Today in History – September 5 in History
What happened on this day in history – September 5 in History around the world
1666 | The Fire of London is extinguished after two days. | |
1664 | After days of negotiation, the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam surrenders to the British, who will rename it New York. | |
1792 | Maximilien Robespierre is elected to the National Convention in France. | |
1804 | US Navy lieutenant Richard Somers and members of his crew are buried at Tripoli; they died when USS Intrepid exploded while entering Tripoli harbor on a mission to destroy the enemy fleet there during the First Barbary War. | |
1816 | Louis XVIII of France dissolves the chamber of deputies, which has been challenging his authority. | |
1859 | Harriot E. Wilson’s Our Nig, is published, the first U.S. novel by an African American woman. | |
1867 | The first shipment of cattle leaves Abilene, Kansas, on a Union Pacific train headed to Chicago. | |
1870 | Author Victor Hugo returns to Paris from the Isle of Guernsey where he had lived in exile for almost 20 years. | |
1877 | The great Sioux warrior Crazy Horse is fatally bayoneted at age 36 by a soldier at Fort Robinson, Nebraska. | |
1878 | Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Bill Tilghman and Clay Allison, four of the West’s most famous gunmen, meet in Dodge City, Kansas. | |
1905 | The Russian-Japanese War ends as representatives of the combating empires, meeting in New Hampshire, sign the Treaty of Portsmouth. Japan achieves virtually all of its original war aims. | |
1910 | Marie Curie demonstrates the transformation of radium ore to metal at the Academy of Sciences in France. | |
1944 | Germany launches its first V-2 missile at Paris, France. | |
1958 | Martin Luther King is arrested in an Alabama protest for loitering and fined $14 for refusing to obey police. | |
1960 | Leopold Sedar Sengingor, poet and politician, is elected president of Senegal, Africa. | |
1969 | Charges brought against US lieutenant William Calley in the March 1968 My Lai Massacre during Vietnam War. | |
1972 | “Black September,” a Palestinian terrorist group take 11 Israeli athletes hostage at the Olympic Games in Munich; by midnight all hostages and all but 3 terrorists are dead. | |
1975 | President Gerald Ford evades an assassination attempt in Sacramento, California. | |
1977 | Hanns-Martin Schleyer, a German business executive who headed to powerful organization and had been an SS officer during WW2, is abducted by the left-wing extremist group Red Army Faction, who execute him on Oct. 18. | |
1977 | Voyager 1 space probe launched. | |
1978 | Israel’s Menachem Begin and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat begin discussions on a peace process, at Camp David, Md. | |
1980 | World’s longest tunnel opens; Switzerland’s St. Gotthard Tunnel stretches 10.14 miles (16.224 km) from Goschenen to Airolo. | |
1984 | Space Shuttle Discovery lands afters its maiden voyage. | |
1996 | Hurricane Fran comes ashore near Cape Fear, No. Car. It will kill 27 people and cause more than $3 billion in damage. | |
Born on September 5 | ||
1568 | Tommasso Campanella, Italian philosopher and poet, who wrote City of the Sun. | |
1638 | Louis XIV, “The Sun King” of France who built the palace at Versailles. | |
1842 | Jesse James, legendary outlaw of the American West. | |
1897 | A.C. Nielson, founder of the Nielson Ratings. | |
1905 | Arthur Koestler, Hungarian novelist and essayist who wrote about communism in Darkness at Noon and The Ghost in the Machine. | |
1912 | John Cage, inventive composer, writer, philosopher, and artist. | |
1912 | Franklin “Frank” Thomas, one of the “Nine Old Men” among Walt Disney’s team of animators. | |
1921 | Jack Valenti, an American film executive who created the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) voluntary system for rating film content as a guide for parents. | |
1929 | Bob Newhart, deadpan standup comedian and TV actor (The Bob Newhart Show). | |
1934 | Carol Lawrence, actress and singer (Maria in Broadway version of West Side Story). | |
1940 | Raquel Welch, actress (One Million Years B.C., Myra Breckinridge). | |
1942 | Werner Herzog (Stipetic), director, producer, screenwriter, actor; a leading figure in New German Cinema (Heart of Glass, Encounters at the End of the World). | |
1945 | Al Stewart, singer, songwriter, musician (“Year of the Cat,” “Roads to Moscow”). | |
1950 | Cathy Guisewite, cartoonist, creator of Cathy. | |
1953 | Victor Davis Hanson, military historian, columnist; received National Humanities Award (2007). | |
1989 | Katerina Graham, actress, model, singer, dancer (The Vampire Diaries TV series). |