Also on this day
Lead Story
1974
In a controversial executive action, President Gerald Ford pardons his disgraced predecessor Richard M. Nixon for any crimes he may have committed or participated in while in office. Ford later defended this action before the House Judiciary Committee, explaining that he wanted to end the national divisions created by the...
American Revolution
1781
After receiving reinforcements on this day in 1781, Major General Nathanael Greene of the Continental Army resumes offensive action against Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Stewart and the British soldiers at Eutaw Springs, located on the banks of the Santee River in South Carolina. The Patriots approached in the early morning, forcing...
Automotive
1986
On September 8, 1986, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Yutaka Kume, the president of the Nissan Motor Company, officially open Nissan’s first European manufacturing plant in Sunderland, Britain. Sunderland is situated in the northeastern part of England, a region that was hit especially hard by the deindustrialization and economic...
Cold War
1945
U.S. troops land in Korea to begin their postwar occupation of the southern part of that nation, almost exactly one month after Soviet troops had entered northern Korea to begin their own occupation. Although the U.S. and Soviet occupations were supposed to be temporary, the division of Korea quickly became...
Crime
1935
Senator Huey Long is shot in the Louisiana state capitol building. He diedabout 30 hourslater. Called a demagogue by critics, the populist leader was a larger-than-life figure who boasted that he bought legislators “like sacks of potatoes, shuffled them like a deck of cards.” He gave himself the nickname “Kingfish,”...
Disaster
1900
One of the deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history hits Galveston, Texas, on this day in 1900, killing more than 6,000 people. The storm caused so much destruction on the Texas coast that reliable estimates of the number of victims are difficult to make. Some believe that as many as 12,000...
General Interest
1664
Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant surrenders New Amsterdam, the capital of New Netherland, to an English naval squadron under Colonel Richard Nicolls. Stuyvesant had hoped to resist the English, but he was an unpopular ruler, and his Dutch subjects refused to rally around him. Following its capture, New Amsterdam’s name was...
1900
On this day in 1900, a Category 4 hurricane rips through Galveston, Texas, killing an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 people. A 15-foot storm surge flooded the city, then situated at less than nine feet above sea level, and numerous homes and buildings were destroyed. The hurricane remains the worst weather-related...
1941
During World War II, German forces begin their siege of Leningrad, a major industrial center and the USSR’s second-largest city. The German armies were later joined by Finnish forces that advanced against Leningrad down the Karelian Isthmus. The siege of Leningrad, also known as the 900-Day Siege though it lasted...
Hollywood
1986
On this day in 1986, The Oprah Winfrey Show is broadcast nationally for the first time. A huge success, her daytime television talk show turns Winfrey into one of the most powerful, wealthy people in show business and, arguably, the most influential woman in America.
Winfrey, who was born in rural...
Literary
1947
Short story writer and novelist Ann Beattie is born on this day in Washington, D.C.
After finishing college at American University in 1969 and graduate school at the University of Connecticut, Beattie quickly established herself as an important short story writer. Her first stories appeared in the early 1970s in the...
Music
2003
“Nobody likes playing the heavy and having to resort to litigation,” said Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on this day in 2003, “but when your product is being regularly stolen, there comes a time when you have to take appropriate action.” The product in...
Old West
1810
On this day in 1810, the sailing ship Tonquin leaves New York with 33 employees of Jacob Astor’s new Pacific Fur Company on board. Six months later, the Tonquinarrived at the mouth of the Columbia River, where Astor’s men established the town of Astoria and began trading for...
Presidential
1974
On this day in 1974, President Gerald Ford, who assumed office on the heels of President Richard M. Nixon’s resignation, pardons his predecessor for his involvement in the Watergate scandal.
Congress had accused Nixon of obstruction of justice during the investigation of the Watergate scandal, which began in 1972. White House...
Sports
1998
On September 8, 1998, St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire hits his 62nd home run of the year, breaking Roger Maris’ record for most home runs in a single season. McGwire was celebrated as a hero at the time, though allegations that he used performance-enhancing substances have since led some...
Vietnam War
1954
Having been directed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to put together an alliance to contain any communist aggression in the free territories of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, or Southeast Asia in general, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles forges an agreement establishing a military alliance that becomes the Southeast Asia...
1968
Troung Quang An becomes the first South Vietnamese general killed in action when his aircraft is shot down. The commander of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division (more popularly known as the ‘Big Red One”), Maj. Gen. Keith L. Ware, suffered a similar fate when his helicopter was shot down...
World War I
1915
On September 8, 1915, a German Zeppelin commanded by Heinrich Mathy, one of the great airship commanders of World War I, hits Aldersgate in central London, killing 22 people and causing £500,000 worth of damage.
The Zeppelin, a motor-driven rigid airship, was developed by German inventor Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin in...
World War II
1943
On this day in 1943, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower publicly announces the surrender of Italy to the Allies. Germany reacted with Operation Axis, the Allies with Operation Avalanche.
With Mussolini deposed from power and the earlier collapse of the fascist government in July, Gen. Pietro Badoglio, the man who had assumed power...