because they were slaves  in territories where the institution was illegal, is born.

1862 - George B. McClellan halts the advance of Robert E. Lee's Confederate army at the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in American history.

1908 - The Wright Flyer, flown by Orville Wright with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as a passenger, crashes killing the latter.  He becomes the first airplane fatality.

1916 - Manfred von Richthofen, "The Red Baron," a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkrafte, wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France.

1928 - The Okeechobee Hurricane strikes southeastern Florida, killing upwards of 2,500 people.  It is the third deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

1939 - Taisto Maki becomes the first man to run 10,000 meters in under 30 minutes.

1940 - Following the German defeat in the Battle of Britain, Hitler decides to postpone Operation Sea Lion indefinitely.

1944 - Allied Airborne troops parachute into the Netherlands as the first half of Operation Market Garden.

1947 - James V. Forrestal is sworn in as the first Secretary of Defense of the United States.

1961 - The world's first retractable-dome stadium opens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it is named the Civic Arena.

1976 - The first space shuttle, Enterprise, is unveiled by NASA.

1983 - Vanessa Williams becomes the first African-American Miss America.

2001 - The New York Stock Exchange reopens for trading after the September 11 attacks, the longest closure since the Great Depression.

2006 - Fourpeaked Mountain in Alaska erupts, marking the first eruption for the long-dormant volcano in at least 10,000 years.

16th of September

It is the 259th day of the year with 106 days remaining.

1386 - King Henry V of England is born, belonging to the House of Lancaster.

1736 - Daniel Fahrenheit, a Dutch-German-Polish physicist known for inventing the alcohol thermometer, mercury thermometer, and the temperature scale now named after him, dies at the age of 50.

1776 - The Battle of Harlem Heights is fought during the American Revolutionary War.

1810 - With the Grito de Dolores, Father Miguel Hidalgo, begins Mexico's fight for independence from Spain.

1880 - The Cornell Daily Sun prints its first issue in Ithaca, New York.  The Sun is the nation's oldest, continuously-independent college daily in the United States.

1908 - The General Motors Corporation is founded.

1919 - The American Legion is incorporated.

1920 - A bomb in a horse-drawn wagon, explodes in front of the J.P. Morgan building in New York City.  38 people are killed and 400 are injured.

1925 - American blues musician and influential guitarist B.B. King is born.

1945 - The surrender of Japanese troops in Hong Kong occurs.  The surrender is accepted by the Royal Navy Admiral Sir Cecil Harcourt.

1947 - Typhoon Kathleen hits Saitama, Tokyo and Tone River area, claiming at least 1,930 deaths.

1955 - American Major League Baseball shortstop and center fielder, who spent his 20-year career with the Milwaukee Brewers, Robin Yount is born.

1966 - The Metropolitan Opera House opens at Lincoln Center in New York City with the world premiere of Samuel Barber's opera, Antony and Cleopatra.

1975 - Papua New Guinea gains its independence from Australia.

1978 - An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale hits the city of Tabas, Iran killing about 25,000 people.

1987 - The Montreal Protocol is signed to protect the ozone layer from depletion.

1991 - The trial of the deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega begin in the United States.

15th of September

It is the 258th day of the year and there are 107 days remaining until the new year.

1616 - The first non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy.

1789 - The United States Department of State is established, formerly known as the Department of Foreign Affairs.

1821 - Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, jointly declare their independence from Spain.

1831 - The locomotive John Bull operates for the first time in New Jersey, on the Camden and Amboy Railroad.

1835 - The HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the Galapagos Islands.

1857 - William Howard Taft is born, he will become the 27th President of the United States.

1862 - Confederate forces capture Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

1916 - Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme during the First World War.

1935 - Nazi Germany adopts a new national flag with the swastika.

1938 - Gaylord Perry, American baseball right-handed pitcher, who pitched for 22 seasons with eight different teams, is born.

1940 - It is the climax of the Battle of Britain, when the Royal Air Force shoots down large numbers of Luftwaffe aircraft.

