Today in History

Today in History

1799 – The Bank of Manhattan Company opened in New York City, NY. It was the forerunner of Chase Manhattan.

1807 – Former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr was found innocent of treason.

1810 – The first plow with interchangeable parts was patented by John J. Wood.

1859 – The Pullman sleeping car was placed into service.

1878 – Emma M. Nutt became the first female telephone operator in the U.S. The company was the Telephone Dispatch Company of Boston.

1884 – The Thomas A. Edison Construction Department and the Edison Company for Isolated Lighting merged.

1887 – Emile Berliner filed for a patent for his invention of the lateral-cut, flat-disk gramophone. It is a device that is better known as a record player. Thomas Edison made the idea work.

1897 – The first section of Boston's subway system was opened.

1905 – Saskatchewan and Alberta became the ninth and tenth provinces of Canada.

1906 – Jack Coombs of the American League’s Philadelphia Athletics pitched 24 innings against the Boston Red Sox. (MLB)

1922 – The first daily news program on radio was 'The Radio Digest,' on WBAY radio in New York City, NY.

1939 – World War II began when Germany invaded Poland.

1942 – A federal judge in Sacramento, CA, upheld the wartime detention of Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals.

1945 – The U.S. received official word of Japan's formal surrender that ended World War II. In Japan, it was actually September 2nd.

1949 – 'Martin Kane, Private Eye' debuted on NBCTV.

1951 – The ANZUS Treaty, a mutual defense pact, was signed by the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

1969 – Col. Moammar Gadhafi came into power in Libya after the government was overthrown.

1970 – The last episode of 'I Dream of Jeannie' aired on NBC-TV. The show premiered was on September

18, 1965.

1971 – Danny Murtaugh (Pittsburgh Pirates) gave his lineup card to the umpire with the names of nine black baseball players on it. This was a first for Major League Baseball.

1972 – America’s Bobby Fischer beat Russia’s Boris Spassky to become world chess champion. The chess match took place in Reykjavik, Iceland.

1979 – The U.S. Pioneer 11 became the first spacecraft to visit Saturn.

1982 – Mexican President Jose Lopez Portillo closed all the country's private banks.

1985 – The Titanic was found by Dr. Robert Ballard and Jean Louis Michel in a joint U.S. and French expedition. The wreck site is located 963 miles northeast of New York and 453 miles southeast of the Newfoundland coast.

1986 – Jerry Lewis raised a record $34 million for Muscular Dystrophy during his annual telethon for Jerry’s kids over the Labor Day weekend.

1997 – In France, the prosecutor's office announced that the driver of the car, in which Britain's Princess Diana was killed, was over the legal alcohol limit.

1998 – Mark McGwire (St. Louis Cardinals) hit his

56th and 57th homeruns to set a new National League record. He would eventually reach a total of 70 for the season on September 27.

1998 – J.K. Rowling's book 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' was released in the U.S. This was the first book in the Harry Potter series.

1998 – Vietnam released 5,000 prisoners, including political dissidents, on National Day.

1999 – Twenty-two of major league baseball's 68 permanent umpires were replaced. The problem arose from their union's failed attempt to force an early start to negotiations for a new labor contract.

Born

1789 Lady Marguerite Blessington, English socialite and author who wrote a biography of Lord Byron.

1795 James Gordon Bennet, editor of the New York Sun, the first tabloid-sized daily newspaper.

1875 Edgar Rice Burroughs, novelist who created Tarzan, the Ape Man.

1907 Walter Reuther, labor leader who merged the American Federation of Labor with the Congress of International Organizations.

1923 Rocky Marciano, world heavyweight boxing champion who retired undefeated.

1939 Seiji Ozawa, conductor.

1939 Lily Tomlin, multiple-award-winning actress, comedian, writer, producer (Laugh-In, Nashville, The Magic School Bus).

1942 C. J. Cherryh, fantasy and science fiction author (The Chanur series, Gene Wars, Heroes in Hell).

1946 Greg Errico, drummer and producer (Sly & the Family Stone).

1957 Gloria Estefan, sincere, songwriter, actress; among top-selling 100 artists worldwide (“Words Get in the Way,” “Anything for You”).

History