On September 5th...

Links will open in a new window.

1187 King Louis VIII of France was born.

1550 William Cecil appointed himself British Minister of Foreign Affairs.

1566 Suleiman the Magnificent died.

1585 French churchman and statesman Cardinal Richelieu was born.

1622 Richelieu was appointed Cardinal under French King Louis XIII.

1638 King Louis XIV of France was born.

1651 Privateer William Dampier was baptized.

1698 Russian Tsar Peter the Great imposed a tax on beards.

1774 The First Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia.

1781 The Battle of Virginia Capes was fought.

1834 William Harris Crawford, U.S. Senator, Secretary of War and Secretary of the Treasury, died.

1836 Sam Houston was elected President of the Republic of Texas.

1839 The First Opium War began in China.

1844 Iron ore was discovered in Minnesota's Mesabi Mountains.

1846 Whiskey magnate Jack Daniel was born.

1847 Outlaw Jesse James was born.

1877 Southern blacks led by Pap Singleton settled in Kansas.
1877 Indian leader Crazy Horse was murdered.

1879 The Jeannette, commanded by George Washington DeLong, became trapped in pack ice during an attempt to reach the North Pole.

1882 The first Labor Day parade was held in New York City, New York.

1885 The first gasoline pump was delivered to a gasoline dealer, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

1887 A gas lamp in the Theatre Royal in Exeter, England, caused a fie that killed about 200 persons.

1888 Sarvapelli Radhakrishnan, President of India, was born.

1889 Christine Hardt patented the first modern brassiere.

1897 Pollster Arthur C. Nielsen was born.

1900 France proclaimed a protectorate over Chad.

1901 The National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues was formed.

1902 Film producer Darryl F. Zannuck was born.
1902 Doctor Rudolf Virchow died.

1905 The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed, ending the Russo-Japanese War.

1906 The first legal forward pass in football history was thrown by Brandbury Robinson to Jack Schneider.

1910 Jack Coombs began a record streak of 53 shutout innings.

1912 Composer John Cage was born.

1914 The Battle of Marne began.
1914 Great Britain, France, Belgium, and Russia signed the Pact of London.
1914 Television producer Allen Funt died.

1915 Tsar Nicholas II took personal command of Russia's military forces.

1921 Walter Johnson set a strikeouet mark of 2,287.
1921 Businessman Jack Valenti was born.

1922 The Yankees played their final game at the Polo Grounds.
1922 Sarah Winchester, builder of the "Winchester Mystery House," died.

1923 Flyweights Gene LaRue and Kid Pancho Ko'ed each other simultaneously.

1924 College football coach Paul Dietzel was born.

1927 Paul Volcker, one-time Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, was born.

1929 Actor Bob Newhart was born.

1932 French Upper Volta was split between Ivory Coast, French Sudan, and Niger.
1932 Actress Carol Lawrence was born.

1934 Wiley Post successfully demonstrated a pressure suit designed for high altitude flight.

1936 Baseball player Bill Maseroski was born.

1937 Actor William Devane was born.

1939 President Franklin Roosevelt declared the United States neutral respecting the conflict in Europe.

1939 Actor George Lazenby was born.

1940 Actress Raquel Welch was born.

1944 Allied forces liberated Brussels, Belgium.
1944 Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands signed the Customs Unity Treaty.

1945 Singer Al Stewart was born.

1946 Joe Garagiola played his first Major League Baseball game.
1946 Actor Dennis Dugan was born.
1946 Singer Freddier Mercury was born.

1950 Cartoonist Cathy Guisewite was born.

1952 General Carlos Ibáñez was elected President of Chile.

1957 On the Road by Jack Kerouac was published by Viking Press.

1958 Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak was published in the United States.
1958 The first color video recording on magnetic tape was presented, in Charlotte, North Carolina.

1960 A.J. Foyt won the first of an eventual 67 Indy car victories, at Du Quoin (Illinois) Fairgrounds.
1960 Léopold Sédar Senghor was elected as the first President of Senegal.
1960 Earl Long, three-time Governor of Louisiana, died.

1966 Jerry Lewis hosted the first Muscular Dystrophy Teleton; $15,000 was raised.

1968 Hijackers killed 21 passengers aboard a Pan Am jet in Karachim Pakistan.

1969 Musician Dweezil Zappa was born.

1972 Eleven Israeli athletes were taken hostage at the Munich Olympics.

1973 Actress Rose McGowan was born.

1975 Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme attempted to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford in Sacramento, California.

1977 Voyager 1 was launched on a mission to fly by Jupiter and Saturn.

1980 The St. Gotthard Tunnel through the Swiss Alps opened.

1997 Conductor George Solti died.
1977 Mother Teresa died.

1982 Eddie Hill set a propellor-driven boat water speed record of 229 miles per hour.

1987 John McEnroe was fined $17,500 for his tirades at the U.S. Tennis Open.

1989 Deborah Norville became the news anchor of the "Today Show."

1991 Nelson Mandela was chosen as president of the African National Congress.

2005 Mandela Airlines Flight 091 crashed into a residential area of Sumatra, Indonesia, killing 104 persons on board and at least 39 persons on the ground.

2012 An ammunition store exploded in Afyon, Turkey, killing 25 and wounding 4.

2016 Actor Hugh O'Brian died.
2016 Phyllis Schlafly, opponent of women's liberation, died.

Questions or comments about this page?

This page was last updated on September 05, 2018.