#TodayInHistory – September 1

3 min read

September 1 – Some important events on this day.

1255 👉🏼 Königsberg (modern day Kaliningrad) founded by Teutonic Knights and named in honor of the Bohemian King Ottokar II
1267 👉🏼 Rabbi Moses Ben Nachman establishes a Jewish community in Jerusalem
1715 👉🏼 King Louis XIV of France dies after a reign of 72 years—the longest of any major European monarch.
1914 👉🏼 The last passenger pigeon, a female named Martha, dies in captivity in the Cincinnati Zoo
1939 👉🏼 World War II starts when Germany invades Poland by attacking the Free City of Danzig

1941 👉🏼 Jews living in Germany are required to wear a yellow star of David

1945 👉🏼 V-J Day, formal surrender of Japan aboard USS Missouri marks the end of World War II (US date, 2nd September in Japan).
The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was the written agreement that formalized the unconditional surrender of the Empire of Japan, which marked the end of World War II.
The ceremony which lasted 23 minutes was held aboard the deck of the USS Missouri and was broadcast throughout the world.
The instrument was first signed by the Japanese foreign minister Mamoru Shigemitsu “By Command and on behalf of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese Government” at 9:04 am.
U.S. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur accepted and signed the surrender in his capacity as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers.
It was later also signed by representatives from the Republic of China, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, Australia, Canada, France, Netherlands and New Zealand.

1951 👉🏼 US, Australia and New Zealand sign the ANZUS mutual defense treaty
1962 👉🏼 United Nations announces Earth’s population has hit 3 billion
1968 👉🏼 Earthquake destroys Ferdows Persia, 2,000 killed
1969 👉🏼 Colonel Muammar Gaddafi deposes King Idris in the Libyan revolution
1978 👉🏼 Horror film “Dawn of the Dead” written and directed by George A. Romero, starring David Emge, Ken Foree and Scott H. Reiniger premieres in Torino

1985 👉🏼 Wreck of the Titanic found.
Seventy-three years after it sunk to the North Atlantic ocean floor, a joint U.S.-French expedition locates the wreck of the RMS Titanic. The sunken liner was about 400 miles east of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic, almost 4000 meters below the surface.
Efforts to locate and salvage the Titanic began almost immediately after it sank. But technical limitations, as well as the sheer vastness of the North Atlantic search area, made it almost impossible. American oceanographer and former Navy officer Robert D. Ballard, who was based out of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, led his first search expedition in 1977, which was unsuccessful.
In 1985, along with French oceanographer Jean-Louis Michel, Ballard again set out to locate the wreck, this time with an experimental, unmanned submersible called the Argo, developed by the U.S. Navy. The Argo traveled just above the ocean floor, sending photographs up to the research vessel Knorr. In the early morning of this day, Argo was investigating debris on the ocean floor when it suddenly passed over one of the Titanic‘s massive boilers.
The next day, the body of the ship was discovered nearby. It had split in two, but many of its features and interiors were remarkably well-preserved. The wreck was subsequently explored by manned and unmanned submersibles, which shed new light on the details of its 1912 sinking.