1944 - Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, meet in Quebec as part of the Octagon Conference to discuss strategy.

1944 - The Battle of Peleliu begins, as the United States 1st Marine Division and the 81st Infantry Division hit White and Orange beaches under heavy fire from Japanese infantry and artillery.

1948 - The F-86 Sabre sets the world aircraft speed record at 671 miles per hour or 1,080 km/h.

1959 - Nikita Kruschev becomes the first Soviet leader to visit the United States.

1963 - The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing occurs, as four children are killed at an African-American church in Birmingham, Alabama.

1966 - Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation.

1968 - The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship, is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.

1978 - German aircraft designer and manufacturer, Wilhelm Messerschmitt, dies at the age of 80.

1981 - The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

1981 - The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world, when the Smithsonian Institution operates it under its own power right outside of Washington, D.C.

1990 - France announces it will send 4,000 troops to the Persian Gulf.

2004 - National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman announce the lockout of the players union and cessation of operations by the head office.

2008 - Lehman Brothers, a global financial services firm, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy in United States history.

14th of September

It is the 257th day of the year, with 108 days remaining until the new year.

1814 - The poem Defence of Fort McHenry is written by Francis Scott Key.  The poem is later used as the lyrics of the Star-Spangled Banner.

1836 - Aaron Burr, American political figure but known for killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804.  He dies at the age of 80.

1847 - Winfield Scott captures Mexico City during the Mexican-American War.

1862 - The Battle of South Mountain, part of the Maryland Campaign, is fought.

1869 - Kid Nichols, American baseball player, known for his steadfast consistency and a winner of 361 games.

1901 - William McKinley dies after an assassination attempt eight days earlier.  He is succeeded as President of the United States by Theodore Roosevelt.

1944 - Maastricht becomes the first Dutch city to be liberated by Allied forces.

1948 - Groundbreaking for the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

1958 - The first two German post-war rockets, designed by the German engineer Ernst Mohr, reach the upper atmosphere.

1960 - The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, known as OPEC, is founded.

1982 - Grace Kelly, American actress, who became Princess consort of Monaco, dies at the age of 52.

1984 - Joe Kittinger, becomes the first person to fly a hot air balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean.

1987 - The Toronto Blue Jays, set a record for the most home runs in a single game, hitting 10 in total.

1994 - The Major League Baseball season is canceled because of a strike.

2009 - Patrick Swayze, American actor who is best known for his tough guy roles and as a romantic leading man, dies at the age of 57.

13th of September

Today is the 256th day of the year and there are only 109 days remaining.

509 BC - The temple of Jupiter on Rome's Capitolone Hill is deidcated on the ides of September.

81 AD - Titus, Roman Emperor, member of the Flavian dynasty, and renown military commander, dies at the age of 41.

122 - Construction begins on Hadrian's Wall in Great Britain.  It is built as a fortified border and gates that would serve as customs posts to allow trade and levy taxation. 

335 - Emperor Constantine the Great, consecrated the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

1501 - Michelangelo begins work on his statue of David.

1541 - After three years of exile, John Calvin returns to Geneva, beginning 23 years of Calvinist rule of Switzerland.

1788 - The Philadelphia Convention sets the date for the first presidential election in the United States, and New York City becomes the country's temporary capital.

1851 - Walter Reed, U.S. Army physician who in 1900 led the team and confirmed yellow fever is transmitted by a particular mosquito, is born.  He has been honored by the naming of many hospitals and medical centers in his name.

1857 - Milton S. Hershey is born.  He is the American confectioner, philanthropist, and founder of the Hershey Chocolate Company.

1860 - John J. Pershing, General in the American Expeditionary Forces during the First World War, is born.

1862 - Union soldiers find a copy of Robert E. Lee's battle plans in a field outside Frederick, Maryland.  It is the prelude to the Battle of Antietam.

1881 - Ambrose Burnside, Union Army general in the American Civil War, and known for his famous facial hair and the term sideburns derived from his name.  He passes away at the age of 57.

1898 - Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film.

