September 8
Today is
International Literacy Day,
among many other 'days'.
1504 –
Michelangelo's David is unveiled in Piazza della Signoria in Florence.
1565 –
St. Augustine, Florida was founded by Spanish admiral and Florida's first governor,
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés.
1727 – A barn fire during a puppet show in the village of
Burwell in Cambridgeshire, England kills 78 people, many of whom are children.
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 the Columbia River and Astor's men establish the fur-trading town of
Astoria, Oregon.
1862 –
Millennium of Russia monument unveiled in Novgorod.
1883 – The
Northern Pacific Railway (reporting mark NP) was completed in a ceremony at Gold Creek, Montana. Former president
Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in an event attended by rail and political luminaries.
1888 – In Spain, the first travel of
Isaac Peral's submarine, was the first practical submarine ever made.
1892 –
The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited.
1900 – A powerful
hurricane hits Galveston, Texas killing about 8,000 people.
1914 – World War I: Private
Thomas Highgate becomes the first British soldier to be executed for desertion during the war.
1921 –
Margaret Gorman, a 16-year-old, wins the Atlantic City Pageant's Golden Mermaid trophy; pageant officials later dubbed her the first
Miss America.
1923 –
Nine US Navy destroyers run aground off the California coast. Seven are lost, and twenty-three sailors killed.
1930 –
3M begins marketing
Scotch transparent tape.
1935 – US Senator from Louisiana
Huey Long is fatally shot in the Louisiana State Capitol building.
1941 – German forces begin a
siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad.
1944 – World War II: London is hit by a
V-2 rocket for the first time.
1945 – Cold War: United States troops arrive to partition the southern part of Korea in response to Soviet troops occupying the northern part of the peninsula a month earlier.
1962 – Last run of the famous
Pines Express over the Somerset and Dorset Railway line (UK) fittingly using the last steam locomotive built by British Railways,
9F locomotive 92220 Evening Star.
1966 – The landmark American science fiction television series
Star Trek premieres with its first-aired episode, "
The Man Trap".
1971 – In Washington, D.C., the
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is inaugurated, with the opening feature being the premiere of
Leonard Bernstein's
Mass.
1975 –
Gays in teh military: US Air Force Tech Sergeant
Leonard Matlovich, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, appears in his Air Force uniform on the cover of Time magazine with the headline "I Am A Homosexual". He is given a general discharge, which was later upgraded to honorable.
1988 –
Yellowstone National Park is closed for the first time in U.S. history due to
ongoing fires.
1994 –
USAir Flight 427, on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport, suddenly crashes in clear weather killing all 132 aboard; resulting in the most extensive aviation investigation in world history and altering manufacturing practices in the industry.
2002 -
Iron Maiden singer
Bruce Dickinson started his new job as an airline pilot. The heavy metal singer qualified as a £35,000 - a year first officer with Gatwick based airline
Astraeus who took holidaymakers to Portugal and Egypt.
2011 - Jury selection began for the involuntary manslaughter trial of Michael Jackson's doctor,
Conrad Murray. Prospective jurors were asked to fill out a 30-page questionnaire to determining their level of knowledge of the case and any strong views about Jackson or Murray.
2012 – Former US President
Jimmy Carter surpasses
Herbert Hoover for longest retirement after leaving office. Hoover was retired for 11,553 days, and had held the record for over 54 years.
Births
1841 – Antonín Dvořák
, Charles J. Guiteau (assassin of POTUS James A. Garfield); 1897 – Jimmie Rodgers♪ ♫; 1915 – Frank Cady (played storekeeper 'Sam Drucker' in three different tv series,
Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, and
The Beverly Hillbillies); 1922 – Sid Caesar; 1924 – Wendell H. Ford; 1925 – Peter Sellers; 1932 – Patsy Cline♪ ♫; 1938 – Adrian Cronauer (inspiration for
Good Morning, Vietnam), Sam Nunn; 1941 – Bernie Sanders; 1945 – Ron "Pigpen" McKernan
(The Grateful Dead); 1946 – L. C. Greenwood(NFL); 1956 – Mick Brown
(Dokken, Ted Nugent, Lynch Mob); 1960 – Aimee Mann♪ ♫, David Steele♪ ♫(Fine Young Cannibals); 1970 – Neko Case♪ ♫; 1971 – David Arquette; 1975 – Larenz Tate; 1979 – Pink♪ ♫
Deaths
1949 – Richard Strauss♪ ♫; 1965 – Dorothy Dandridge; 1970 – Percy Spencer (invented the microwave oven); 1977 – Zero Mostel; 1980 – Willard Libby (radiocarbon dating); 2003 – Leni Riefenstahl; 2004 – Frank Thomas (animator, one of Disney's
Nine Old Men); 2006 – Peter Brock
; 2014 – S. Truett Cathy (founded Chick-fil-A)