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.