1899 - Henry Bliss is the first person in the United States to be killed in an automobile accident.

1906 - First flight of a fixed-wing aircraft in Europe.

1940 - German bombs damage Buckingham Palace.

1943 - Chiang Kai-shek is elected the President of the Republic of China.

1948 - Margaret Chase Smith is elected senator, and becomes the first woman to serve in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.

1956 - IBM introduces the first computer disk storage unit, the RAMAC 305.

1994 - Ulysses probe passes the Sun's south pole.

2005 - A glitch in the MMORPG World of Warcraft results in a plague affecting thousands of players.

12th of September

It is the 255th day of the year, with only 110 days remaining until the new year.

490 BC - The conventionally accepted date for the Battle of Marathon.  The Athenians and their Plataean allies, defeat the first Persian invasion force of Greece.

1609 - Henry Hudson begins his exploration of the Hudson River while aboard the Halve Maen.

1857 - The SS Central America sinks about 160 miles east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, drowning a total of 426 passengers and crew, including Captain William Lewis Herndon.  The ship was carrying 13-15 tons of gold from the San Francisco Gold Rush.

1913 - Jesse Owens is born.  He is an African-American athlete and winner of four gold medals in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.

1919 - Adolf Hitler joins the German Workers Party.  Few people knew the consequences of what the future would hold.

1940 - Cave paintings are discovered in Lascaux, France.

1942 - U.S. Marines protecting Henderson Field on Guadalcanal are attacked by Imperial Japanese Army forces.

1943 - Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, is rescued from house arrest on the Gran Sasso in Abruzzi, by German commando forces led by Otto Skorzeny.

1957 - Hans Zimmer is born.  He is well known German film composer and music producer known for over 100 films including some critically claimed film scores.

1958 - Jack Kilby demonstrates the first integrated circuit.

1959 - It is the premiere of Bonanza, the first regularly-scheduled TV program presented in color.

1983 - A Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Connecticut is robbed of approximately $7 million by Los Macheteros.

1984 - Dwight Gooden sets the baseball record for strikeouts in a season by a rookie with 246.  Gooden's 276 strikeouts that season, pitched in 218 innings, set the current record.

1992 - NASA launches Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-47 which marked the 50th shuttle mission.  On board are Mae Carol Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese citizen to fly in a US spaceship, and Mark Lee and Jan Davis, the first married couple in space.

2003 - Johnny Cash passes away at the age of 71.  He was an American singer-songwriter of country music and has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.

2005 - Hong Kong Disneyland opens in Penny's Bay Lantau Island.  This showcases the global reach of the Walt Disney Corporation.

11th of September

Today is the 254th day of the year, with only 111 days remaining.

It is usually the first day of the year in the Coptic calendar and Ethiopian calendar in the period from 1900 to 2099.

1297 - Scots jointly-led by William Wallace and Andrew Moray, defeat the English at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

1609 - Henry Hudson discovers Manhattan Island and the indigenous people that are living there.

1777 - The British celebrate a major victory in Chester County, Pennsylvania during the Battle of Brandywine.

1789 - Alexander Hamilton is appointed the first United States Secretary of the Treasury.

1813 - British troops arrive in Mount Vernon and prepare to march and invade Washington, D.C.

1847 - Stephen Foster's well-known song Oh! Susanna, is first performed at a saloon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

1913 - Paul "Bear" Bryant is born.  He is an American college football coach, well-known as the head coach for 25-years at the University of Alabama.

1940 - In a demonstration to the American Mathematical Society conference at Dartmouth College.  George Stibitz uses a teletype to send commands to the Complex Number Calculator in New York over telephone lines.  It was the first computing machine ever used remotely over a phone line.

1943 - It is the start of the liquidation of the ghettos in Minsk and Lida by the Nazis.

1944 - Royal Air Force bombing raids on Darmstadt and the following firestorm kill 11,500.

1978 - President Jimmy Carter, Anwar Sadat, and Menachem Begin meet at Camp David and agree on the Camp David Accords, a framework for peace between Israel and Egypt and a comprehensive peace in the Middle East.

