Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1807

Former Vice President Aaron Burr was found innocent of treason.

1897

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

1923

The Japanese cities of Tokyo and Yokohama were devastated by an earthquake that claimed 150,000 lives.

1932

New York City Mayor James ''Gentleman Jimmy'' Walker resigned following charges of graft and corruption in his administration.

1939

World War II began as Nazi Germany invaded Poland.

1942

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

1951

The United States, Australia and New Zealand signed a mutual defense pact, the ANZUS treaty.

1969

A coup in Libya brought Moammar Gadhafi to power.

1972

American Bobby Fischer won the international chess crown in Reykjavik, Iceland, defeating Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union.

1983

A Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 was shot down by a Soviet jet fighter after the airliner entered Soviet airspace; 269 people were killed.

1998

Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals hit his 56th and 57th home runs, breaking the single-season National League record set by Hack Wilson in 1930. McGwire finished the season with a record 70 homers.

2000

President Clinton deferred a decision on whether to develop a missile defense system to his successor.

2004

The Beslan school siege begins when armed terrorists take schoolchildren and school staff hostage in North Ossetia, Russia; by the end of the siege, three days later, more than 385 people are dead (including hostages, other civilians, security personnel and terrorists).

2008

The United States Armed Forces transfers control of Anbar Province to the Iraqi Armed Forces.

2022

Physicians at AdventHealth Central Florida Division developed a new five hour test for brain-eating amoebas.

1989

Baseball Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti died of a heart attack at age 51.

2023

Jimmy Buffett was an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and businessman. He was best known for his tropical rock music, which often portrays a lifestyle described as "island escapism". (b. 1946)