What Happened On This Day In History?

1914

Japan declared war on Germany in World War I.

1927

Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in Boston for the murders of two men during a 1920 robbery. They were vindicated in 1977 by Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis.

1939

Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression treaty.

1944

Romanian prime minister Ion Antonescu was dismissed by King Michael, paving the way for Romania to abandon the Axis in favor of the Allies.

1947

An audience at the Hollywood Bowl heard President Truman's daughter, Margaret, give her first public concert as a singer.

1972

The Republican National Convention, meeting in Miami Beach, Fla., nominated Vice President Spiro T. Agnew for a second term.

1979

Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defected while the Bolshoi Ballet was on tour in New York.

1982

Lebanon's parliament elected Christian militia leader Bashir Gemayel president. Gemayel was assassinated some three weeks later.

1989

In a case that inflamed racial tensions in New York City, Yusuf Hawkins, a black teen-ager, was shot dead after he and his friends were confronted by white youths in a Brooklyn neighborhood.

1754

France's King Louis XVI was born at Versailles.

1926

Silent film star Rudolph Valentino died in New York at age 31.

1960

Broadway librettist Oscar Hammerstein II died in Doylestown, Pa.