1985 - Pete Rose breaks Ty Cobb's baseball record for most career hits with his 4,192nd hit.

2001 - The September 11 attacks take place in the United States.  Airplane hijackings result in the collapse of the World Trade Centers and other buildings in New York City, damage to the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and the crashing of a passenger airliner near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.  The tragedy resulted in the loss of 2,753 lives.

10th of September

It is the 253rd day of the year with only 112 days remaining until the new year.

1547 - The Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, the last full scale military confrontation between England and Scotland, resulting in a decisive victory for the forces of Edward VI.

1608 - John Smith is elected council president of Jamestown, Virginia.

1776 - Nathan Hale volunteers to spy for the United States Continental Army.

1813 - The United States defeats the British Fleet at the Battle of lake Erie during the War of 1812.

1823 - Simon Bolivar is named the President of Peru.

1846 - Elias Howe is granted a patent for the sewing machine.

1897 - A sheriff's posse kills 20 unarmed immigrant miners in Hazelton, Pennsylvania, known as the Lattimer Massacre.

1929 - American golfer Arnold Palmer is born.  He is recognized as one of the greatest players in professional golf.

1934 - Roger Maris is born.  He is an American baseball player who hit 61 home runs for the New York Yankees, breaking Babe Ruth's single-season record, one that stood for 37 years.

1943 - German forces begin their occupation of Rome during the Second World War.

1950 - Joe Perry, lead guitarist and contributing songwriter for the rock band Aerosmith is born.

1961 - A crash during the Italian Grand Prix, causes the death of German Formula One driver Wolfgang von Trips and 13 spectators who are hit by his Ferrari.

1963 - Randy Johnson is born.  He is an American baseball left-handed pitcher, known as The Big Unit and pitched 22 seasons for six different teams.

1974 - Guinea-Bissau gains its independence from Portugal.

1977 - Hamida Djandoubi, convicted of torture and murder, is the last person to be executed by guillotine in France.

9th of September

Today is the 252nd day of the year, and there are 113 days remaining.

1000 - Olaf I of Norway dies.  Many sagas have been written to showcase how instrumental he was in the forcible conversion of the Norse to Christianity.

1543 - Mary Stuart, at nine months old, is crowned "Queen of Scots," in the central Scottish town of Stirling.

1739 - Stono Rebellion, the largest slave uprising in Britain's mainland North American colonies prior to the American Revolution, erupts near Charleston, South Carolina.

1828 - Leo Tolstoy, the Russian writer of novels and short stories is born.

1839 - John Herschel, takes the first glass plate photograph.

1850 - California is admitted as the thirty-first state in the United States.

1850 - The Compromise of 1850, transfers a third of Texas' claimed territory, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming, to federal control in return for the U.S. federal government assuming $10 million of Texas' pre-annexation debt.

1863 - The Union Army enters Chattanooga, Tennessee.

1915 - Albert Spalding, the founder of the company that bears his last name and is still very successful today, passes away at the age of 65.

1926 - The U.S. National Broadcasting Company is formed.

1940 - George Stibitz pioneers the first remote operation of a computer.

1942 - A Japanese floatplane drops an incendiary bomb on Oregon.

1943 - The Allies land at Salerno and Taranto, Italy.

1949 - Joe Theismann, quarterback in the National Football League, and known for his 12 seasons with the Washington Redskins, is born.

1956 - Elvis Presley appears on the Ed Sullivan Show for the first time.

1969 - In Canada, the Official Languages Act comes into effect, making the French language equal to the English language throughout the Federal government.

1976 - Mao Zedong, the founding father of the People's Republic of China, a Communist, and held an authoritarian control over the nation, when he died at the age of 82. 

1991 - Tajikstan gains independence from the former Soviet Union.

1999 - It is the beginning of the Y2K bug, and the official debut of the Dreamcast.

1999 - Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher with a 15-year baseball career, Catfish Hunter passes away at 53.

8th of September

It is the 251st day of the year with only 114 days remaining.

