Today in History
Today is Thursday, Sept. 1, the 245th day of 2016. There are 121 days
left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Sept. 1, 1939, World
War II began as Nazi Germany invaded Poland. On this date: In 1715,
following a reign of 72 years, King Louis XIV of France died four days
before his 77th birthday. In 1807, former Vice President Aaron Burr was
found not guilty of treason. (Burr was then tried on a misdemeanor
charge, but was again acquitted.) In 1905, Alberta and Saskatchewan
entered Confederation as the eighth and ninth provinces of Canada. In
1914, the last passenger pigeon in captivity, "Martha," died at the
Cincinnati Zoo. In 1923, the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Yokohama were
devastated by an earthquake that claimed some 140,000 lives. In 1941,
the first municipally owned parking building in the United States
opened in Welch, West Virginia. In 1945, Americans received word of
Japan's formal surrender that ended World War II. (Because of the time
difference, it was Sept. 2 in Tokyo Bay, where the ceremony took
place.) In 1951, the United States, Australia and New Zealand signed a
mutual defense pact, the ANZUS treaty. In 1969, a coup in Libya brought
Moammar Gadhafi to power. In 1976, U.S. Rep. Wayne L. Hays, D-Ohio,
resigned in the wake of a scandal in which he admitted having an affair
with "secretary" Elizabeth Ray. In 1983, 269 people were killed when a
Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 was shot down by a Soviet jet fighter after
the airliner entered Soviet airspace. In 1995, a ribbon-cutting
ceremony was held for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in
Cleveland. (The hall opened to the public the next day.) Ten years ago:
Mexican President Vicente (vih-SEN'-tay) Fox was forced to forego
delivering his final state-of-the-nation address in person after
leftist lawmakers stormed the stage of Congress to protest disputed
July elections; Fox instead gave his speech on television. An Iranian
passenger plane caught fire on landing in Mashhad, killing 28 of the
148 people on board. Nellie Connally, the former Texas first lady who
was riding in President John F. Kennedy's limousine when he was
assassinated, died in Austin, Texas, at age 87. Five years ago: In a
fiery broadcast from hiding, Libya's Moammar Gadhafi warned that
loyalist tribes in his main strongholds were armed and preparing for
battle. Leaders and envoys from 60 countries and the U.N. met in Paris
for talks with Libya's rebel-led National Transitional Council to map
the country's future. One year ago: President Barack Obama stared down
a melting glacier in Alaska in a dramatic use of his presidential
pulpit to sound the alarm on climate change. Invoking "God's
authority," Rowan County, Kentucky, Clerk Kim Davis denied marriage
licenses to gay couples again in direct defiance of the federal courts,
and vowed not to resign, even under the pressure of steep fines or
jail. Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz (GLIHN'-uh-wihts), a police officer
for Fox Lake, Illinois, was found shot to death after reporting he was
pursuing a group of men; authorities eventually concluded that
Gliniewicz's death was a suicide. Actor Dean Jones, 84, died in Los
Angeles. Today's Birthdays: Former Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird is
94. Actor George Maharis is 88. Conductor Seiji Ozawa (SAY'-jee
oh-ZAH'-wah) is 81. Attorney and law professor Alan Dershowitz is 78.
Comedian-actress Lily Tomlin is 77. Actor Don Stroud is 73. Conductor
Leonard Slatkin is 72. Singer Archie Bell is 72. Singer Barry Gibb is
70. Rock musician Greg Errico is 68. Talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw is
66. Singer Gloria Estefan is 59. Former White House Press Secretary Dee
Dee Myers is 55. Jazz musician Boney James is 55. Singer-musician Grant
Lee Phillips (Grant Lee Buffalo) is 53. Country singer-songwriter
Charlie Robison is 52. Retired NBA All-Star Tim Hardaway is 50. Rap DJ
Spigg Nice (Lost Boyz) is 46. Actor Ricardo Antonio Chavira is 45.
Actor Maury Sterling is 45. Rock singer JD Fortune is 43. Actor Scott
Speedman is 41. Country singer Angaleena Presley (Pistol Annies) is 40.
Actor Boyd Holbrook is 35. Actress Zoe Lister-Jones is 34. Rock
musician Joe Trohman is 32. Actress Aisling (ASH'-ling) Loftus is 26.
Thought for Today: "The most dangerous of all falsehoods is a slightly
distorted truth. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, German scientist
(1742-1799).
