On this day: September 5
London stops burning, the First Continental Congress meets, terrorists target Israeli Olympians in Munich, and Mother Teresa passes away, all on this day.
1666: The Great Fire of London, which began in the early morning hours on Sept. 2, is extinguished after gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman City Wall. The fire destroyed 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral, but only six people are known to have died.
1666: The Great Fire of London, which began in the early morning hours on Sept. 2, is extinguished after gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman City Wall. The fire destroyed 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral, but only six people are known to have died.
1774: The first session of the U.S. Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia. The delegates draft a declaration of rights and grievances, organize the Continental Association and elect Peyton Randolph as the first president of the Continental Congress.
1847: Outlaw, gang leader, train robber and bank robber Jesse James is born in Kearney, Mo.
1862: Meteorologist James Glaisher (pictured) and his pilot, Henry Tracey Coxwell, make a balloon ascent to a height of seven miles, the greatest height then achieved by passengers in a balloon.
1877: Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse is fatally bayoneted by a United States soldier after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson in Nebraska.
1881: The American Red Cross provides relief for disaster for the first time. The disaster was the Great Fire of 1881 in Michigan.
1882: The first United States Labor Day parade is held in New York City.
1906: The first legal forward pass in American football is thrown by Bradbury Robinson of St. Louis University to teammate Jack Schneider in a 22–0 victory over Carroll College (Wisconsin).
1914: Babe Ruth hits his first home run as a professional player in the International League for the Providence Grays, the minor league team of the Boston Red Sox.
1927: The first Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon, "Trolley Troubles," produced by Walt Disney, is released by Universal Pictures.
1929: Actor and comedian Bob Newhart ("The Bob Newhart Show," "Newhart") is born in Oak Park. Ill.
1939: President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares U.S. neutrality at start of World War II in Europe.
1940: Actress Raquel Welch ("One Million Years B.C.," "Bedazzled") is born in Chicago.
1942: Japanese high command orders withdrawal at Milne Bay on the eastern tip of New Guinea, representing the first Japanese defeat in Pacific campaign of World War II.
1945: Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet Union embassy clerk, defects to Canada, exposing Soviet espionage in North America. The "Gouzenko Affair" is often credited as a triggering event of the Cold War. Gouzenko, who was given a new identity, would wear a hood over his head whenever making a public appearance in order to protect his identity.
1945: Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a Japanese-American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist "Tokyo Rose," is arrested in Yokohama, Japan. She is released after a year in jail when neither the FBI nor Gen. Douglas MacArthur's staff found any evidence she had aided the Japanese Axis forces. Three years later, after returning to the U.S., she was re-arrested on eight counts of treason. She was eventually convicted on one count and served more than six years in prison before being paroled. She was pardoned by President Gerald Ford in 1977.
1946: Singer-songwriter Freddie Mercury, who would go on to be the lead singer for the band Queen, is born in Stone Town, Zanzibar.
1951: Actor Michael Keaton ("Mr. Mom," "Batman," "Beetlejuice") is born under the birth name Michael John Douglas in Coraopolis, Pa.
1957: "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac, the defining novel of the Beat Generation, is published.
1958: The novel "Doctor Zhivago" by Russian author Boris Pasternak is published for the first time in the United States.
1960: Boxer Cassius Clay is awarded the gold medal for his first place finish in the light heavyweight boxing competition at the Olympic Games in Rome. Clay would later change his name to Muhammad Ali.
1972: A Palestinian terrorist group called "Black September" attacks and takes 11 Israel athletes hostage at the Munich Olympic Games. Two die in the attack and the other nine would die the following day during a failed rescue attempt by German police officers that also killed five of the eight terrorists. This memorial plaque stands in front of the Israeli athletes' quarters commemorating the victims.
1975: Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme attempts to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford in Sacramento, Calif. Originally sentenced to life in prison for the attempt, she was paroled from a Texas prison hospital on Aug. 14, 2009, after more than three decades behind bars.
1977: Voyager 1 is launched after a brief delay. It would later become the first probe to provide detailed images of Jupiter and Saturn and their moons. The probe, along with its sister craft Voyager 2, remains on its extended mission today, tasked with locating and studying the boundaries of the Solar System.
1978: The Camp David Accord peace talks begin between Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at President Jimmy Carter's country retreat in Camp David, Md.
1989: Chris Evert retires from professional tennis after a 19-year career that saw her win 18 Grand Slam singles championships, including a record seven championships at the French Open and a record six championships at the U.S. Open.
1991: Nelson Mandela, seen here in 1992 with South African President F. W. de Klerk, is chosen as president of South African ANC. Mandela would lead the ANC in the multi-party negotiations that would lead to the country's first multi-racial elections in 1994.
1994: San Francisco 49er Jerry Rice sets an NFL record when he catches the 127th touchdown pass of his career. He would retire in 2004 with a total of 197 touchdown receptions and 208 touchdowns overall, both NFL records that stand today.
1996: Capitol Records releases "The Beatles Anthology" video set, which includes more than 10 hours of material.
1997: Missionary and humanitarian Mother Teresa, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, dies at the age of 87 in Calcutta, India. She is seen here with Pope John Paul II in 1986 after touring the Casa del Cuore Puro, Mother Teresa's home for the destitute and dying in Calcutta.
1999: Radio and TV personality Allen Funt (right), who created the hidden camera/practical joke reality television series "Candid Camera," dies at the age of 84 in Pebble Beach, Calif.
2005: President George W. Bush nominates John Roberts, whose nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was still pending before the Senate, to be chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court following the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist.
