On September 2nd...

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1666 The Great Fire of London began.

1743 Britain, Austria, and Savoye-Sardinia signed the Treaty of Worms.

1752 The United Kingdom and its American colonies formally adopted the Gregorian calendar, making the next day September 14.

1789 The U.S. Department of the Treasury was organized by act of Congress.

1806 A side of Rossberg Peak collapsed into Switzerland's Goldau Valley, killing approximately 500 people.

1838 Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii was born.

1839 Economist Henry George was born.

1858 "The Yellow Rose of Texas" was copyrighted.

1859 Gas lighting was introduced to Hawaii.

1864 Union General William Tecumseh Sherman captured Atlanta, Georgia.

1882 Richard Sears won the U.S. Men's National Tennis Championship.

1885 White miners attempting to unionize attacked Chinese miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming, killing 28 and wounding 15.

1898 A machine gun was used in battle for the first time.

1901 Theodore Roosevelt advised, "Speak softly and carry a big stick."

1902 A Trip to the Moon, considered the first science fiction film, was released.

1911 Albin W. Longren flew the first airplane built in Kansas.

1919 The Communist Party of America was organized in Chicago, Illinois.

1924 Bill Tilden won the U.S. Men's National Tennis Championship.
1924 Daniel Torotich Arap Moi, the second President of Kenya, was born.

1929 Unilever was formed by the merger of Margarine Union and Lever Bros.

1930 The first non-stop airplane flight from Europe to the United States was completed.

1935 A hurricane killed 423 persons in the Florida Keys.

1936 The first transtlantic round-trip air flight was completed.

1940 Great Smoky Mountains National Park was dedicated.
1940 Byron Nelson won the PGA Championship.

1941 The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences copyrighted the Oscar statuette.

1942 Attorney Robert Shapiro was born.

1944 Anne Frank was sent to Auschwitz.

1945 Japan formally surrendered to the Allies.
1945 Vietnam declared its independence from France.

1948 Football player Terry Bradshaw was born.
1948 Teacher/astronaut Christa McAuliffe was born.

1949 Fire in the riverfront area of Chungking, China, killed about 1,700 people.

1951 Actor Mark Harmon was born.

1952 Dr. Floyd J. Lewis used the "deep freeze" technique in heart surgery for the first time.
1952 Tennis player Jimmy Connors was born.

1955 Actress Linda Purl was born.

1957 Governor Orval Faubus called out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent black students from attending Little Rock's Central High School.

1960 The first election of the Parliament of the Central Tibetan Administration was held.

1963 Alabama Governor George C. Wallace prevented the integration of Tuskegee High School.
1963 CBS and NBC expanded their network news broadcasts from 15 to 30 minutes.

1964 Indonesian paratroopers landed in Malaysia.
1964 Actor Keanu Reeves was born.

1966 Actress Salma Hayek was born.

1969 The first automatic teller machine in the United States was installed in Rockville Centre, New York.

1973 Author J.R.R. Tolkein died.

1991 The United States officially recognized the independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

1992 An earthquake and flooding killed 118 persons in Nicaragua.

1998 Swissair Flight 111 crashed near Peggys Cove, Nova Scotia, killing all 229 persons aboard.

2001 Christiaan Barnard, the surgeon who performed the world's first heart transplant, died.

2005 Actor Bob Denver died.

2016 Islam Karimov, former President of Uzbekistan, died.

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This page was last updated on September 02, 2018.