70 - Roman forces under Titus, sack the city of Jerusalem.

1810 - The Tonquin sets sail from New York Harbor with 33 employees of John Jacob Astor's newly created Pacific Fur Company on board.  After a six-month journey around the tip of South America, the ship arrives at the mouth of Columbia River and Astor's men establish the fur-trading town of Astoria, Oregon.

1828 - Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is born.  He is known for his service in the American Civil War as the Colonel of the 20th Maine, and for his gallantry at Gettysburg.

1841 - Charles J. Guiteau is born.  He is the American assassin who kills President James A. Garfield.

1863 - On the Texas-Louisiana border, at the mouth of the Sabine River, a small Confederate force thwarts a Union invasion of the state.

1888 - In London, the body of Jack the Ripper's second murder victim, Annie Chapman, is found.

1892 - The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited.

1914 - Private Thomas Highgate becomes the first British soldier to be executed for desertion during the First World War.

1921 - Margaret Gorman, a 16-year-old, wins the Atlantic City Pageant's Golden Mermaid trophy, she is then declared the first Miss America.

1941 - German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad.

1943 - United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announces the Allied armistice with Italy.

1944 - London, England is hit by a V2 rocket for the first time.

1962 - Newly independent Algeria, adopts a Constitution.

1968 - The Beatles perform their last live TV performance on the David Frost show.  They perform their new hit, "Hey Jude."

1974 - US President Gerald Ford, pardons former President Richard Nixon for any crimes he may have committed while in office.

1991 - The Republic of Macedonia becomes an independent nation from Yugoslavia.

7th of September

It is the 250th day of the year, with 115 days remaining until the end of the year.

70 - A Roman army under Titus, occupies and plunders Jerusalem.

1191 - Richard I of England defeats Saladin at the Battle of Arsuf, during the Third Crusade.

1776 - The American submersible craft Turtle, attempts to attach a time bomb to the hull of British Admiral Richard Howe's flagship, the HMS Eagle in New York Harbor.

1812 - Napoleon wins a Pyrrhic victory over the Russian army of Alexander I, near the village of Borodino.

1821 - The Republic of Gran Colombia, a federation that covers much of Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador, is established.  Simon Bolivar is founding president and Francisco de Paula Santander is vice president.

1822 - Dom Pedro I, declares Brazil independet from Portugal, on the shores of the Ipiranga creek in Sao Paulo.

1860 - The steamship Lady Elgin, sinks on Lake Michigan, with the loss of around 400 lives.

1864 - Atlanta, Georgia is evacuated under the orders of Union General William T. Sherman.

1876 - In Northfield, Minnesota, Jesse James and his gang attempt to rob the town's bank.  Interestingly, they are driven off by many of the local armed citizens.

1901 - The Boxer Rebellion in China officially ends with the signing of the Boxer Protocol.

1927 - The first fully electronic television system is achieved by Philo Taylor Farnsworth.

1940 - Nazi Germany begins to rain bombs on London, England, as the start of the Blitz.  This will be the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing.

1942 - 8,700 Jews of Kolomyia, now western Ukraine, are sent by German Gestapo individuals to the death camp at Belzec.

1942 - It is the first flight of the Consolidated B-32 Dominator.

1945 - Japanese forces on Wake Island, surrender to United States Marines.  They had held their positions since December of 1941.

1963 - The Pro Football Hall of Fame opens in Canton, Ohio with 17 charter members.

1965 - United States Marines and South Vietnamese forces initiate Operation Piranha on the Batangan Peninsula.

1970 - Bill Shoemaker, sets the record for the most lifetime wins as a jockey.

1978 - Keith Moon, drummer of the rock band The Who, passes away from taking 32 tablets of Clomethiazole, a sedative to alleviate his alcohol withdrawal.  He was only 32 years of age.

1979 - The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, better known as ESPN, makes its debut.

1979 - The Chrysler Corporation asks the U.S. government for a cool $1.5 billion to avoid bankruptcy.

