Today's Highlights in History
On Sept. 2, 1945, Japan formally surrendered in ceremonies aboard the USS Missouri, ending World War II.
On Sept. 2, 1948, Christa McAuliffe, the American teacher who died in the 1986 space shuttle Challenger explosion, was born. Following her death on Jan. 28, 1986, her obituary appeared in The Times.
On September 2, 1871, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about the new "streetcar suburbs."
On this date in:
1666 The Great Fire of London broke out. It destroyed nearly 400 acres, including some 13,000 houses and the old St. Paul's Cathedral.
1789 The U.S. Treasury Department was established.
1864 Union Gen. William T. Sherman's forces occupied Atlanta during the Civil War.
1901 Vice President Theodore Roosevelt offered the advice, "Speak softly and carry a big stick," in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair.
1935 A hurricane slammed into the Florida Keys, claiming 423 lives.
1944 Navy pilot George H.W. Bush was shot down by Japanese forces as he completed a bombing run over the Bonin Islands.
1945 Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam an independent republic.
1963 "The CBS Evening News" was lengthened from 15 to 30 minutes.
1969 North Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh died.
1969 The first automatic teller machine to use magnetic-striped cards opened to the public at Chemical Bank in Rockville Centre, New York.
1983 Tom Brokaw took over as anchor of NBC's "Nightly News."
1985 A U.S.-French expedition announced that it had located the wreckage of the Titanic about 560 miles off Newfoundland.
1992 The United States and Russia agreed to build a space station.
2004 President George W. Bush accepted his party's nomination for a second term at the Republican National Convention in New York City.
2005 A National Guard convoy packed with food, water and medicine rolled into New Orleans four days after Hurricane Katrina.
2005 President George W. Bush told Michael Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job" during a tour of Hurricane Katrina damage in Alabama.
2009 Pfizer agreed to pay a record $2.3 billion settlement for illegal drug promotion.
Current Birthdays
Actress Salma Hayek turns 44 years old today.
79 Alan K. Simpson
Former U.S. senator, R-Wyo.
73 Peter Ueberroth
Former baseball commissioner
69 John Thompson
Hall of Fame basketball coach
62 Nate Archibald
Basketball Hall of Famer
62 Terry Bradshaw
Football Hall of Famer, sportscaster
59 Jim DeMint
U.S. senator, R-S.C.
59 Mark Harmon
Actor ("NCIS," "St. Elsewhere")
58 Jimmy Connors
Tennis Hall of Famer
50 Eric Dickerson
Football Hall of Famer
46 Keanu Reeves
Actor
42 Cynthia Watros
Actress
23 Spencer Smith
Rock musician (Panic at the Disco)
Historic Birthdays
Christa McAuliffe
9/2/1948 - 1/28/1986
American teacher; died in the Challenger space shuttle explosion
(Go to obit.)
81 Ernst Curtius
9/2/1814 - 7/11/1896
German archaeologist; directed the excavation of Olympia
79 Lucretia Hale
9/2/1820 - 6/12/1900
American novelist and writer of children's books
81 Giovanni Verga
9/2/1840 - 1/27/1922
Italian novelist, short story writer and playwright
65 A. G. Spalding
9/2/1850 - 9/9/1915
American baseball player and sporting-goods manufacturer
78 Wilhelm Ostwald
9/2/1853 - 4/4/1932
Russian-born German Nobel Prize-winning chemist (1909)
79 Frederick Soddy
9/2/1877 - 9/22/1956
English Nobel Prize-winning chemist (1921)
67 Werner Blomberg
9/2/1878 - 3/22/1946
German general and minister of war under Hitler
81 Cleveland Amory
9/2/1917 - 10/14/1998
American critic, historian and journalist
57 Martha Mitchell
9/2/1918 - 5/31/1976
American figure in the Watergate scandal