1996 - American hip-hop star Tupac Shakur is fatally shot four times on the Las Vegas strip after leaving the Tyson-Seldon boxing match.

1999 - A 5.9-magnitude earthquake shakes Athens, Greece.  It ruptures a previously unknown fault, killing 143, injuring more than 500, and leaving 50,000 people homeless.

6th of September

Today is the 249th day of the year, with 116 day remaining until the new year.

1492 - Christopher Columbus sails from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, his final port of call before crossing the Atlantic ocean for the first time.

1522 - The Victoria, the only surviving ship of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition, returns to Sanlucar de Barrameda in Spain, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the world.

1628 - Puritans settle in Salem, which will later become part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1819 - United States Army officer and ambassador to Mexico, William Rosecrans is born.

1847 - Henry David Thoreau leaves Walden Pond and moves in with Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family in Concord, Massachusetts.

1861 - Forces under General Ulysses S. Grant, capture Paducah, Kentucky, giving the Union control of the mouth of the Tennessee River.

1870 - Louisa Ann Swain of Laramie, Wyoming, becomes the first woman in the United States to cast a vote legally after 1807.

1888 - Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. is born.  He is the prominent American business and political figure, as well as the father of the Kennedy family, that has become famous today.

1901 - Anarchist Leon Czolgosz, shoots and mortally wounds President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.

1944 - The city of Ypres, Belgium, is liberated by Allied forces.

1949 - Allied military authorities relinquish control of former Nazi Germany assets back to German control.

1991 - The name Saint Petersburg, is restored to Russia's second largest city, which had previously been named Leningrad in 1924.

1995 - Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles, plays in his 2,131st consecutive game breaking a record that stood for 56 years.

1997 - The funeral of Princess Diana takes place in London, over a million people lined the streets and 2.5 billion watched around the world on television.

5th of September

It is the 248th day of the year, with 117 days remaining.

1666 - The Great Fire of London ends.  Over 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral are destroyed, but only 16 people are known to have perished.

1698 - In an effort to westernize the nobility, Tsar Peter I of Russia, imposes a tax on beards for all men except the clergy and peasantry.

1774 - The First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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

1839 - The First Opium War begins in China.

1847 - Jesse James, American outlaw, gang leader, bank robber, train robber, and murderer, is born.

1877 - Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse, is bayoneted by a United States soldier after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson, Nebraska.

1882 - The first United States Labor Day parade is held in New York City.

1906 - The first legal forward pass in American football is thrown by Bradbury Robinson of St. Louis University to teammate Jack Schneider, in a 22-0 victory over Carroll College.

1914 - The First Battle of the Marne begins, northeast of Paris, the French attack and defeat German forces.

1927 - The first Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon, Trolley Troubles, produced by Walt Disney, is released by Universal Pictures.

1942 - Japanese high command orders a withdrawal at Milne Bay, the first Japanese defeat in the Pacific Theater.

1946 - British musician, most famous as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen, Freddie Mercury is born.

1960 - Boxer Muhammad Ali, then Cassius Clay, is awarded the gold medal for his first place finish in the light heavyweight boxing competition at the Olympic Games in Rome.

1969 - U.S. Army Lt. William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai Massacre.

1970 - Operation Jefferson Glenn begins, as the 101st Airborne and the South Vietnamese 1st Infantry Division, initiate a new operation in Thua Thien-Hue Province.

1972 - A Palestinian terrorist group called Black September, attack and take hostage 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games.  2 die in the attack and 9 die the following day.

1975 - In Sacramento, California, Lynette Fromme attempts to assassinate President Gerald Ford.

1980 - The St. Gotthard Tunnel opens in Switzerland, as the world's longest highway tunnel at 10.14 miles (16.224 km), stretching from Goschenen to Airolo.

1997 - Mother Teresa, Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, known for her humanitarian work, passes away at the age of 87.

4th of September

Today is the 247th day of the year and there are 118 days remaining until the end of the year.

1781 - Los Angeles, California is founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porziuncola), by 44 Spanish settlers.

1862 - General Robert E. Lee takes the Army of Northern Virginia, and the entire war, in the North and out of the southern states for the time being.

1886 - After 30 years of fighting, Apache leader Geronimo, with his remaining warriors, surrenders to General Nelson Miles in Arizona.

1888 - George Eastman registers his trademark Kodak, and receives a patent for his camera that uses roll film.

1894 - In New York City, 12,000 tailors strike against sweatshop working conditions.

1939 - A Bristol Blenheim is the first British aircraft to cross German coast following the declaration of war, as well as German ships are bombed.

1941 - A German submarine makes the first attack against a United States ship, the USS Greer.

1967 - Operation Swift begins as U.S. Marines engage the North Vietnamese in battle in the Que Son Valley.

1972 - Mark Spitz becomes the first competitor to win seven medals at a single Olympic Games.

1974 - United States Army General Creighton Abrams, passes away at the age 59.  He commanded military operations in Vietnam from '68-'72 and served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1972 until shortly before his death.  XM1 main battle tank was named in his honor.

1986 - American professional baseball player, and first baseman for the Detroit Tigers, dies at the age of 75.

1998 - Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, while being enrolled at Stanford University.

2006 - Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter, dies at the age of 44, after being pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while filming an underwater documentary.

3rd of September

It is the 246th day of the year and there are 119 days remaining until the new year.

301 - San Marino, one of the smallest nations in the world and the world's oldest republic still in existence, is founded by the Saint Marinus.

1189 - Richard I of England, more commonly referred to as Richard the Lionheart, is crowned at Westminster.

1777 - During the Battle of Cooch's Bridge, the Flag of the United States is flown in conflict for the first time.

1783 - The American Revolutionary War ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris by the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain.

1838 - Dressed in a sailor's uniform and carrying identification papers provided by a Free Black seaman, future abolitionist Frederick Douglass, boards a train to Maryland on his way to freedom.

1855 - In Nebraska, 700 soldiers under United States General William S. Harney avenge the Grattan Massacre by attacking a Sioux village and killing 100 men, women, and children.

1861 - Confederate General Leonidas Polk invades neutral Kentucky, prompting the state legislature to ask for Union assistance.

1875 - Ferdinand Porsche, Austrian automotive engineer, creator of the first hybrid vehicle, the Volkswagen Beetle, and many Porsche automobiles, is born.

1933 - Yevgeniy Abalakov is the first man to reach the highest point in the Soviet Union, now called Ismoil Somoni Peak and situated in Tajikistan.  It is a height of 7,495 meters.

1935 - Sir Malcolm Campbell reaches a speed of 304.331 miles per hour on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.  He becomes the first person to drive and automobile over 300 mph.

1939 - France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia declare war on Germany, forming the Allied powers.

1941 - Karl Fritzsch, deputy camp commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, experiments with the use of Zyklon B ins the gassing of Soviet prisoners of war.

1944 - Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz, arriving almost three days later.

1962 - American poet, whose work encompasses 2,900 poems, E. E. Cummings dies at the age of 67.

1967 - Francis Ouimet, winner of the 1913 U. S. Open as an amateur, and was the first American elected Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, passes away at the age of 74.

1970 - American football coach and well-known head coach of the Green Bay Packers, Vince Lombardi, passes away at the age of 57.

1971 - Qatar becomes an independent state.

1976 - The American Viking 2 spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars.

1982 - Andrew McMahon, pianist, vocalist, and songwriter for piano rock bands Something Corporate and Jack's Mannequin, is born.

1986 - American professional snowboarder and skateboarder, and two-time Olympic gold medalist, Shaun White is born.

2nd of September

It is the 245th day of the year, with 120 days remaining.

44 BC - Cicero, Roman politician, launches the first of his Phillipics or oratorial attacks on Mark Antony.  He will make a total of 14 of them over the following months.

31 BC - Battle of Actium occurs off the western coast of Greece.  Forces of Roman Emperor Octavian, defeat troops under the command of Mark Antony and Cleopatra.

1666 AD - The Great Fire of London breaks out and burns for a total of three days.  It destroys over 10,000 buildings and structures, including St. Paul's Cathedral.

1752 - Great Britain finally adopts the Gregorian calendar, nearly two centuries later than most of Western Europe.

1789 - The United States Department of the Treasury is founded.

1792 - During what became known as the September Massacres of the French Revolution, rampaging mobs slaughter three Roman Catholic bishops, more than 200 priests, and other prisoners believed to be royalist sympathizers.

1838 - Liliuokalani, the last monarch and only queen regnant of the Kingdom of Hawai'i, is born.

1850 - Albert Spalding, professional baseball player and co-founder of A.G. Spalding sporting goods company, is born.

1862 - Abraham Lincoln reluctantly restores Union General George B. McClellan to full command after General John Pope's disastrous defeat at the Battle of Second Bull Run.

1864 - Union forces enter the city of Atlanta, Georgia.  It is one day after the Confederate defenders flee the city.

1870 - At the Battle of Sedan, Prussian forces take Napoleon III of France and 100,000 of his soldiers prisoner during the Franco-Prussian War.

1885 - In Rock Springs, Wyoming, 150 white miners, who are struggling to unionize so they could strike for better wages and work conditions, attack their fellow Chinese workers.  They kill 28, wound 15, and force several hundred more out of town.

1901 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, utters the famous phrase, "Speak softly and carry a big stick," at the Minnesota State Fair.

1945 - The Instrument of Surrender of Japan is signed by Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and accepted aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

1945 - Vietnam declares its independence, forming the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

1969 - Vietnamese Marxist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of North Vietnam, dies as the age of 79.

1973 - J. R. R. Tolkien, English writer, poet and professor, best known for his works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, passes away at the age of 81.

1st of September

It is the 244th day of the year with only 121 days remaining until the end of the year.

Today is also the beginning of the ninth month of the year.

1532 - Lady Anne Boleyn is made Marquess of Pembroke by her fiance, King Henry VIII of England.

1715 - King Louis XIV of France dies after a reign of 72 years, the longest of any major European monarch.

1772 - The Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, is founded in San Luis Obispo, California.

1836 - Narcissa Whitman, one of the first English-speaking white women to settle west of the Rocky Mountains, arrives in Walla Walla, Washington.

1862 - Confederate forces attack retreating Union troops during the Battle of Chantilly.

1864 - Confederate General John Bell Hood evacuates Atlanta, Georgia after a four-month siege by General William T. Sherman.

1875 - A murder conviction effectively forces the violent Pennsylvania Irish anti-owner coal miners, the "Molly Maguires," to disband.

1878 - Emma Nutt becomes the world's first female telephone operator when she was recruited by Alexander Graham Bell to the Boston Telephone Dispatch Company.

1897 - The Boston subway opens, becoming the first underground rapid transit system in North America.

1902 - A Trip to the Moon, considered one of the first science fiction films, is released in France.

1914 - The last passenger pigeon, a female named Martha, dies in captivity in the Cincinnati Zoo.

1923 - The Great Kanto earthquake devastates Tokyo and Yokohama, Japan, killing about 105,000 people.

1939 - Nazi Germany invades Poland, beginning the war in Europe and soon creating a global conflict.

1939 - George C. Marshall becomes Chief of Staff of the United States Army.

1939 - The Wound Badge for Wehrmacht, SS, Kriegsmarine, and Luftwaffe soldiers is instituted.  The final version of the Iron Cross is also instituted.

1951 - The United States, Australia, and New Zealand, sign a mutual defense pact, called the ANZUS treaty.

1972 - In Reykjavik, Iceland, American Bobby Fischer beats Russian Boris Spassky and becomes the world chess champion.

1974 - The SR-71 Blackbird sets the record for flying from New York to London in the time of 1 hour, 54 minutes, and 56.4 seconds.

1979 - The American space probe Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit Saturn, when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000 kilometers.

1985 - A joint American-French expedition locates the wreckage of the RMS Titanic.

1991 - Uzbekistan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.